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Plagiarism in Popular Culture

How much do we fear plagiarism? Check this scene from the 2008 ABC Family series The Middleman. In the episode The Boy Band Superfan Interrogation, the milk-drinking master of cool himself, the Middleman, expresses his outrage at Pip's blatant copying of Wendy Watson's art (scene transcript):

MM: Books, Dubby, are our friends. Hold the onions! Wendy Watson too glum to check out texts?! That's unusual.

WW: It's nothing. Just some art stuff getting to me.

MM: If you're not firing on all cylinders, the Middle organization isn't firing on all cylinders.

WW: *sigh* Pip, the malignant nematode son of my building owner has ripped me off with some of my work in a gallery.

MM: Just back up 200 feet. Did you say you were being plagiarized? That's dirty pool! I'll clean his clock!

WW: Wait! What happened to taking the middle road and only using violence as a last resort?

MM: There is no negotiating with plagiarists, Dubby. You take credit for a man's ideas, you rob his spirit. Now it's one thing to forgo credit for saving the world as the Middleman, but art and the artists behind are what makes the world worth saving.