New York Times mentions "pop-culture plagiarism"

From the New York Times:



“Future Man,” a softhearted, foul-mouthed, highly self-aware science-fiction spoof that glories in pop-culture plagiarism. When the unlikely hero is apprised of the show’s premise, he rolls his eyes and says: “That’s ‘The Last Starfighter.’ It’s the exact same plot as the movie.” Further resonances, in the seven episodes available for review, include “Minority Report,” “Animal House,” “War Games” and a lot of “Terminator.” (Also “Top Chef.”)

In case your memory doesn’t stretch back to the 1984 “Last Starfighter,” “Future Man” stars Josh Hutcherson (himself a reference to “The Hunger Games”) as a janitor named Josh who lives with his parents and distracts himself from his millennial malaise by obsessively playing a violent, futuristic video game. When he finally unlocks the last level, two of the game’s characters, Tiger and Wolf (Eliza Coupe and Derek Wilson), appear in his bedroom and tell him that the game was a test sent back from the post-apocalyptic future to find humanity’s savior.

(...)

But the central joke — that the initially hapless Josh is not at all what the future was hoping to find — is a good one, and it keeps paying off. “Aren’t people playing video games supposed to embody the skills of their online personas?” an exasperated Tiger asks. “No,” Josh replies. “it’s the complete opposite.”




link: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/14/arts/television/future-man-hulu-review.html


**Separately, an interesting spin on copying without attribution from the legal sector

Case A, discussing standards of review, makes an inaccurate analysis of text in a
US Supreme Court case

Case B identically copies the paragraph from Case A, but does not cite case A, making it look
like the court originated the thought

The court of Case B later cites case A in case C but makes no mention of the Supreme Court case