TomSka's Guide To Plagiarism (The Somerton Scale) 

I'd like to thank Tommy Tallarico for this video.

"Good artists copy, great artists steal" Look at this quote I just made

I once had a prof accuse me of plagiarism on an online exam because in the essay section, I mentioned vaguely similar points in almost the same order to another exam from 6 years earlier. She insisted I must have gotten a copy of this other person's answer. Not a single citation was the same, no phrases were the same, and I didn't even go to that school, this was a one-off course to finish my degree. She had 300+ people per class per semester, hadn't changed the exam in at least 15 years, she had made it very clear that she expected us to basically parrot back her lectures to her in the exam, and she gave us the essay questions ahead of time, so I had gone through her lectures and written an outline ahead of time based on what she said she wanted to read. At that point, it would be statistically impossible NOT to get similar essays through parallel thinking, I'd be shocked if I was the only one even that semester.

The "We'll pay you 20k" reminds me of some team fortress 2 lore. When MannCo hired Sniper they asked him how much it would cost for him to off a guy and he said "idk 20 I guess" meaning he'd be willing to do it for $20 to which they responded "ok 20,000 dollars seems reasonable".

What I've learned here is that every British person knows each other

Hbomberguy is now powerful enough to break the 4th wall and reach through computer screens. He is too powerful, and yet, not yet powerful enough.

So pleased you mentioned Goncharov (1973). My parents met at a secret screening of that. Without that film, I never would have been born!

If I had heard the word "cryptobro" 15 years ago, I would have assumed its a guy who really likes to solve puzzles :)

Can't believe Tommy Tallarico invented plagiarism, truly the first american

Tom I _promise_ you describing 20k as a life changing amount of money is the opposite of "unrelatable"

39:36 The way Jonathan Coulton added his name is like how map designers add trap streets to maps to detect forgeries.

In elementary I "made" a series from "scratch" and my teacher really liked it so she would read it out to the class whenever i would make a new chapter and eventually compiled all the pieces of paper i wrote on a into a folder so she could show others how talented one of her students was. In actuality I would just go home and write down word for word a story that someone on flipnote hatena was making and pretend it was my own. I think the only original part I wrote was the ending but it sucked so the teacher asked me to go back and rewrite it and I just ended up copying the original ending too. 😭

so I, as an autistic dude can now sue anyone that likes trains, despite me not fulfilling that stereotype! Thank you Tom!

Tom: I didn’t invent the concept of liking trains. Me: That’s autism Tom: That was autism SAME HAT

Tom going crazy over 20k to build his studio is the most relatable thing I have ever seen. There are youtubers out here who wipe their ass with more who think they are relatable when talking about money.

You should make a skit about a dentist who turns out to have a dark past involving some sort of drug crime. That sounds like a fascinating and very original story.

A good example of *almost* subconscious appropriation is a story about when Dan Povenmire, the creator of Phineas and Ferb, made a joke and his fellow writers wanted to use it in the show but he knew it was familiar and searched up the joke to find that it was a joke from Spongebob- which was an episode he worked on as well.

New RU-vid feature; if you plagiarize someone, Hbomber appears in your room and full nelson head locks you until youre unconscious and he deletes your channel

Honestly, the whole story about tracking down the Chinese ad agency was hilarious, congrats to Victor for his dental practice

I remember when I was a kid I used to trace bases or "how to draw" books for art. And I remember being ROASTED on every website for "Stealing art". And then I went into art in college and soooo many assignments were "here is a work, here is a light box, you're going to have to trace this" and the cognitive whiplash of "Tracing is the WORST SIN YOU COULD EVER HAVE AS AN ARTIST EVEN IF YOU MAKE 0 MONEY OFF OF DOING SO, EVEN JUST TO PRACTICE/EXPERIMENT" to "Yeah like 80% of what you're going to ever do as an artist in a money making role is tracing, and tracing is literally one of the most important and necessary tools for all artists, so get good at it so it looks original and not like a jittery mess" was ... bigger than I expected.

I want a full studio version of "Big truck, love Christ; second truck, hate wife"

Tomska actually has a world record for the most RU-vid videos ever made. His mother is very proud.

I think the most fascinating part about this piece is finding out what happens when you ask about things like inspiration in good faith, rather than outright accusing people.

3:11 You know this experience is a lot weirder when you are an American born child who gets Scottish comic annuals for Christmas, and you talk to your friends about this character and are about 30mins in realizing you are talking about 2 different things because the default is swapped... From your own experience...

In the span of 2 videos Hbomb has somehow deleted an entire Guiness World Record and sparked the largest plagiarism discussion the most recent years has seen

Holy crap, I was a freelance Chinese-English translator on Fiverr while I was getting my Masters degree in Xi'an, and I edited the English subtitles for Rise of Kingdoms ads! I'm so glad other people have joined me in this surrealist hellscape. I wish they had hired me to edit the scripts BEFORE shooting, but... alas....

35:39 "Nice Argument Senador but why don't You Backup with a Source?" "My Source is that I saw this in a Porn"

TomSka having to live with making THAT joke in his introduction to THAT particular sketch infront of THOSE people... the bravery in this man to keep waking up every morning. He deserves 100 X more than what he got from Canal+, I say.

"I didn't invent the concept of liking trains... That was autism" holy shit I am legit rolling on the floor laughing after this one

At this point Hbomb has a) spawned an entire new trend/subgenre of drama-entertainment b) potentially played no small part in saving creative industries from predatory behaviour by making plagiarism "THE conversation"

Imagine selling your car and licencing a RU-vid property for 20000€ when the guy you are licencing from just wanted some Lego

Still so crazy to me that TomSka was the first Englishman to work on Sonic

my worst act of plagarism was when i forgot to do an assignment in high school, so my friend lent me theirs and said "just reword mine it's cool" and then i did and i got a higher grade than them and to this day i feel so dirty for doing it

Can’t believe TomSka invented James Somerton and Tommy Tallarico for us to use as short hand for “person who plagiarizes” and “person who takes credit for the work of others and lies about their own accomplishments to seem cooler and more successful” respectively! I’d love to see an HBomberguy do a video about your amazing contributions to internet culture and content!

I remember as a kid, I think I was 11 or 12, writing a short story about werewolves where I "came up" with the idea of calling the werewolves "lycans." I was actually super proud at the time for coming up with that, as if shortening the word "lycanthrope" was some stroke of genius. While trying to come up with ideas to take the story, though, I discovered that a movie I hadn't seen before, Underworld, was already using the word "lycan" to refer to their werewolves. I remember being legitimately angry finding that out. Like, *I* came up with that, it's not fair that someone else came up with the same idea completely independently. I think that was probably my first conscious experience with parallel thinking, and apparently the concept was too much for my dumb kid brain to handle. Funnily enough, the actual story I wrote was probably just a straight rip off of the Cirque du Freak series with a bit of Darren Shan's other books sprinkled in as well. Definitely something I look back on and laugh about.

I'm an American with a Brit friend and the moment I found out about the Beano's Dennis the Menace, ours was dead to me lol. Yours is a actual hilarious menace, ours is some goody two shoes who his neighbor despises for no reason

"The Somerton appropriation scale." Take that phrase and add a bracketed number after it and you could probably get away with putting it in a academic paper.

lost my mind at the "that was autism" joke. being autistic, im not that used to autism jokes being so tasteful, funny, and well executed

The part where the dude on the phone offers you ridiculous money had me laughing harder than I have in a long time. That must have been such a surreal moment. I'm so glad you got that kind of opportunity!

When I was a child, my mum took me to see a play. This clearly made a great impression on me because I proceeded to write a story of my very own. Yes, of course it was the play, subconsciously appropriated.

As a massive Jonathan Coulton fan, I have to thank you for getting the word out about that Glee BLATANT plagiarism scandal. It went almost unnoticed at the time, and I hear people talking about how much they love the Glee version all the time, totally unaware it's a copy of Jonathan's. Sadly he never got his day in court, even though it's blatant cloning (i.e. the literal usage of his name!) But, my hope is that with this video, more people will be able to find out JoCo wrote that amazing interpretation, and if they like it, they should support him. If you love his stuff, go buy a T-shirt or CD or something, he's a really cool guy!

Tom never feel guilty for your work being paid for by corporations because they would have paid you 300 quid if they didnt offer you 20k. Most companies would offer exposure, get that bag and run to the bank.

I had a really unfortunate case of parallel thinking during my bachelor thesis. It was literally the last day before the deadline that i discovered my topic had been talked about by someone else previously, with the same conclusion and i had to awkwardly work that in somehow because it was obviously too late to change anything major.

18:54 I love how basically every RU-vidr that was around since 2010- absolutely adores Bo, because of the RU-vid live performance and because of how far he’s gone after starting really young on, what was at the time, a really small website

I never noticed how many times BDG, Tom Scott, Tomska and HBomberGuy collabed before. Love all 4!

my favorite accidental plagiarism was when, just a few years ago, i came up with a story about a bunch of weird guys with superpowers who entered people's brains to defeat their traumas and resolve their problems a few months later i discovered psychonauts was a thing

What a good video! *HIS MOTHER MUST BE VERY PROUD*

I did not realize you're the ASDF guy! Thank you so much for many hours of amusement.

A good example of the subconscious appropriation is in "Everything, Everywhere, All at Once" the writers wrote a line they realized not long after was from "Story of a Girl" by Nine Days and in place of replacing it or calling out the allusion chose to just make it a running gag to the point basically every universe visited has a different version of that exact song playing somewhere

I love this new edition to the "man has an existential crisis while making a video about plagiarism" genre

James (not Somerton) made me laugh. Dude seems nice with a decent sense of humour. Suddenly being dumped in the middle of a porno like that must've been crazy.

I don't use twitter, but your old skit about self-aware characters in a student film inspired a short play I wrote about self-aware characters in a student play! It's been performed at a few local festivals and I always get compliments on the concept and fast-paced humor.

The interview with James is actually SUPER interesting, it’s really cool you were able to contact him!

Oh god I was worried when you mentioned Jonathan Coulton. I'm glad he didn't plagiarize anything, but damn the balls of the Glee producers to say they didn't steal his composition when his fucking name is in the song is wild

36:37 lettsss goo victor

I'm a young person at the start of my scientific career and I'm relatively new to writing papers. Hbomberguy's video filled me with dread because I know I source my inspiration in others work when I write the introduction part. But this video makes me feel a little better because it's very insightful about the creative process. Thank you

I'm so glad you mentioned Martin Scorsese's underrated masterpiece Goncharov, nobody ever talks about it these days

tom almost asking for just 300 bucks is so funny to me... how did he still not know what he was worth. how much money THEY made off of that sketch,, bless him

Jokes aside, I think your Somerton Scale is actually a very useful way to think about this whole issue and assess works of creativity. Appreciate your honesty in exploring this.

the fact that “Praise for Tommy Tallarico is a category”

Unironically that interview with James about the mobile game adds is actually really cool And i guess congrats to victor on his redemption arc i hope his dental practice good

To be fair, the Dennis The Menace one is easily explained by the fact that "Dennis The Menace From Venice" was in the top hits at the time.

His RoK parody was so good, that I forgot it was for SurfSharkVPN

Aftwr years and years of stopping myself on every creative pursuit because i didnt wanna be stealing other peoples work....the breaking down of the different ways that stuff can wind up happening was seriously incredibly helpful. A few years back i finally had a moment to stop and think about the "we stand on the shoulders of giants" and actually understand what it means, and this more thorough breakdown of things helped me to find the words and facets that have been rather vague and nebulous concepts since taking that time, so thank you. Best of luck to everyone out there, creating your own works and sharing your love of the things you have loved in your life in your own unique flavour and form!

A benefit of this whole plagiarism drama is that people are becoming more aware about how hard it is to be creative, and why creative skills are worth paying for. Cause not everyone has them.

Tom and Eddie dubbing each other for the ad is way funnier than it should be

35:00 Boss Angry on Airplane was a good performance, James Oliver seems cool.

guys i hope you liked this video i worked really hard on it

A goncharov joke within the first three minutes is the best. Gotta be my favourite movie of all time.

the goncharov reference slapped me in the face and then the picture of the rat kissed me on the mouth. thank you tom

16:01 NOT THE KEN PENDERS JUMPSCARE

Wild video. This took some TURNS. Thanks Tom, a treat seeing your continued existence, humour and apparent happiness. Mad thinking I must have been 9 or 10 when I first heard your dulcet tones, I turn 25 in a month. Much love to you and your kin

"Good artists copy, great artists steal." - Tommy 'TomTa' Talarico. His mother is very proud.

French Meanwhile's director trying to reach out to you through facebook is such an obvious tell as to what French TV people thought of internet creators (and other mediums) at the time

I found your work quite a few years ago after taking film classes and having high aspirations. I had wished I had a team like yours to collaborate and create the kinds of things you did. As a result, I really didn't make all that much; none that saw the light of day on the internet. I haven't given up, I'm just making other types of content. Thank you for all the crazy stuff you've made over the years!

Weirdly the comments on Jonathan Coulton's cover led me here. As someone who works a lot in genres grown on 3-5 that skirts above that, and that was originally a lot of 1-2, this was interesting.

Ok the fact I’ve been a fan of you and Harris for years and I never noticed Harry Potter in Wizo the wizard was hbomberguy is extremely depressing

I'm an author and I found out that there's a country with lax copyright laws where a publisher just straight up stole all my books and sell them without permission. They have a website with my face on and everything! I get messages from kids saying how my books are bestsellers there and I'm just like 😅😃😭

34:22 damn I wish I had that guy's voice. Deep and bright at the same time

Wow, this is fantastic m8! The amount of work you put to this, on top of your humility makes me adore you more than I already did... Thank you Tom and Friends! I will certainly rewatch it.

As someone who has been saying for years that the potatoe in "Die Potatoe!" should have been a tomatoe, because potatoes aren't that squishy, I feel incredibly validated. (My mother is very proud)

Is it me or did Hbombs latest video create this sort of collective plagiarism anxiety attack among creatives? Regardless, it's good to see so many, guilty or not, reflect on the issue like this.

I came to watch this video after your vlog and i wasnt prepared for how amazing this video is and truly how intriguing the ad stuff was blew my mind

Haven’t watched your videos in years but I really enjoyed this one, thank you for making it and all your honesty

Tommy Tallarico had a major role in the creation of this video and it really tells. This amount of dedication shows why he was chosen to be the first American to work on sonic.

Okay so I know this started off as a jokey "I'm gonna steal your plagiarism video idea lol irony" but this was genuinely so well put together that I think it works as a fantastic addition to Hbomberguy's video to explore the different levels, kinds and alternatives to plagiarism to really define the topic Ps. original comment by me pls don't steal

Thank you for making this. It feels like necessary viewing for creatives of all kinds, as well as anyone who cared about "ethically sourced" (for lack of better terminology) media.

In 6th grade, before I really understood what plagiarism was (in my mind it was like taking a book and changing out the author's name for your own) I copied a book for a report, using about 5% original words with the rest just copy pasted. Got called into the office, they explained what plagiarism was, and I think I cried expecting I was going to go to prison or something. Instead they were just nice and let me redo the paper for full points alongside other classwork.

The problem of hearing a melody and forgetting whether you heard it before happens to me so often while songwriting that I end up doing the opposite and convincing myself that a song I wrote is not original the second time I come back to play it, because it sounds familiar (from when I wrote it) and my brain refuses to accept that I hadn’t heard it before writing it.

26:55 This is so funnily similar to that one iCarly episode, I don't remember exactly what it was, but Carly and her friends were going to make an offer to a company that wanted rights to something, I think intellectual property to do a show. Carly's squad did a quick pow-wow and decided that they will only ask for 300 dollars, because they didn't want to sound too needy and it was for something they thought was pretty insignificant. The board members come back, Carly says "we'll do it for 300" and the head board guy says "You've got a deal; 300,000 dollars"

Beautifully put. Thanks for going to so much effort to make this.

i had two thoughts on this. a. you make a lot of great points but what youve Really done is reminded me of everything i watched on youtube in the last 20 years, b. im so sorry you had to officially acknowledge people who roleplay you on facebook.

Holy shit I'm glad you included the story about Meanwhile, that's so fucking cool and honestly a massive win. Very based

Scariest moment of uni for me was having one of my essays combed through for plagiarism after a really unfortunate case of parallel thinking. We had to do a close reading of a poem for a first-year lit class, standard 101 stuff. Apparently half my class just googled the poem, and reworded the observations from one of those cheatsheet/cliff notes type sites. Independently of these people, I had read the glossary of poetry terms in our class textbook, and noted that one of the concepts in there (not covered in class) applied to the poem we were analyzing, and I cited the textbook and talked about the implications. This was apparently the exact same observation made by everyone else, thanks to the "first result of a google search" style of analysis. That one citation proving my train of thought literally saved my life, since combined with it being a simple poem with not a lot of room for radical interpretations, it gave me enough deniability to not be worth a formal investigation. The only thing I was guilty of was being boring with my analysis but it still scared me into being very meticulous about citations and not plagiarizing. Can't imagine how the James Somertons of the world risk putting themselves through that kind of scrutiny on purpose

After viewing the last "Last Month" video where you explained how you broke your axe making this video... it got me curious even though I wasn't that interrested in plagiarism. You got me hook line and sinker. This was really comprehensive and I loved every minutes of it.

This makes me feel a lot better about the story ive been writing for the past 3 years. I felt it was just a hodge podge of inspiration and references with some "true" original thoughts connecting it all. Then it turns out that's what most things are in reality, everyone is inspired or thinks of the same things. Its okay, just dont steal it on purpose and pretend like you invented it.

The pacing of the "Jesus Christ!" "Yes?" **SCREAM** bit was extremely fluid and had me on the floor, good job Kai.

I got my university dissertation capped at 40% for plagiarising myself... That was a special time.

Good sir this video was very informative. Thank you for taking the time to educate with just enough humour and self awareness to keep it light.

When I got to the part where you talked about showing your sketch Confession to BriTANicK at 29:45, I had to stop the video so I could process how that must have felt. I’d have crawled into a hole and never left it, so I’m glad you recovered enough to tell us this tale ❤