# Blatant rip-offs in TV and Movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 20, 2004, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blatant-rip-offs-in-tv-and-movies/240972 "2004-04-20T04:26:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Wumpus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8c91f0/32.png) [@Wumpus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wumpus)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blatant-rip-offs-in-tv-and-movies/240972/21 "2004-04-21T02:02:18Z")
“That new movie with Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore looks like it should be You’ve Got Mail 2.” And You’ve Got Mail was in fact ripped off (er, sorry, adapted) from the old movie/play, The Shop Around The Corner. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blatant-rip-offs-in-tv-and-movies/240972/22 "2004-04-21T04:08:00Z")
> [@Reeder](#): > > Does the new movie with Jennifer Garner… **13 going on 30** look familiar? > Anyone remember **Big**? It’s a bit like _Big_, aye. But it’s even _more_ like… …wait for it… …[14 going on 30](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0094592/). If it’s not a remake, then it’s the biggest-friikkin-ripoff of all time. ---
**Author:** ![Dignan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@Dignan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dignan)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blatant-rip-offs-in-tv-and-movies/240972/23 "2004-04-21T05:15:19Z")
I don’t remember when it was, but I think I heard it on The Daily Show during the lead up to Iraq II. Ed Helms referred to the French as “cheese eating, surrender monkeys.” Despite the jokes about the French being push overs and wimps, I’d never heard this phrase before. A couple of days later I saw an episode of “The Simpsons” in syndication, where the teachers are on strike, so Groundskeeper Willie is teaching a French class. What does he say? “Bonjourrrrrrrr, ya cheez eatin’ surrender monkeys!” TDS should know better than to steal from “The Simpsons,” I mean, they have to realize the fan base overlaps. I haven’t been a fan of Ed Helms since. Very bad form. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blatant-rip-offs-in-tv-and-movies/240972/24 "2004-04-21T06:43:52Z")
> [@Dignan](#): > > TDS should know better than to steal from “The Simpsons,” I mean, they have to realize the fan base overlaps. I haven’t been a fan of Ed Helms since. Very bad form. I don’t know if that’s a rip-off, per se…I mean, the Simpsons coined a perfectly crumulent phrase, and now all of mankind can benefit from it! ---
**Author:** ![marky33](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@marky33](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marky33)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blatant-rip-offs-in-tv-and-movies/240972/25 "2004-04-21T10:51:49Z")
I once saw a British made-for-tv movie that pre-dated “Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels” that had exactly the same plot except the game played was monopoly not poker (?) and it was done as more of a comedy. And wasn’t The Matrix lifeted completely (even down to the trenchcoat) from a Grant Morrison comic book? ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blatant-rip-offs-in-tv-and-movies/240972/26 "2004-04-21T11:50:00Z")
Not all that big, but very blatant and damn funny when they got caught. One of the Tokyo networks has a regular mystery movie every Tuesday night, which they produce themselves. One night it was a Colombo-type detective investigating the death of a musician, with the prime suspect being an arrogant conductor. Nothing unusual. Except that a rival network decided to air the _real_ episode of Colombo that it had been completely ripped off from at exactly the same time. The result was hilarious. You could keep flipping between the two channels and the only difference was that the cast (standing in almost exactly the same positions) would switch from American to Japanese. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blatant-rip-offs-in-tv-and-movies/240972/27 "2004-04-21T12:18:53Z")
marky33 writes: \> And wasn’t The Matrix lifeted completely (even down to the trenchcoat) from a \> Grant Morrison comic book? _The Matrix_ ripped off everything. To quote from a review I wrote of it, they put together “the gunplay and fight scene choreography of Hong Kong action films, the oppressive retro-technology of Terry Gilliam’s movies, the small band of heroes fighting off insect-like invaders from the _Alien_ films, the young hero learning martial arts from _The Empire Strikes Back_ and _The Karate Kid_, the agents in sunglasses from _Men in Black_, some clever visual techniques from recent commercials, and probably a slew of other things I’m not hip enough to recognize.” ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blatant-rip-offs-in-tv-and-movies/240972/28 "2004-04-21T12:24:41Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > I don’t know if that’s a rip-off, per se…I mean, the Simpsons coined a perfectly crumulent phrase, and now all of mankind can benefit from it! A phrase which embiggens us all! ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blatant-rip-offs-in-tv-and-movies/240972/29 "2004-04-21T12:27:29Z")
> [@Wendell Wagner](#): > > marky33 writes: > > \> And wasn’t The Matrix lifeted completely (even down to the trenchcoat) from a > \> Grant Morrison comic book? > > _The Matrix_ ripped off everything. To quote from a review I wrote of it, they put together “the gunplay and fight scene choreography of Hong Kong action films, the oppressive retro-technology of Terry Gilliam’s movies, the small band of heroes fighting off insect-like invaders from the _Alien_ films, the young hero learning martial arts from _The Empire Strikes Back_ and _The Karate Kid_, the agents in sunglasses from _Men in Black_, some clever visual techniques from recent commercials, and probably a slew of other things I’m not hip enough to recognize.” Sorry, that’s not ripping off. When you draw from sources that diverse, you wind up with something new. All art has its origins in other art. You’ve just said the Matrix is a very original piece of work, without intending to. No higher praise than unintentional praise. ---
**Author:** ![Mauvaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mauvaise/32/11084_2.png) [@Mauvaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mauvaise)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blatant-rip-offs-in-tv-and-movies/240972/30 "2004-04-21T14:41:52Z")
That scene in Empire Strikes Back between Han and Leia when she’s repairing the thingamabob on the ship. They have this whole conversation about how Han’s a scoundrel and she needs kissing, and by a scroundrel no less. That’s a rip off of Gone with the Wind. There was a scene like very similar to that between Rhett and Scarlett. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2004, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blatant-rip-offs-in-tv-and-movies/240972/31 "2004-04-22T03:20:08Z")
Evil Captor, The next two sentences in my review were “This [the fact that everything was ripped off] doesn’t particularly bother me. _The Terminator_ stole its ideas from all over the place and was still a great movie.” Nor was the fact that the plot made no scientific sense the main thing that bothered me. _The Fifth Element_ didn’t make any sense either, and I reasonably well liked that film. What did bother me was that I didn’t like any of the characters, and I was bored by the story. I don’t care how many places a story steals its elements from. What I do require though is that it has an interesting idea to hang those elements on. _The Matrix_ was unoriginal ideas applied to a boring, pointless, confused story. ---
**Author:** ![Gamaliel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b487fb/32.png) [@Gamaliel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gamaliel)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2004, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blatant-rip-offs-in-tv-and-movies/240972/32 "2004-04-22T03:56:02Z")
> [@Dignan](#): > > TDS should know better than to steal from “The Simpsons,” I mean, they have to realize the fan base overlaps. I haven’t been a fan of Ed Helms since. Very bad form. To be fair, that phrase was _everywhere_ at the time. Some right wing columnist was trying to make it stick and a lot of people picked up the meme. I was shocked by an episode of Justice League, specifically the one where Superman is kidnapped and forced to be a gladiator. Granted, the cartoon has been mining DC comics for characters and plotlines, as they should. But that episode was a near perfect copy of a _Marvel_ comic, an issue of the Fantastic Four where the Thing was kidnapped by Skrulls and forced to be a gladiator. ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2004, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blatant-rip-offs-in-tv-and-movies/240972/33 "2004-04-22T04:06:04Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > It’s a bit like _Big_, aye. But it’s even _more_ like… > > …wait for it… > > …[14 going on 30](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0094592/). > > If it’s not a remake, then it’s the biggest-friikkin-ripoff of all time. Looking at the IMDB synopsis, 14go30 seems a Big rip-off, and an obscure one, probably a coincidence. 13go30 at least adds a slightly new twist, the girl’s zapped into her older self, 17 years later, rather than simply grown up. Thus, she must deal with the adult world, the new times, and the fact that her friends are all grown up themselves. Yeah, it’s still a ripoff of Big. I agree that movies that draw from a huge variety of sources, like “The Matrix”, or “Star Wars” are no longer rip-offs but an original pieces of work. Remember, even Shakespeare stole all his plots. ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2004, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blatant-rip-offs-in-tv-and-movies/240972/34 "2004-04-22T04:40:53Z")
Yeah, I know I hate the way Texas Chainsaw Massacre was just a rip-off of that Hansel and Gretel story. ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2004, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blatant-rip-offs-in-tv-and-movies/240972/35 "2004-04-22T05:39:28Z")
The Simpson’s chili cookoff episode from a few years back is a direct ripoff of [this](http://www.netscrap.com/netscrap_detail.cfm?scrap_id=57). ---
**Author:** ![Monstre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Monstre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstre)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2004, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blatant-rip-offs-in-tv-and-movies/240972/36 "2004-04-22T05:49:09Z")
> [@](#): > > Have you ever watched a movie or TV show and heard something **said** , or seen something done, that’s exactly the same as what somebody else said or did on another show/special/movie? This was probably just coincidence, but I did cringe a bit during **Return of the King** , when Gandalf and Aragorn are talking about whether Frodo is still okay, and Aragorn says, “What does your heart tell you?” Ack! And all I could think was momma Skywalker saying that to Anakin in Phantom Menace… ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2004, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blatant-rip-offs-in-tv-and-movies/240972/37 "2004-04-22T10:41:55Z")
Monstre writes: \> This was probably just coincidence, but I did cringe a bit during Return of the \> King, when Gandalf and Aragorn are talking about whether Frodo is still okay, \> and Aragorn says, “What does your heart tell you?” It was another of the pieces of dialog that Jackson and his cowriters made up for the movie, since it doesn’t appear in the book. It has nothing to do with what Tolkien was saying at that point in the book. It’s typical of Jackson et al.'s habit of making up dialog that doesn’t remotely match the ideas of Tolkien. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2004, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blatant-rip-offs-in-tv-and-movies/240972/38 "2004-04-22T11:55:27Z")
In one popular story, an important character falls into seemingly bottomless chasm in a place called “Khazad-Dûm.” However, he is somehow rejuvenated, and comes back even more powerful than before. In another popular story (of sorts), an important character falls into a seemingly bottomless pit in a place called “Z’Ha’Dum.” However, he is somehow rejuvenated and comes back even more powerful than before. And those aren’t the only parallels. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2004, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blatant-rip-offs-in-tv-and-movies/240972/39 "2004-04-22T12:06:21Z")
Earl Snake-Hips Tucker writes: \> In another popular story (of sorts), an important character falls into a \> seemingly bottomless pit in a place called “Z’Ha’Dum.” However, he is \> somehow rejuvenated and comes back even more powerful than before. I give up. What does this refer to? I tried doing a search on “Zhadum” and found a lot of pages that mentioned it without explaining what it is. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2004, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blatant-rip-offs-in-tv-and-movies/240972/40 "2004-04-22T13:28:30Z")
_Batttlestar:Galactica_ was clearly a _Star Wars_ ripoff, as much as I enjoyed _Galactica_. _Kimba The White Lion_, a Japanese Anime, was ripped off by a certain US firm that formerly made animated cartoons. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blatant-rip-offs-in-tv-and-movies/240972.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blatant-rip-offs-in-tv-and-movies/240972.md?page=3)