Comedian Martin Petit Slams Gad Elmaleh’s Plagiarism Defense as "Pathetic"

Martin Petit, a comedian whose jokes have been taken up by Gad ElMaleh, was invited by the Quebec show "Tout le monde en parle", and he also spoke: "It’s pathetic. How do you explain a bank robbery? You go into a bank, you steal money, it’s not a tribute to the monetary system," he said, before commenting on the very quality of Gad’s plagiarism, saying: "He takes the gags of a lot of people and he does them less well".

It’s actually a crazy story. Long before the CopyComic revelations, Martin Petit discovered intriguing similarities by chance: "I was in the room at ’Juste Pour Rire’, and he was doing his first time in English in front of the English-speaking market. I watch the show, and I see the sketch he did, which I did a little bit often in my show, 250 times". Maybe Gad didn’t recognize him. Who selects the gags of others that inspire him? Or didn’t he just see it? He could certainly have (or should have) avoided it...

Martin Petit was going to leave it at that. But seeing what is currently happening between CopyComic and Gad, he changed his mind: "When I saw CopyComic, my reaction changed. I find it really embarrassing for him, it’s awful. It’s the worst thing a comedian can do".

Let’s remember that Gad had given strange explanations, talking about "observations that belong to no one". The Moroccan comedian had said: "With a friend, we were talking about popular observations that are present in our lives, for example, it’s the beginnings of a comic bit in stand-up, when you heat up a dish in the microwave, after four minutes you take it out, the dish is burning and the inside is cold. It’s not an invention. It’s a starting point to write a little sketch," emphasizing later, to endorse this supposedly convincing example: "In our immediate entourage, we counted 14 or 15 comedians, between French, English, Scottish who had the same observation. It’s not the same gag, it’s an observation that belongs to no one".