French-Moroccan-Canadian comic Gad Elmaleh has finally responded to plagiarism allegations, after an anonymous channel on Youtube published a video, accusing him of getting too much inspired by American standup comedians. In a video published, Wednesday, on his Twitter account, the Moroccan comedian dressed up like one of his favorite characters to address the accusations that made headlines in the last couple of weeks. Chouchou à quelque chose à vous dire pic.twitter.com/4u2yJ3PgLt — GAD (@gadelmaleh) 14 février 2019 As «Chouchou», wearing a wig, a bathrobe and makeup, Elmaleh said that he has a message for his followers and fans. «So, let us make things clear about the plagiarism story», he said, adding that «the only person we have to accuse of plagiarism is Chouchou, she took everything I have, my way of talking, my way of walking, my way of thinking, she took everything», he joked. «I hear people say, he took a word from here and there (…) 'don't you think this sentence is quite similar to that one ?', hey don't forget that I have been around for 25 years», Gad Elmaleh argued. He ended his 'comic' video by saying that «social media is not real life». However, Gad Elmaleh's «funny» response did not make his fans laugh. Commenting on the video, internet users criticized the comedian of not really addressing the problem. «You can just admit that you have plagiarized others», one of his followers said. «You are trying to change the subject, using humor», said another internet user. For the record, on January the 29th, a Youtube video «revealed a slew of examples of comic routines by Elmaleh that show uncanny resemblance to jokes by other comics». The video alleges that the Netflix comedian copied the routine of two American stand-up comedians, namely George Carlin and Steven Wright, and Canadian actors Patrick Huard and Martin Matte. Accused of plagiarism, Morocco's Gad Elmaleh banned by a Canadian comedy club After the video shared by CopyComic went viral, the Montreal theater decided to ban the Casablanca-born stand-up comedian from its guest list. Gad Elmaleh has already performed at this comedy club, which is a former brothel offering shows with 5 or more unannounced comedians per show. It is not the first time that Gad Elmaleh faces similar accusations. In October, 2017, the same channel revealed in a video that several French comedians, including Gad Elmaleh, were overly inspired by their American counterparts.
