Read on Twitter
1/ I wondered when something might happen like this ( @TheDailyShow doing @MrMichaelSpicer style skits). A similar thing happened to me a few years ago. I was writing on #TheRevolutionWillBeTelevised, starring @JolyonRubs & @HeydonProwse. Since 2007 I'd been doing sketches called https://twitter.com/TheDailyShow/status/1311697632591597568
2/ Honest Subtitles. I put them in my 2008 BBC3 pilot 'Vidiotic', then started putting them on Youtube, and then #TRWBT commissioned me to make them for several series. Then suddenly on @bbciplayer some Honest Subtitles sketches started appearing plugging The Apprentice...
3/ People asked me if I made these Apprentice ones and were surprised to hear it wasn't me and that I hadn't even been asked. Hat Trick Productions asked the BBC about it and they sent a bunch of links to sketches online they said they were inspired by. More than one were by me.
4/ Seeing as The Apprentice and #TRWBT were both commissioned by the BBC, this meant that either they hadn't watched one of their own shows or they knew they were ripping off a sketch from one of their own programmes. (I think it was the latter.) I was a bit annoyed…
5/ Nobody at the BBC cared, or thought to invite me to make future instances of the sketch. So I said here on Twitter how upset I was. Then the BBC had the nerve to tell Hat Trick that my reaction on Twitter was the reason they wouldn't ask me to make subtitle sketches for them.
6/ It rubbed salt in the wound to be told that my reaction to being treated like shit was the reason I was being treated like shit. I had no recourse and had to suck it up. The only consolation was from people saying the Apprentice version of the sketch was a poor rip-off.
7/ Being an idiot I didn’t think to put myself in the commentary position as @MrMichaelSpicer does so brilliantly. So it was easier to nick the idea. And I don't claim to be the first person to have done comedy subtitles. I just think they plagiarised me...
8/ It begs the question to what extent can anyone own a sketch style? Or rather is there a code of honour for how to treat someone who's made something their trademark? It’s surprising @TheDailyShow would go down this route, especially as one of their competitor late night shows
9/ has been airing sketches by Michael ( @latelateshow). I guess the arbiter of success is what the viewers think, and in those terms @mrmichaelspicer has got nothing to worry about. He’s the king of commentary videos and he isn’t going to be dethroned anytime soon...
10/ P.S. If you’re interested in seeing any of my honest subtitles sketches I’ve curated a bunch of them here. Some of them still ring true. Ok bye. http://jondharvey.com/honestsubtitles
P.P.S. Did it hurt when an American wrested the Lord Buckethead thing off me years later? Yep. Just a bit. But @countbinface is on my side (I think...).
