“Every artist is a cannibal…”

….every poet is a thief…”

I’m not sure if you’ve been following the Prodigal Sam controversy. Prodigal Sam is a campus minister down in South Carolina, and has over 100,000 followers on Twitter by posting some pretty hilarious Tweets. As it turns out, some of them are riffs on other comedians stuff. Was he stealing? Was he borrowing?

Who cares, you ask? Especially considering Tweets aren’t exactly “Intellectual Property” like, say, a comedy special or a written book?

Silly people, SOMEONE ALWAYS cares about stupid crap. In this case,  comedians like Patton Oswalt  and Salon Magazine have gotten all fussy about it and piled on the poor guy. There is even a blog about it.  The tone of self righteousness and pseudo-intellectual drivel reminds me of the South Park episode where everyone craps out of their mouths.

Pssst, hey Patton and Salon, maybe you should listen to Picasso when he said, “Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal.”

You need an example? How about this example from the comic book world?

Zorro=Rich Noble who wears a disguise, rides a horse and fights injustice.

Batman=Rich play boy who wears a disguise, ride the Batmobile and fights injustice.

Hmmm…..

Patton Oswalt, Salon, and other self righteous types, give it a rest. Prodigal Sam just gave you tons of free publicity. Enjoy it. Stop your moaning. Stop piling on an obscure campus minister who just wants to make people laugh. He doesn’t make money off his Tweets.  He doesn’t really seek out fame, like you do. He isn’t seeking a movie deal, like you do. He didn’t steal your (cough) intellectual property.

So, seriously, enough already.

UPDATE:

So, it seems as if Prodigal Sam is going to hang it up for awhile. Congrats, cyber bullies, you won. Hope you’re proud of your childish absurdity.