The Viral Fever’s “Barely Speaking” and Copycat-Calling Culture

For generations Bollywood has been “taking inspiration” from other sources without credit. For decades this worked for everyone: audiences in South Asia did not have the same access to international and regional film available today, the copyright holders overseas were happy with their revenue streams in their domestic industries, the “Copycats” had an easier time writing their music or making their movies, and everyone was happy.

Then the internet came along, and it became clear to everyone that Bollywood had a dirty little secret: it was a film industry that had unabashedly been plagiarizing for decades.

And since this realization it has become popular to catalog all the instances of plagiarism. So popular, in fact, that it has almost become a sign of global entertainment industry awareness. But the pendulum has swung to the point of absurdity, and it’s time for a reality check.

It’s fine to call out Eagle Home Entertainment for using the Lord of the Rings’ “The Shire” theme as their jingle on their DVDs.

It’s not fine to take a clip from Chennai Express in which SRK is on a boat and say, “Life of Pi reference” as Bollywood Sins has done in their recent video on Chennai Express.

Does that mean every time a South Asian is on a boat from now on they have to live with the fact that they are referencing a story that happens to be about an Indian kid on a boat, because that apparently had never happened in the history of the world until Yann Martel wrote Life of Pi?

But Bollywood Sins has to live with a whole bevy of critics calling him a Cinema Sins copycat. Is that fair?

He took the style and format of the popular Youtube channel Cinema Sins-which roasts mainstream films for all their many errors in production and plotting-and applied it to Bollywood.

This is a form of copying, but it isn’t plagiarism.

How can I say that?

The same way I can say that Pepsi isn’t plagiarizing Coke when Pepsi has a dark colored fizzy drink that almost tastes identical. The same way I can say that a kathi roll vendor isn’t plagiarizing others for cooking kathi rolls when another vendor might say he did it first.

You can’t copyright a style, a format, a genre.

Cinema Sins doesn’t write about Bollywood, so when Bollywood Sins brings his own understanding of South Asian Culture to the Cinema Sins format something new is made, and though the format is the same, Bollywood Sins is at least as different from Cinema Sins as Pepsi is from Coke.

Actually Bollywood Sins could be the Thums Up to Cinema Sins’ Coke, if you like.

The problem is not inspiration or taking style cues and format cues. All sitcoms, serials and gameshows are copies in that sense.

The problem is stealing entire scenes, entire melodies and entire plots and passing them off as one’s own without citation.

This brings me to Barely Speaking, The Viral Fever’s newest web video series in which an antagonistic interviewer makes fun of his interview subjects in a way that is similar in concept to Zach Galifiniakis’ Between Two Ferns.

Cue the trolls who want a pat on the back because they know what “Between Two Ferns” is and want everyone to know that TVF are just a bunch of talentless copycats.

So, let’s do a little history lesson to set the record straight.

in 1991 Chris Farley starred in a sketch series on Saturday Night Live called The Chris Farley Show. The show consisted of Farley playing a socially awkward interviewer who looked stupid while he interviewed celebrity guests. Farley was even surrounded by two potted plants while he languished onstage in a way that only Chris Farley could make funny.

In 2008 Zach Galifianakis began starring in a web video series with Funny or Die called Between Two Ferns in which Galifianakis takes The Chris Farley Show concept into a more “The Office” style direction with an emphasis on awkward humorous interpersonal situations presented by a passive-aggressive weirdo in the interviewer’s seat. Like Farley, Galifianakis is again surrounded by two potted plants, but instead of languishing onstage, Galifianakis makes his guest languish onstage in a way that the creepy unexpected nature of Galifianakis’ stand-up act can only make funny.

In 2014 Biswapati Sarkar began starring in a Youtube series with The Viral Fever called Barely Speaking in which Sarkar takes the Between Two Ferns format and reinterprets it through the lens of India’s most quotable news personality: the always interrupting Arnab Goswami. Gone are the potted plants from the two previous incarnations, but the awkward humor from Farley and the antagonism from Galifianakis have been preserved and plenty has been added.

Since TVF has reinterpreted the sketch as a news show, this has provided the opportunity to use those ever annoying onscreen graphics as a means of delivering nuanced jokes and easter eggs that require repeated viewings to truly enjoy. The character of Arnub is as different from Galifianakis’s as Galifianakis’s was from Farley’s, and Sarkar holds his own with celebrities, delivering crushing satirical blows to the established entertainment industry in a way that even Galifianakis could applaud.

Barely Speaking is original. It’s inspired, yes, but isn’t everything?

Should we all just go back to reading ONLY Shakespeare and Valmiki, listening to Bach and Tansen, because if we’re really honest about Copycat-Calling we’re all just copying them?

The issue is not the copying, but the attitude behind it.

It’s fun to call out copycats, but we do damage to the noble profession when we misuse it.

The Copycat-Calling practice must be regulated, and so I have a modest proposal for three questions to ask before jumping to the conclusion that a copycat has been found.

#1 — Is a copyright being violated?

#2 — Is the artist paying respect to the originator of the material or format and giving credit where credit is due?

#3 — Is something new being added?

If the answer is “no” to the first question and “yes” to two and three, I’m willing to bet it’s not a copy.

These are not the Copycats you are looking for.

Move along.