The people have spoken: They love Patton Oswalt's bit about his "Physics For Poets" college course (from 2007's Werewolves And Lollipops)—so much so that they're ripping it off wholesale.
The latest: Oswalt tweeted this morning Columbia University School Of General Studies valedictorian Brian Corman used the bit, without crediting it, in the school's commencement address. A YouTube video of the speech has since been set to "private." Related videos on YouTube have also disappeared, and a link from Columbia's site doesn't appear to be working, either.
This episode follows a report from our Denver site last month that a comedian named Nick Madson used the "Physics For Poets" bit, along with a bunch of others from Oswalt, Louis C.K., and Dave Attell during at least one show. According to a blog written by Oswalt, Madson first apparently claimed he wrote those bits for the comedians who made him famous. Then he wrote Oswalt and claimed he used them for a special one-off benefit show—which Oswalt learned wasn't true, either.
Well, if nothing else, all this at least shows the material is solid, right?
Update: Columbia and Corman have since apologized: