(Photo credit: Sharon Alagna)
Comedy website Funny or Die is claiming that musician Father John Misty allegedly plagiarized the concept or storyline of his latest music video, “The Night Josh Tillman Came to Our Apartment,” from a comedy video they had previously released.
In Misty’s video, he plays a man that “seduces a doppelgänger of himself in a bar shares some lines of coke with him, and eventually the two get it on,” according to SPIN. The song “The Night Josh Tillman Came to Our Apartment” is taken from Misty’s sophomore release, I Love You, Honeybear.
Funny or Die has done a shot by shot analysis of their 2011 video, “Go Fuck Yourself,” which stared actor Dave Franco. And, their analysis illustrates that there are a number of similarities between the two videos, such as an aerial shot of the two shot gases sitting on the bar to the doppelgängers sitting side-by-side toasting each other. However, there are other shots in the two videos that could appear in any music video that featured characters at a bar like the classic main character making an entrance, ordering two drinks by holding up two fingers to illustrate the point, or glancing back over his – in this case – shoulder as he sits quietly on a barstool.
Check out the full Funny or Die Analysis, here, and take a look at both videos, below.
Father John Misty took to Twitter to discuss the similarities that have caused this controversy, and he seemed “confused by the claims of plagiarism,” according to Exclaim.ca. Check out Misty’s tweets, below.
Whoa, I thought that was a joke!!!!
— FATHER JOHN MISTY (@fatherjohnmisty) September 25, 2015
Father John Misty's new video completely rips off one we made with Dave Franco in 2011: http://t.co/TGmcmv8grm pic.twitter.com/kotrIaxI5S
— Funny Or Die (@funnyordie) September 25, 2015
I guess this is real
— FATHER JOHN MISTY (@fatherjohnmisty) September 25, 2015
I guess this is the time to confess that the song itself is lifted directly from that Funny or Die video
— FATHER JOHN MISTY (@fatherjohnmisty) September 25, 2015
I seriously need to be Internet house-trained. This very tweet confirms it.
— FATHER JOHN MISTY (@fatherjohnmisty) September 25, 2015