The comprehensive guide to The Fat Jew’s plagiarism

In Features by Maura Quint / August 18, 2015

While Josh Ostrovsky, aka “The Fat Jew,” has stolen from a seemingly endless amount of creative people on Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram, the former Seamless shill’s transgressions haven’t yet been collected in one place. Though hundreds of people have come forward alleging Ostrovsky ripped them off, few took screenshots or documented the theft; and, since the internet moves fast and posts are easy to delete, a tremendous amount of proof has been lost. Below, we’ve initiated an attempt to chronicle some of Ostrovsky’s plagiarism into a list that will be updated on an ongoing basis. Please contact @behindyourback for questions or to let us know if your friends’ work has been jacked by the 30-year-old millionaire thief whom Comedy Central now wants nothing to do with.

If you’ve been paying close attention to the reportage on Ostrovsky’s theft, you’ve probably seen Kevin Kelly’s collection of TFJ’s theft on Storify. Kelly compiled a great list, but most of the entries cited are examples of Ostrovsky stealing from other so-called “aggregator” accounts like @dory. When falling into the stolen-from-a-site-that-steals-content whirlpool, it can be nearly impossible to verify the joke’s origin. And that, I suppose, is one reason among many for assembling this list. We are looking for clear-cut examples of Ostrovsky’s theft from individuals, not just hack jokes that have been done 1,000 times or theft from another copycat crook. These are all specific, traceable acts of social media larceny. Hopefully, those who would consider handing over wads of cash to this thieving, amoral plagiarist will visit this page and have an opportunity to think twice about what message they hope their brand might convey.

Lastly, endless thanks to @hillaryumlaut for helping make this presentable. Here goes, in no particular order:

1. Stolen from: @davonmagwood

Original:

Theft:

image

 

h/t AV Club

 

2. Stolen From: @rawfishandbeer

Original:

image

Theft, with attribution cut:

Screen Shot 2015-08-18 at 9.37.42 AM

Here, he employed his usual defense of “someone else must have taken your name off,” followed by sarcastic lies and then ignoring the claim.

image

 

h/t Storify

3. Stolen from @undergroundbby [note: user seems to have deactivated so we can’t link through].

@lukeoneil47 found the original author of the stolen screengrab below .

Theft: 

image

 

h/t Washington Post

 

4. Stolen from @MattBesser

Theft:

image

h/t Street Carnage

5. Stolen from user Gord Iang

Theft:

image

h/t Street Carnage

 

6. Stolen from @princessofwifi

Original:

image

Theft:

image

h/t Medium

 

7. Stolen from @thepatrickwalsh

Original:

image

Theft:

image

And when called out, the response summed up is, “Yes, I steal.”

image

h/t Medium

8. Stolen from @Kevonstage

Original:

image

Theft: 

image

h/t Playboy

9. Stolen from @pinupteacher

Original, plus theft called out:

image

 

10. Stolen from @rosen

Original:

image

Discovered Theft:

image

sources: @rosen, @rosen

 

11. Stolen from @xplodingunicorn:

Original on left; theft on right with attribution cut off:

image

source: @xplodingunicorn

12. Stolen from @troyboymartin

Original:

image

Theft eight hours later:

image

 

13. Ostrovsky is also known for lifting material word for word but slightly altering the text so as to not be instantly searchable. This is his usual m.o., as illustrated below, the joke of which he seems to have stolen from @rvnvvmxddvn:

image

 

14. It has been alleged that Ostrovsky also runs the Twitter account @uptownfunkdog. This account, which became active earlier this month and has tweeted only a handful of times, posts stolen jokes. Ostrovsky, somehow aware of this little known account, then shares the material and credits @uptowndogfunk — thus appearing to do due his dilligence as an online curator of funnies but still cutting out the original creator.

Image 1: @thefatjewish account sharing an @uptowndogfunk tweet, as pointed out by @skullmandible:

image

 

Image 2: Again, @uptowndogfunk is a new account with very few tweets, therefore a strange choice for Ostrovsky to recognize:

image

 

Image 3: Displaying the tweet uptowndogfunk stole and the original from @yungshoelace:

image

15: Stolen from @michaelijtiberi

Theft:

image

Original:

image

 

16. Stolen from @ch000ch

In the past few weeks, Ostrovsky has occasionally posted the handle of the creator in an @-reply, so that it is still cropped out of the visual content, giving the look as though the material is still original to his account. However, he’s so committed to his theft, even in doing so, he’s now misattributing by simply misspelling the original creator’s name, as seen below, eventually referring to Twitter user @ch000ch as “@chuuch.”

image

 

17. Stolen from @maria_elena1 (and other commenters). Another tactic Ostrovsky employs is that when people comment on his posts, he will take the funniest comment and use it as the caption, while deleting the one that the original commenter left.

image

18. Stolen from @shittingtonuk:

Original:

tumblr_mu9xdsMiSS1s71q1zo1_r1_1280

Theft:

Screen Shot 2015-08-17 at 9.07.47 PM

19. Stolen from @shittingtonuk:

Original:

tumblr_mwofsm4lgE1s71q1zo1_r1_1280

Theft:

Screen Shot 2015-08-17 at 9.11.58 PM

h/t @undeadmolly

20. Stolen from @wgladstone:

Original:

Theft:

Screen Shot 2015-08-18 at 9.35.31 AM

21. He gives credit to other thieves:

22. Stolen from @boganbingouk:

Original:

Theft:

Screen Shot 2015-08-28 at 11.04.28 AM

23. Stolen from @rvnvvmxddvn: Original:

Theft:

Screen Shot 2015-08-28 at 11.07.07 AM

24. Stolen from @tbhdaphne: Original:

Theft:

Screen Shot 2015-08-28 at 11.11.04 AM

25. Stolen from @Marcus_Rosario: Original:

Theft:

Screen Shot 2015-08-28 at 11.13.39 AM

26. Stolen from @WGladstone: Original:

Theft:

Screen Shot 2015-08-28 at 11.15.51 AM

27. Stolen from LikeaLaugh.org: Original:

Screen Shot 2015-08-28 at 11.18.12 AM

 

Theft:

Screen Shot 2015-08-28 at 11.19.31 AM

28. Stolen from @TVsAndyDaly: Original:

Theft:

Screen Shot 2015-08-28 at 11.22.02 AM

29. Stolen from @angel_emoji: Original:

Theft:

Screen Shot 2015-08-28 at 11.25.51 AM

30. Stolen from @donni: Original:

Theft:

Screen Shot 2015-08-28 at 11.29.51 AM

31. Stolen from @briangaar: Original:

Theft:

Screen Shot 2015-08-28 at 11.31.51 AM

32. Stolen from @technicallyron: Original:

Theft:
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