plagiarism - The Art of the Prank

October 6, 2025

The Fat Squad Fights Back

Imitation is the most insincere form of flattery…

In the past few months, at least three of Joey Skaggs’ classic performance works have mysteriously resurfaced—-minus the credit, the context, and, of course, the artist himself. From Elon Musk promising to replace judges and juries with his Grok AI, to a TikTok “influencer” teaching New Yorkers how to walk politely, to a national law firm resurrecting The Fat Squad to sell legal services—Skaggs’ art seems to have been reborn through the copy machine of culture.

If plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery, Joey must be the most loved man in America.

But underneath the irony lies a serious question: as artificial intelligence devours the world’s creative work—scraping, remixing, and regurgitating ideas at scale—what content ownership will artists be left with? Who gets to claim the joke when everyone’s telling it?

Skaggs has spent his life exposing how easily truth can be twisted, and how the media loves a good story—whether it’s real or not. Now, his work is living proof that in the age of AI and viral mimicry, even satire can’t escape being swallowed whole.

So, here’s to keeping art human, authorship honest, and mischief original.

IN THE COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION

JOEY SKAGGS,
Plaintiff,
v.
MORGAN & MORGAN,
Defendant.

COMPLAINT FOR MISAPPROPRIATION OF UNAUTHORIZED SATIRE AND CULTURAL DILUTION

New York, NY — Artist, satirist, and cultural saboteur Joey Skaggs today filed a lawsuit in the Court of Public Opinion against America’s largest personal injury law firm Morgan & Morgan for shamelessly swiping his legendary Fat Squad media hoax and stuffing it into their latest commercial.

For the record, The Fat Squad (est. 1986) was a groundbreaking internationally successful performance art hoax in which comandos were contracted to guard dieters around the clock — tackling them away from Twinkies, escorting them past buffets, and yelling “Drop that donut!” before it hit their lips. It is memorialized in both Andrea Marini’s “Art of the Prank” documentary and Joey Skaggs’ Oral History film series.

Joey Skaggs: The Fat Squad tease:

Morgan & Morgan’s new ad? Blatantly similar — but with all the calories of satire burned off.

THE FACTS

Plaintiff conceived, developed, and performed The Fat Squad decades before TikTok, meme culture, or commercial law firms decided satire was good for business.

On or about August 1, 2025, Defendant released a commercial campaign which bears obvious similarity to Plaintiff’s original work.

Said commercial paraded themes, images, and absurdities long perfected by Plaintiff, without acknowledgment, credit, or the faintest wink of irony.

Defendant thereby committed cultural plagiarism in the first degree, profiting from the very social critique Plaintiff pioneered.

THE CHARGES

Count I: Cultural Grand Theft Satire
Defendant unlawfully adopted Plaintiff’s absurdist concept without permission, thereby reducing art to advertising.

Count II: Unwarranted Enrichment by Unjust Laughter
Defendant profited from a concept that wasn’t theirs, without even a courtesy “tip of the wig.”

Count III: Infliction of Mental Distress
Defendant forced Mr. Skaggs to endure the trauma of watching his biting social critique watered down into a punchline for legal fees. Symptoms include ironic groaning, eye-rolling, and muttering “I did it first” into the void.

DAMAGES DEMANDED
Plaintiff demands compensation in the form of:

A public confession from Morgan & Morgan, aired during the Super Bowl halftime, admitting Joey Skaggs is funnier than their entire marketing department.

Mandatory enrollment of at least one Morgan & Morgan attorney into the actual Fat Squad program, including midnight refrigerator raids and fast-food stakeouts.

Punitive damages: Morgan & Morgan agrees to provide lifetime pro bono representation for Joey Skaggs—and any other artists who suffer theft of creative concepts, whether analog or AI, in perpetuity.

PLAINTIFF’S STATEMENT

“When I created The Fat Squad, it was to satirize America’s obsession with weight control, and consumer excess. To see a law firm steal it and call it comedy? That’s not just plagiarism. That’s malpractice. Artistic malpractice.” —Joey Skaggs, Satirist-Still-At-Large

CONCLUSION
The Fat Squad doesn’t forgive. The Fat Squad doesn’t forget. And if Morgan & Morgan thinks they can out-satire Joey Skaggs… well, let’s just say the Court of Public Opinion is always in session, and the jury is already laughing.

September 19, 2025September 19, 2025

WALK RIGHT! Walks the Line

We need more militarization, more rules, less 1st Amendment protection and definitely more fear in our city streets. We need to bring back WALK RIGHT!

Back in 1984, when mercenary vigilantes like the Guardian Angels were “reclaiming” NYC subways, Joey Skaggs launched WALK RIGHT! an ad hoc group of vigilante sidewalk etiquette enforcers who patrolled the streets to make New York a better place to live and walk.

Here’s a short tease from Joey Skaggs: WALK RIGHT! oral history film.

WALK RIGHT published 66 rules for walking, including:
*Pedestrians must choose one lane and stay in it.
*No changing directions except at designated areas.
*No stopping unless in the shopping lane.
*No eating, gesticulating, or umbrellas held lower than 5’10”.

CNN and local news covered it as serious public policy. But it was satire then—and it is satire now.

NOTE: Social media influencers have recently “invented” ways to tame our unruly pedestrians, like, Matt Bass with “Bad Walkers” and Cameron Roh who is rating walkers in New York City.

They are to be forgiven because they weren’t born when WALK RIGHT! ruled the New York City streets. And they can’t be expected to do any research that might deter them from promoting a great idea to gain sponsorship $$ or eyeballs for their products.

February 25, 2011December 15, 2023

Churnalism.com: Plagiarism Detector

Submitted by Alex Case:

New UK website cracks down on PR-driven journalism
Miami Herald
February 24, 2011

London (AP) — Hoax articles and lazy journalists are being pushed into the spotlight by a new website that aims to expose news outlets that regurgitate press releases – a practice known as “churnalism.”

Churnalism.com, launched by the Media Standards Trust charity, allows users to copy and paste content from news releases and compare it with articles published by British news outlets to see which reporters are less proactive and more reactive in searching for news.

Media Standards Trust director Martin Moore says the site is meant to be an “accountability tool” and would ruffle some feathers in the media.

He said Thursday that with more resources and exposure, he hopes the site can eventually expand to other countries like the United States.

August 21, 2009December 15, 2023

LiteratEye #27: The Plagiarist – A Literary Vampire?

Here’s the twenty seventh installment of LiteratEye, a series found only on The Art of the Prank Blog, by W.J. Elvin III, editor and publisher of FIONA: Mysteries & Curiosities of Literary Fraud & Folly and the LitFraud blog.

LiteratEye #27: The Plagiarist – A Literary Vampire?
By W.J. Elvin III
August 21, 2009

Twilight-Poster Jordan Scott claims mega-best-selling author Stephenie Meyer stole some plot ideas for her teenage vampire romance series.

Based on particulars I’ve seen, Scott’s chances of chomping into Meyer’s colossal publishing and film cake are somewhere between slim and none.

There are similarities in the story in question, but coincidence of ideas and phrases is hardly unique in literature.

Generally speaking, plagiarism has more to do with intent than with specifics. Of course there are some blatant cases, as in the one to be discussed further along here, where material is lifted practically “as is.”

Seems like any author who hits it big – Dan Brown and A.J. Rowling come immediately to mind – attracts plagiarism charges and/or lawsuits.

And there are cases in the past – Alex Haley and Roots for instance — where charges have held up. Haley settled with Harry Courlander, author of “The African,” for $650,000.

Well, let’s move on to a case where the hijacking was indisputable. Words for the Taking: The Hunt for a Plagiarist by Neal Bowers details the relentless pursuit of a plagiarist who stole poems, changing them only slightly before sending them off to small literary magazines as his own. Continue reading “LiteratEye #27: The Plagiarist – A Literary Vampire?”

May 15, 2009December 15, 2023

LiteratEye #14: Detecting the Dark Side of Language

Here’s the fourteenth installment of LiteratEye, a series found only on The Art of the Prank Blog, by W.J. Elvin III, editor and publisher of FIONA: Mysteries & Curiosities of Literary Fraud & Folly and the LitFraud blog.

LiteratEye #14: Detecting the Dark Side of Language
By W.J. Elvin III
May 15, 2009

wwiip6-200 It’s 2 o’clock in the morning in London as my email comes breezing in to interrupt John Olsson’s musings. Olsson interests us because he’s an expert at digging out the secrets of deceptive documents, anything from anonymous hate mail to plagiarized books.

My note found him puzzling over hidden clues in regard to the character of Bernard Madoff, the big Wall Street toad whose secret life involved scamming multi-millions from clients.

Might a keen observer have spotted what Madoff was up to, before it all fell down? Olsson pondered the name, “Madoff.” Odd, the wanderings of the mind in the wee small hours. “Made Off”¦,” he supposed. “Bernard made off”¦”

Well, John, maybe you’re on to something. And, believe me, you can throw LiteratEye readers a long one and they’ll be out there to catch it. But we better at least start a little closer to the line of scrimmage.

And so, down to business. In Olsson’s case, business is The Forensic Linguistics Institute and his studies are usually of a very serious nature. You can get a fairly good idea of what it’s all about from his new book, Wordcrime. Continue reading “LiteratEye #14: Detecting the Dark Side of Language”