CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
Producers of the ABC’s ‘Please Like Me’ have today accused the winner of the 89th Academy Award’s Best Picture, ‘Moonlight’, of plagiarising the life of Josh Thomas.
Moonlight, which tells the morally and formally challenging story about a young gay black man journeying from bullied child to troubled teen to gangsta is ‘undeniably similar’ to the four seasons of sitcom television starring former Talkin’ Bout Your Generation star and Australian comedian, Josh Thomas, as himself.
“Most people wouldn’t know how blatantly stolen Moonlight is because the context it is set in doesn’t relate to most Australians. The film flopped here because it lacks the pizazz of Josh” said one producer.
In Australia, Moonlight has taken barely $1 million since opening on 26 screens a month ago. With the average Australian ticket costing $13.60, that’s about 74,000 paying customers – unlike ‘Please Like Me’ which has been beamed across millions of television sets ever since someone from the ABC decided Josh Thomas was funny (around 2012).
Moonlight star and winner of this year’s Best Supporting Actor, Mahershala Ali has refuted claims that his character is based off the ‘Please Like Me’ character of ‘Alan’ (played by David Roberts) – who is based on Josh Thomas’ dad.
“I think the fact that both films are about a young man’s journey through adulthood and sexual identity is not enough reason to call this plagiarism”
“Although I did enjoy watching all four seasons of Please Like Me religiously, I just don’t think Josh Thomas’s life is that similar to the lead character in Moonlight”
“While I do consider Please Like Me to be a breathtaking portrayal of being alive in a middle class Australian family, as far as I know, Josh’s dad was not a drug dealer.”
However, Ali’s comments have been met with a stern rebuttal from Josh Thomas, who says, aside from all the drug, poverty, desperation and homophobic hate crimes, Moonlight is “almost exactly the same” as Please Like Me.
“It’s a classic example of a gay man’s work being appropriated by a straight man, and marketed to the masses”
“As far as I know the director of this film is straight. He needs to check his straight African-American privilege”
“Everyone has been talking about the Oscars gaffe surrounding the announcement of Best Picture. Damn right it was a stuff up”
“It should have been me up there”
