Shia LaBeouf apologizes in the wake of plagiarism scandal

When he’s not making waves starring in terrible movies about robots, dropping trou for arty Icelandic music videos, or getting in drunken street fights, Shia LaBeouf apparently also enjoys ripping off famous comic book creators.

Earlier this week, the “Transformers” star found himself in hot water after releasing his short film “HowardCantour.com” online. It turns out that LaBeouf’s film, which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival last year, is pretty much a direct adaptation of acclaimed cartoonist Daniel Clowes’ 2007 comic "Justin M. Damiano."

Both the comic and the short film center on a dour movie critic (in LaBeouf's film, he's played by comedian Jim Gaffigan) and feature strikingly similar and sometimes identical dialogue. Despite this, at no point does the short film credit or acknowledge Clowes or his graphic novella. LaBeouf only acknowledged Clowes’ “influence” on “HowardCantour.com” after he got caught, apologizing in a series of tweets:

LaBeouf concluded his confession with, "I f--ked up." Online chatter over LaBeouf’s blatant plagiarism quickly turned from outrage to comedy, spawning the hashtag #ShiaLaBeoufFilms on Twitter and other social networks. The meme gives inept titles to imaginary LeBeouf-directed films which are very clearly just rip-offs of more famous movies. Here are some of the highlights:

Of course, this would be much funnier if plagiarism weren’t such a serious offense. Such deceitful practices will get you kicked out of university and are the career kiss of death for professional writers.

Even if LaBeouf characterizes what he did as “inspiration” and getting “lost in the creative process,” it’s plagiarism. Plain and simple. No amount of apologetic tweets after the fact will change that. If all that comes of this Howard Cantour debacle is a hilarious Twitter lambasting, then LaBeouf should really consider himself lucky.