I recently came across a video of Bob Fosse, the great choreographer, doing a dance number in a 1974 film version of "The Little Prince," wherein he plays a character called The Snake. (See photos above.) Dressed in a black suit, with white spats, gloves and black top hat, naturally who comes to mind but Michael Jackson! But wait: he dances exactly like Michael Jackson in Thriller, which was released in 1982. He even moonwalks!
Okay, so MJ has stated he was "influenced" by Fosse. But this is downright plagiarism. (See it for yourself, just Google it.) More interesting are the comments following the video, some defending Michael and others saying he stole the whole routine. But one comment really got my goat: "Michael wouldn't steal anything from this loser!"
Somebody somewhere, likely sitting in front of their computer eating pizza, probably a tattooed, unemployed, out of shape nobody, called Bob Fosse "a loser." This cracked me up and pissed me off at the same time. Here's a tiny excerpt of Fosse's very lengthy Wikipedia entry:
"At the 1973 Academy Awards, Fosse won the Academy Award for Best Director for Cabaret. That same year he won Tony Awards for directing and choreographing Pippin and Primetime Emmy Awards for producing, choreographing and directing Liza Minnelli's television special Liza With a Z. Fosse was the only person to win all three major industry awards in the same year."
The Internet is the gutter.
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