Chinese sit-com accused of ripping off Friends, How I Met Your Mother & The Big bang Theory
A Chinese sit-com charting the lives of the occupants of two neighbouring flats in a Shanghai tower block has left fans of American TV unamused – after they claimed it was blatantly plagiarising hit shows including Friends, How I Met Your Mother and the Big Bang Theory.
Ipartment, produced by the Shanghai Film Group, charts the pratfalls of a radio show host, computer geek and university lecturer who find themselves as neighbours; invoking a feeling of déjà vu in its choice of setting, script, plot and characters , even going so far as to rehash jokes from its popular American inspirations.
Exasperated viewers have now gone online to point out the precise scenes which they say have been lifted directly from other shows, including screenshots to highlight the similarities.
In an interview with China’s Southern Metropolis newspaper a show spokesperson described Ipartment as an ‘homage’ to American sitcoms and the scriptwriter has admitted he is a ‘super-fan’ of the genre.