Even student speeches aren't exempt...

A university student has been forced to apologise to American comedian Patton Oswalt for stealing his material.

Brian Corman used a chunk of Oswalt’s stand-up act in his valedictory speech from Columbia University.

Oswalt tweeted sarcastically: ‘Great speech.’ and linked to a YouTube clip of the student talking about a ‘physics for poets’ class he reputedly attended.

However, it is a word-for-word repeat of to one of Oswalt’s routines.

After the theft was discovered, the clip was temporarily hidden, but it has now been reinstated.

A statement from the university said: ‘It has come to our attention that a portion of our Valedictorian's address... was taken from a comedy routine by Patton Oswalt.

‘Until today we were unaware of this conflict, and as an institution of higher learning that upholds the highest standards of respect for the works of others, we are deeply distressed that this has occurred.

‘Columbia University and the School of General Studies do not condone the use of someone else's work without proper attribution. Mr Corman has issued an apology to Patton Oswalt.’

Oswalt added via his internet site: ‘Brian Corman apologized to me. Flat-out admitted his thievery, his stupidity. Owned it all.

‘Good man. Still makes me wonder what he might have done to become valedictorian – I mean, if he’s willing to steal material for something as inconsequential as a speech, how rubbery did his boundaries become when his GPA [grade point average] and future career were on the line? Oh well.

Last month, Oswalt – whose credits include King Of Queens and the animated film Ratatouille, named and shamed stand-up Nick Madson for stealing ‘huge chunks’ of his act.

On his MySpace blog, Oswalt wrote: ‘I’m really hurt. It feels unpleasant. I worked very hard on those jokes – honed them night after night, kept challenging myself to make them funnier. And yet here’s Nick Madson – who, it turns out, is a stage actor – reciting huge chunks of my material and collecting a paycheck for doing it.’

Here is Brian Corman’s speech:

Here is Oswalt’s bit in two parts:

Published: 25 May 2010