Blogoland

There's a fine line between homage and the bald rip-off, and everyone knows that stealing someone's comedy act is a time-honored tradition, but has anyone else noticed that The Daily Show has been lifting a great deal of its recent material from old Simpsons episodes?

Take last night's less-than-uproarious Samantha Bee piece on internet hunting for the cripppled. In the report she imagines other uses for the technology, like say at convenience stores. The sights focus on a customer with a magazine, and the Hindu-inflected voiceover announces: "This is not a lending library!"

Sound familiar? This is from "Krusty Gets Busted," a first season episode.

Apu [to Bart and Lisa]: "Hey! Hey! This is not a lending library! If you're not going to buy that thing put it down or I'll blow your heads off!"

We're not asking for footnotes, just some acknowledgement.