James Somerton Scandal

Event
Event:	James Somerton Plagiarism Scandal
Participants:	hbomberguy, James Somerton
Date(s):	3rd December 2023
Type:	Controversy, Exposé
Fandom:	Queer Fandom, BreadTube
URL:	Plagiarism and You(Tube) by hbomberguy
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This article documents a currently unfolding situation within the fannish realm. Content may change quickly, and the page structure itself may undergo major revision. New details are very welcome.

The James Somerton Scandal refers to a scandal involving former YouTuber and video essayist James Somerton that began when fellow YouTuber hbomberguy released a video titled Plagiarism and You(Tube), in which he alleges the content of Somerton's videos were prominantly plagiarised from other writers.

Alongside the plagiarism, issues of misinformation and misogyny were also levied at Somerton, both in the initial video and subsequent sources, including a subsequent video, I Fact-Checked The Worst Video Essayist On YouTube, by Todd in the Shadows.

The scandal lead to a dialogue and discussion online around plagiarism.

History

Initial Video

Plagiarism and You(Tube) begins by exploring how plagiarism manifests on YouTube, including ways to spot it, what might motivate it, and what tricks plagiarists use to disguise it. A bit under two hours into the video, in a chapter titled "The Twist You Expected", hbomberguy reveals that the true subject of the video is James Somerton.

Plagiarism

Somerton is alleged to have plagiarised or stolen from:

• documentaries such as The Celluloid Closet
• books such as Tinker Belles and Evil Queens: The Walt Disney Company from the Inside Out by Sean Griffin
• fellow video essayists such as Alexander Avila (aka @AreTheyGay).
• Besides writers and other video essayists, Somerton also used footage from a Legend of Korra AMV centred on the ship Mako/Wu. The video, (Wuko) Crush (Mako x Wu) by MoonFlower_art, has over 39k views as of 8th December 2023, thousands more than any of the vidder's previous videos, and the comments section features many references to the situation.

[@yaobikuni1349]
I also came here because of hbomberguy's video because I wanted to know if you were aware of said plagiarism. The person who plagiarized you is James Somerton, and you can see the evidence in the aforementioned hbomberguy video at 2:38:37.

[@MoonFlower_art]
I wasn't aware this, I woke up to the information. But thank you for the time stamp and everything it was strange to look into

[@yaobikuni1349]
@MoonFlower_art No problem. The hbomberguy video is 4 hours long so I figured a timestamp to the relevant portion would help get you up to speed as to how and where your video was plagiarized. I am very sorry this happened to you, and I am hoping the rest of your day is much better.

[@MoonFlower_art]
@yaobikuni1349 my day is perfectly fine despite the news. I am surprised that anyone wanted to plagiarize a simple ship video, but it truly shows how lazy someone can be and at least someone covered it so yeah.

Other

hbomberguy created a playlist titled Your New Favorite YouTubers showcasing other queer youtubers and video essayists, including verilybitchie, Khadija Mbowe, Princess Weekes, CJ the X, Sarah Z, and Rowan Ellis.

Outside of the accusations, the Somerton section of the video references Gyakuten Saiban, i.e Ace Attorney, even including a trial section resembling the games' pixel art style and animation.

Further Videos

Todd in the Shadows

Merely a day after the initial video, music review channel Todd in the Shadows released the video I Fact-Checked The Worst Video Essayist On YouTube, focusing this time on the incorrect and unsourced information presented by Somerton in his videos.

The Ace Couple

On 13th December 2023, Courtney Lane and Royce from The Ace Couple podcast released their video We were personally victimized by James Somerton, in which they criticise Somerton's behaviour in regards to both the wider ace community, as well as their own experience with him after donating money for the hope of ace representation in his Telos films.

Further Accusations

Another allegation, posted by Tumblr user sagegarnish, documents a supposed event in which Somerton is accused of using fanart of Hannigram without permission from the respective artists.

Apologies and Apparent Pseuicide

On 20th December 2023, Somerton released his initial 'apology' video. It wasn't received well. He deleted the video soon after.

On 26th February 2024, he released a second apology video. It was pointed out that this video 'A Measured Response' uses the exact same phrasing as hbomberguy's series of the same name. This second video was also deleted, and an apparent suicide note was allegedly posted on his private Twitter account on 5th March. On 6th March, his co-writer Nick stated on his bluesky that as far as he was aware, there was "nothing to worry about", and on 11th March, Kat Lo, a producer who works with hbomberguy, confirmed Somerton's safety following a wellfare check.

On 8th May 2024, YouTuber Lady Emily shared screenshots on her Twitter, @GreatCheshire, that appeared to show Somerton having "rebranded his alt account then posted about tv shows and horny posted" on the same day that he allegedly posted a suicide note to his other account, and consistently used this account over the following months. She also alleged that Somerton had used this alternate account as a sockpuppet to defend himself to other Twitter users.

Responses from Co-writer Nick

• plagiarism: my response (around(?) 7th Dec 2023)

Response from other YouTubers

Several YouTubers released videos either addressing the scandal, or discussing what should occur going forward. Many of these were video essayists, or inhabited similiar spaces or niches within the YouTube sphere as Somerton:

• What James Somerton can teach us (Dec 2023) by Council of Geeks
• James Somerton & Community Solidarity by Jessie Gender
• Plagiarism and the Death of the Video Essay (Mar 2024) by Zoe Bee

TomSka released a video titled TomSka's Guide To Plagiarism (The Somerton Scale) in which he outlines a scale of plagiarism he dubbed 'The Somerton Scale of Plagiarism'. Unrelatedly, he also references Goncharov in said video, comparing it to a drawing of a dog as an example of the first point of 'No Correlation'.

Other YouTubers also started referencing the scandal in their videos without focusing on it, such as in Jack Saint's vid It's so much worse than you thought. about Squid Game.

Impact on Fandom

Fans

Tumblr Comparison

Some fans have noticed that some of Somerton's arguments around fandom resemble those posted on Tumblr. Several of these bloggers have wondered whether Somerton was influenced by these arguments, or whether he influenced Tumblr.

Tumblr user talaricula criticized other Tumblr users' astonishment at Somerton's viewers' failure to clock his misogyny and racism, drawing parallels to Tumblr culture:

[talaricula]
Things I’ve seen tumblr memeing about James Somerton doing à la “How did no one see how bigoted he was!” as if those things haven’t been a significant part of tumblr culture for over a decade :

1. Presenting untrue and bordering on conspiratorial versions of (queer or otherwise marginalised) history without any sources
2. Completely disregarding and disrespecting any expertise on socio-cultural topics/humanities and distrusting academics and historians (incl. acting as if no academics or historians could be queer or marginalised)
3. Downplaying the role misogyny played in the historical oppression of queer women and concluding that queer men must have been more oppressed than queer women
4. Bi women are, at best, not as queer as “real” queer ppl, and at worst, simply equivalent to straight women
5. Despite nominal trans inclusivity, transmasculine ppl are functionally women when convenient (combined with the above, bi transmascs are functionally straight women)
6. Despite nominal trans inclusivity (bis), shamelessly attacking, threatening and actively endangering any trans woman who questions them or smth they find important (often by unfairly presenting her as violent or as a threat)
7. Having absolutely fucking wild and reductive takes about ace ppl, the oppression they face and their place in the queer community
8. Stating that marriage equality is an assimilationist fight while completely ignoring its direct roots in the horrifying consequences of the AIDS crisis for partners of ppl who died of AIDS
9. Praising western media creators from the past for queer coding even under censure and in the same breath condemning current non western media creators for being homophobic bc their representation isn’t explicit enough
10. Blaming China for all existing homophobic censoring in western media
11. Assuming all queer media would be better told by western creators and by western standards
12. Only out queer ppl get to tell queer stories
13. Heavily criticising almost all queer media created by women or ppl they see as such (see above points about trans ppl) or involving/starring a significant amount of women for any perceived or real amount of “problematicness”, but fawning over and praising and negating criticism of queer media created by and starring mostly or even functionally exclusively men (even when it could be argued that, you know, not involving/seriously sidelining women is a pretty clear example of misogyny which should probably be considered “problematic”)

Resources & External Links

• HBomberguy vs. James Somerton Plagiarism Scandal - KnowYourMeme page
• James Somerton Suicide Hoax - KnowYourMeme page