Unapologetic joke thief claims it took months before anyone had a problem with him stealing from the late Patrice O’Neal

Kain Carter has 619,615 subscribers to his YouTube channel, which he titled “hotdamnirock.”

For much of the past year, however, what Carter was rocking in his vlogs were monologues ripped verbatim from the mouth of late stand-up comedian Patrice O’Neal.

Carter acknowledged this only after being called out on his thievery last week by fans of Patrice and by Dante Nero, who used to work with Patrice on “The Black Phillip Show.”

In a new response video Carter posted to his channel on Sunday, he claims he only started quoting O’Neal without attribution earlier this year and did so in several videos to try to get Nero’s attention.

He also claimed he’d been making videos on his channel and building up his audience for years without anyone causing a fuss.

“How can you possibly know that you’re causing a problem until it’s brought to your attention?” Carter asked on Sunday.

How could Carter possibly have known — when he signed up for his YouTube channel, and read the instructions telling him to upload original content that he owned, and not to violate copyrights — that what he was doing might be considered problematic?

If he meant to honor Patrice O’Neal, he should have been crediting him from the beginning, and not only after getting caught in the act of stealing.

If he means to honor O’Neal now, he should be crediting his survivors. Or at least apologizing for his actions.

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If you want to honor Patrice O’Neal, you can buy O’Neal’s CDs and DVDs, and stop paying to hear his words regurgitated by a YouTube “star” who cannot even rip O’Neal off in a single edit.

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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