'Sorkinisms' Video Proves Aaron Sorkin Steals His Own Material

Is Aaron Sorkin, creator of "The Newsroom," stealing material... from himself?

An eagle-eyed (or eared) fan has picked up on the fact that Mr. Sorkin, who is regarded as one of the best writers out there (and has the Oscar to prove it), plagiarizes himself from time to time. You could call it "recycling dialogue" if you wanted, but the fact remains that there are Sorkinisms that repeat across different shows.

The proof is on YouTube: a fan has created a supercut of repeated Sorkin lines across different platforms. The video includes clips from "The West Wing," "Sports Night," "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," "The Social Network" and more, and the results are pretty clear: there are lines being reused.

Some lines are excusable, like "this is going to get worse before it gets better." It's easy to see that as a saying that gets passed around. But specifics like "don't be silly; everybody likes me" are a little more suspect.

This raises the question: does Sorkin just fall in love with lines of dialogue and find new homes for them later? Or does he subconsciously bring them back up, not realizing he used them before? Or, seeing as he's been writing TV shows and movies since 1992, does he run out of witty retorts for his characters and just re-use old ones on purpose?

Check out the video below: