In response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Homeland Security Department launched a website, Ready.gov, to help Americans prepare for future emergencies. The site’s cartoon images of responsible citizens protecting themselves from disasters have been widely lampooned on the Internet, garnering more attention for their potentially humorous interpretations than for their promotion of public safety.

This past weekend, the images were once again disseminated in the interests of comedy, thanks to the winner of Boston University’s Funniest Student competition, Damon Davidson. A full house at BU Central got a good laugh out of Davidson’s slideshow and accompanying commentary, ultimately selecting him as the winner over several other deserving candidates. The only problem is that he appears to have plagiarized the material.

Any comedian can tell you that there is a fine line between respectful borrowing and outright theft. Perhaps, one might argue, Davidson was simply inspired by the existing parodies, and this was simply his means of taking them in a clever new direction.

But for anyone comparing Davidson’s act to the jokes available online, the similarities are much too obvious to be ignored, his material too reminiscent of previous spoofs. The only conclusion we can draw is that Davidson cheated his way to the top.

Such behavior is pathetic and embarrassing, if not totally surprising. After all, ours is a culture that has produced baseball players like Barry Bonds, memoirists like James Frey and journalists like Jayson Blair. While Davidson’s stage was much smaller than the ones tarnished by these men — the title of BU’s Funniest Student is hardly a ticket to fame and fortune — his actions are no less worthy of condemnation. By misleading his audience and precluding his competitors from claiming the prize legitimately, Davidson has done a disservice not only to those present Saturday night, but to the university community as a whole.

It may not be practical for event organizers from the Student Activities Office or the Programming Council to hold an entirely new competition. But at the very least, they should strip Davidson of his title and award it to one of his fellow contestants. We might wonder whether Homeland Security is responding adequately to threats from al-Qaida and others, but there should be no debate over the proper response to plagiarizing comedians.