‘America’s Got Talent’ 2015 Winner Paul Zerdin Accused Of Alleged Joke Theft?

While fans expect that Paul Zerdin, winner of "America's Got Talent" 2015, should be having a smooth sail, that may not be the case since two of his fellow ventriloquists are now accusing the performer of joke-theft.

The moment Zerdin emerged as a winner of the 2015 competition, he told BBC that one of the reasons he agreed to do the show was because no one back home in the UK would notice, BBC News reported.

Zerdin said, "I never thought it would be like this. I just thought I'd nip over to America, have a go at this talent show, and if it didn't work out then I could come home back to the UK and no one would be any the wiser."

However, ventriloquists David Strassman and Ron Lucas saw and now they are asserting that the 43-year-old puppet master did not originate a lot of the material that made him to win the competition and earned him the $1 million prize.

According to Deadline, the two comedians have a strong conviction that Zerdin stole aspects of their respective ventriloquist acts and produced them as if they were his own.

An example of the damning evidence is Zerdin's quarterfinals routine in which he has a falling out with his dummy Sam. The performer storms off stage leaving the puppet to fend for itself, when it suddenly comes to life and he continues to voice the dummy from back stage. Many viewers thought it was a fascinating bit, including Strassman who performed almost exactly the same way on "The Arsenio Hall Show" in 1989.

Meanwhile, Lucas allegedly obtained the rights to a joke from "Mystery Science Theater 3000" creator Joel Hodgson, which involved utilizing an audience member and a fake mouth apparatus that can turn any person into a ventriloquist's puppet. This was similar to a joke by Zerdin on Judge Howie Mandel in the semifinals of "America's Got Talent".

It is not yet clear whether Lucas and Strassman will press charges against Zerdin over the joke-theft allegation.