diff --git a/holoviews/plotting/mpl/element.py b/holoviews/plotting/mpl/element.py
index 25f287dd91..0f3a7d3d31 100644
--- a/holoviews/plotting/mpl/element.py
+++ b/holoviews/plotting/mpl/element.py
@@ -1,9 +1,8 @@
-import math, copy
+import math
 
 import param
 import numpy as np
 import matplotlib as mpl
-import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
 import matplotlib.colors as mpl_colors
 from matplotlib import ticker
 from matplotlib.dates import date2num