Joke thievery

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A common term for joke thievery is "hacking", which is derived from the term, "Hack-neyed" (Meaning, "over used and thus cheapened, or trite").^[1]Joke thievery is the act of performing and taking credit for comic material written by another person without their consent. This is a form ofplagiarism and sometimes can be copyright infringement.

From the Catskill and Vaudeville beginnings of stand-up comedy, joke thievery was common as there were few chances that a performer from one area would meet one from another and a single twenty-minute set could sustain a comic for a decade. Most jokes at the time were one-liners and there was little in the way of proof of a joke's origin, but the value of each joke was immeasurable to a comedian.^[2] Milton Berleand Bob Hope had a long-standing feud due to Hope's accusation that Milton Berle had stolen some of his jokes.^[2] Berle never refuted the claim, but instead embraced the title "The Thief of Bad Gag".[edit]History

Even the most famous of comics have found themselves, knowingly, or unknowingly, stealing material. Bill Cosby admitted to stealing a joke by George Carlin involving an uneducated football player doing a television commercial. Cosby said that what makes the routine his own is the surreal phrase “little tiny hairs.”^[3][4] Likewise, Carlos Mencia, many years later performed a bit about athletes and their parents that hearkened back to a Cosby bit from his album, Bill Cosby: Himself.

In the 1970s, joke theft became more prominent with the boom in popularity of comedy. The 1980s and 90s saw the popularity of stand-up comedy continue to increase. With the advent of pay-cable networks, comics were afforded the opportunity to perform their routines unfettered. With this came a new type of joke theft wherein the first comic to tell a stolen joke on some sort of media became the one associated with the joke.

Robin Williams was accused of stealing material from another comic. David Brenner claims that he confronted Williams personally and threatened him with bodily harm if he heard Williams utter another one of his jokes.^[5]

For many years, Denis Leary had been friends with fellow comedian Bill Hicks. However, when Hicks heard Leary's 1992 album No Cure For Cancer, he felt Leary had stolen his act and material. The friendship ended abruptly as a result.^[6] At least three stand-up comedians have gone on the record stating they believe Leary stole not just some of Hicks' material but his persona and attitude.^[6][7][8][9] As a result of this, it is claimed that after Hicks' death from pancreatic cancer, an industry joke began to circulate about Leary's transformation and subsequent success (roughly; "Question: Why is Denis Leary a star while Bill Hicks is unknown? Answer: Because there's no cure for cancer").^[9]

In turn, Hicks was accused of joke theft by Sam Kinison.

Also in the nineties, began a nearly universal theft of an impression of Bill Cosby, the style of which was first unveiled by Eddie Murphy in his concert Raw.^[10]

More recent times have seen public rivalries between comics over the subject of joke theft. Louis CK has maintained a relatively quiet rivalry with Dane Cook over three bits on Cook's album, Retaliation, that allegedly bear some resemblance to three bits on CK's album Live in Houston. This claim is further complicated by both artists having performed bits on naming kids that strongly resemble "My Real Name", a bit from Steve Martin's album, A Wild and Crazy Guy.^{[11][unreliable source?]}

Joe Rogan, by contrast has been very open in accusing Carlos Mencia of joke theft.^[12]

To a lesser extent, George Lopez has also accused Mencia of plagiarizing his material. He also claimed he had a physical altercation with Mencia over the alleged plagiarism.^[13] Comedian Ted Sarnowski countered this claim, however, stating that he, himself, had actually written the joke and given Mencia permission to use it after Lopez had stolen it from him.^[14]

The Comedy Central show, South Park made light of Mencia's alleged joke theft in the 13th season episode, "Fishsticks" by portraying him claiming authorship of a joke written by the handicapped character Jimmy.

In 2010 Italian Comic and Satirist Daniele Luttazzi has been accused of having plagiarized many jokes from comedians such as George Carlin, Mitch Hedberg, Eddie Izzard, Chris Rock, Bill Hicks and Robert Schimmel.^[15] Five years before those charges, Luttazzi himself told about his scheme on his personal blog: he wrote that he adds unoriginal material to his work as a defense against the million-euro lawsuits he has to face because of his satire. Luttazzi calls his ruse “the Lenny Bruce trick” after a similar trick played by his hero, Lenny Bruce. Luttazzi asked his readers to find out the original jokes. He awards a prize to anyone who finds a “nugget”, i.e. a reference to famous jokes: he calls the game “treasure hunt” ^[16]. Luttazzi also calls the charges “naive”, explaining why those jokes are not “plagiarized”, but “calqued”, which is a fair use of original material. He uses a joke by Emo Philips to prove that the meaning of a joke depends on its context. ^[17]. Luttazzi’s blog lists all the comedians and writers quoted in his works ^[18].

[edit]In other media

Joke theft is not limited to stand-up comedy. Often jokes in film and television shows are taken from comics or even other media.

Dick Cavett wrote about joke theft in his autobiography. He relayed a story about writing a bit about eating Chinese-German food and, an hour later, being hungry for power. After a few days of performing the bit, he discovered a review of Rip Taylor's show, where the joke was quoted verbatim. However, after calling Taylor to ask him to stop using the bit, he discovered that not only had Taylor never performed the bit, he had never even heard it and laughed hysterically at the joke's humor. It was then that Cavett discovered that some journalists often falsely attribute jokes to the wrong comics.^{[citation needed]}

Cavett and Woody Allen often cited to each other the many instances of their jokes appearing in television shows without their permission, sometimes even falsely attributed to each other.

Allen's jokes were regularly stolen by the highly successful television show Laugh In.^[19] This proved extremely painful to Allen.

Cover of Issue 423 of Australian Mad Magazine.

The experimental Pet Shop Boys film It Couldn't Happen Here and the promotional music video for their remake of the Elvis Presley song "Always on My Mind" both featured a homicidal priest, played by Joss Ackland, who performed several bits from Steven Wright's first comedy album, "I Have a Pony".^[20]

In more recent times a bit performed by Sam Kinison regarding Jesus' domestic issues after the resurrection later appeared in sketch form on the Comedy Central show Mind of Mencia starringCarlos Mencia.^[21]

Several episodes of The Simpsons, including "Missionary: Impossible", "Treehouse of Horror XIII", and "The Italian Bob" have poked fun at Family Guy, implying that MacFarlane's show is guilty of stealing jokes and premises from the Simpsons. However, the producers of both shows have said that there is no serious feud between the two of them and their shows.^[22][23]

[edit]Recourse and consequences

There is, historically, very little legal recourse taken in cases of joke theft. Some comics, however, have chosen to exact their own justice. W. C. Fields reportedly paid fifty dollars to have a thieving comic's legs broken.^[2]

Typically, the repercussions of joke theft are limited to personal animosity. On this issue, it sometimes appears that the offended comics are alone in their concern. For example, on February 10, 2007 at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles, Joe Rogan argued on-stage with Carlos Mencia, accusing him of plagiarizing other comedians' work. According to Rogan's account, he had just finished his act and introduced the next performer, Ari Shaffir, as a comedian who opens for "Carlos Men-steal-ia".^[24] Mencia took offense and walked on the stage. The Comedy Store later cancelled Rogan's shows and suggested he "take a break" from the Comedy Store, which was then followed by Rogan's manager (who also manages Mencia) dropping Rogan.^[25] The entire incident was filmed as part of Rogan's internet reality show, JoeShow. It was then made available to watch or download at numerous websites, including Rogan's.^[24]

"You have a better chance of stopping a serial killer than a serial thief in comedy," said comedian David Brenner. "If we could protect our jokes, I'd be a retired billionaire in Europe somewhere — and what I just said is original."^[26]

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