Joke Thieves

So something thats always fascinated me are comedians\aspiring comedians who rip off material..

I'm guessing most people know the obvious ones...Dane Cook,Carlos Mencia,Robin Williams and the king Denis Leary

Some examples

Leary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwhxqnCyoGo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INarE1WraFA

Carlos Mencia steals from everyone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gVYfDCgYxk

Dane Cook steals from Louis C.k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ_710y4vR4

Heres a interesting blog post by Patton Oswalt regarding a "comedian" that stole entire routines from him,even down to his individual mannerisms

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=67077201&blogId=533643624



So anyone have any other good examples or come across this at clubs around Ireland?

Did my first stand up gig in years a week or so before CHristmas and since then I've seen a number o fbits from my set that night appearing near word for word in another comedians act. I've spoke to him about it but he refuses to talk to me.

eth0_

Joe Pasquale is a well known joke stealer. Here's Stewart Lee talking about it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YE9Kthyaco

Damon Blake

Frank Skinner said something on it recently.

Marc Maron's WTF recent podcast with Robin Williams goes into the whole joke thief thing, worth a listen if you're a comedy nerd.

3 times in the last month I've heard directly or heard about people doing stuff I wrote on stage, but that's just a freak thing I think, it's happened before but not so consistently. And I am not well (or at all) known so I imagine it happens to other people a lot.

And then there are well known people who do it, those who prefer success over standards.

squidgey

What bits? just out of curiousity. Is it the one "comedian" who is borrowing your material?

QUOTE=Deleted User;65678409]Did my first stand up gig in years a week or so before CHristmas and since then I've seen a number o fbits from my set that night appearing near word for word in another comedians act. I've spoke to him about it but he refuses to talk to me.[/QUOTE]

funnyman2010

Since I don't do comedy all too often I've been terrified that someone will rip material and use it as their own, I've had a friend record one or two of my sets, at least then I have some sort of proof if ever I have to attack someone over it, but I haven't heard of anybody doing it so far.

Personally, I think if you nick material you're digging your own grave, ultimately you'll never be able to deliver it as well as the person who came up with it. Admittedly I remember when I started doing comedy I was doing an improv show and I dropped a brilliant line that wasn't mine (I had heard it in a stand-up show by an excellent comedian who is rising fairly quickly on the scene) and it didn't get one laugh, not one, I think the audience was even confused because it appeared so out of place. At that stage I didn't know how much of a taboo it was to 'borrow' lines, but after that experience I never did it again anyway!

SlimJ

There's been a lot of talk on this subject recently; I suppose it's because of that Patton episode.

Three Guys On covered the subject in their most recent podcast, as well as other "dont's" for newbies, and they're three DC comics who I respect, so that's worth a listen.