Comedians nicking each others jokes?

smash · 21-06-2012 08:57AM

optogirl wrote: »

Have heard professional foul-mouth granny with irritating laugh Brendan O'Carroll do Billy connolly routines and just 'Dublin' them up.

He's a appalling comedian! and That idiot Dave Young too.... :mad:

grindle · 21-06-2012 09:22AM

Stewart Lee's book 'How I Escaped My Certain Fate' is (besides the trials and tribulations of his own career) focused massively on originality and thievery within comedy.
Generally, the alt.comedy scene looks down on brazen word-for-word "borrowing", but take influences and contort them/their meaning, or if they need the line verbatim, pay for it's outright use (which the writer can refuse), whereas the mainstream Comedy Store/Jongleurs types steal jokes or have writers go to clubs to steal jokes for them (Pasquale's trick), or when it's an "alternative" comedian, steal the joke, incur their wrath and pay a fine or a fee to keep using the joke.

UglyBolloxFace · 21-06-2012 09:37AM

Eggy Baby! wrote: »

Okay, so I was watching a Tommy Tiernan stand up DVD a few weeks ago, and he mentioned something pretty funny. I went along the lines of:

"Why do they ban drugs in the olympics? Because I'd gladly pay to see athletes finishing the race at the speed of light"

Excuse my bad paraphrasing but it was something like that, with the same sort of message. Ha ha ha all very funny.

But then I saw an episode of Mock the Week, and Andy Parsons was talking about sport. He mentioned the same joke, almost word for word. I believe it even had the same punchline.

Not wanting to show bias here as I have no idea whether or not the Tiernan stand up was filmed first or the Mock the Week episode featuring the joke was.

I think I also heard Frankie Boyle say the joke at one of his stand up gigs on DVD. Its everywhere!

Any of you guys aware of this? Do you know of any other occasions where jokes were used by more than one comedian or is it common practice for comedians to share jokes among themselves?

Two words: Carlos Mencia.

He's a master at robbing jokes.

UglyBolloxFace · 21-06-2012 09:39AM

Sparklepants! wrote: »

Denis Leary stole lots of material from the late Bill Hicks years ago. Caused quite the stir. Comedians steal each others jokes all the time but tell them in a different way.

Stole lots of material from Hicks?....Leary stole his whole persona!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE4sK_yYtGQ

bnt · 21-06-2012 10:35AM

Sparklepants! wrote: »

Denis Leary stole lots of material from the late Bill Hicks years ago. Caused quite the stir. Comedians steal each others jokes all the time but tell them in a different way.

The Hicks / Leary thing gets way overblown - compounded by the fact that Hicks is dead, while Leary is not only not dead but doing well. So Hicks gets portrayed as this heroic mould-breaking genius who never stole from anybody, when he himself happily cited Lenny Bruce, Sam Kinison and George Carlin, among others.

Of course comedians are borrowing from each other - they always have and always will. Where Leary screwed up was in not sufficiently changing the material (e.g. the Jim Fixx joke), and using some of it in his popular show which was recorded and televised (No Cure For Cancer) - so he got far more exposure than Hicks did at that time (1992). If you watch that show, you can see the problem, but you can also see the rest of the routines that had nothing to do with Hicks at all.

Paparazzo · 21-06-2012 10:42AM

smash wrote: »

5 minutes 14 seconds... He could have said all that within a minute, and that's why I just can't watch Stewart Lee!

It's the smugness that gets me. He's a complete knob.

AnonoBoy · 21-06-2012 11:04AM

humanji wrote: »

Everyone brings up Dennis Leary and Bill Hicks, but not many bring up Bill Hicks and Lenny Bruce.

Yeah but Hicks didn't rob wholesale from Lenny Bruce.

Stuff like that Olympics joke that the OP mentioned though - there's plenty of obvious topics that people are going to do jokes about and it's only natural that some comedians are going to come up with the same stuff every so often. Stewart Lee and Andrew Maxwell both wrote bits about the IRA being 'gentlemen bombers' around the same time without having seen the other's bit. Lee talks about it in one of his books. That was coincidence. PJ Gallagher ripping off the same stuff for his DVD a few years ago was just lazy robbing of material.

I've also heard a number of people (comedians and just people I know) make jokes about 'The Gay Theatre Festival' - "aren't all theatre festivals gay?" "as if there's any other kind of theatre festival" etc. etc.

I don't think they robbed the jokes off each other I just think it's a joke that lots of people would come up with so you've got to allow for that.

Jester252 · 21-06-2012 11:12AM

sometimes a person can see something and forget about it and then remember it but thing they though of it.
And other times its just a rob

Beefy78 · 21-06-2012 11:16AM

Eggy Baby! wrote: »

Okay, so I was watching a Tommy Tiernan stand up DVD a few weeks ago, and he mentioned something pretty funny. I went along the lines of:

"Why do they ban drugs in the olympics? Because I'd gladly pay to see athletes finishing the race at the speed of light"

Excuse my bad paraphrasing but it was something like that, with the same sort of message. Ha ha ha all very funny.

But then I saw an episode of Mock the Week, and Andy Parsons was talking about sport. He mentioned the same joke, almost word for word. I believe it even had the same punchline.

Not wanting to show bias here as I have no idea whether or not the Tiernan stand up was filmed first or the Mock the Week episode featuring the joke was.

I think I also heard Frankie Boyle say the joke at one of his stand up gigs on DVD. Its everywhere!

Any of you guys aware of this? Do you know of any other occasions where jokes were used by more than one comedian or is it common practice for comedians to share jokes among themselves?

I remember Danny Baker doing that joke at least ten years ago. Maybe more.

On one of Ricky Gervais's stand-up DVDs he tells an anecdote which is identical to one that I remember David Baddiel telling on TV in the early 90s.

If it's done deliberately it's quite a bit off and it must genuinely annoy comedians to see their material used elsewhere but then if you're writing material I can see how you might subconsiously recycle something you have heard another comedian use in the past without even realising it.

Beefy78 · 21-06-2012 11:18AM

UglyBolloxFace wrote: »

Two words: Carlos Mencia.

He's a master at robbing jokes.

Even stole the Fish Sticks joke :mad:

some random drunk · 21-06-2012 12:03PM

I saw this posted in Cool vids and pics and links, thought it was very funny and original at first:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4BB1TZcO_o

Until I saw:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htU6qYsLsEE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5ZUVMV6SaI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doruiKkct88

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVH08SBYC44

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRzQoPiQ01E

YFlyer · 21-06-2012 01:50PM

How come Karl Spain never steal any good jokes

sheesh · 21-06-2012 02:02PM

not that theres anything wrong with that sort of thing!

21-06-2012 02:07PM

Worst i heard was Jay Mohr stealing Bert Kreischers whole story and experience...........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDp4ZABoefs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OlAPjDt9GE

Biggins · 21-06-2012 02:11PM

Brendan O'Caroll used to nick a lot of Billy Connelly's jokes.
...A lot!

some random drunk wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5ZUVMV6SaI

Wise was still doing it last Friday in the Comedy Club in Dublin.
Was there with the wife.

21-06-2012 02:24PM

smash wrote: »

Sacramento wrote: »

Here's a video of Stewart Lee talking about Joe Pasquale stealing Michael Redmonds (Fr. Stone from Father Ted) joke.

5 minutes 14 seconds... He could have said all that within a minute, and that's why I just can't watch Stewart Lee!

I quite like him, I thought he told the story quite well while at the same time making fun of a comedian that stole a joke. I wasn't bored for any duration during that clip.

D1stant · 21-06-2012 02:30PM

YFlyer wrote: »

How come Karl Spain never steal any good jokes

I think he stole his ones from Frank Carson

YFlyer · 21-06-2012 02:49PM

D1stant wrote: »

I think he stole his ones from Frank Carson

My bad. It must be the way he tell 'em!".

derfderf · 21-06-2012 05:21PM

Stewart Lee was bitching about joe pasquale stealing jokes but he uses a Billy Connolly joke in this video (the tea cosy one)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWFCin1olfw

Ishmael · 21-06-2012 05:33PM

I think this has always been the case with comedians, it is just more obvious in recent times due to the availability of the clips on the internet.

Insect Overlord · 21-06-2012 05:36PM

some random drunk wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4BB1TZcO_o

Hands up if you've seen this performed with Devore in the mask. :pac:

leggo · 21-06-2012 05:45PM

Comedians are really touchy about this, ridiculously so IMO, as nobody really cares except for themselves. And it's very easy to accidentally steal a joke, as mentioned original thought is almost impossible. It doesn't mean that someone deliberately ripped them off.

I've had mixes I've done later repeated in clubs I've been in where I'd know the DJ. No harm, no foul, I'm sure someone somewhere else in the world also thought of the same thing and, even if it was deliberate, it's still him acknowledging that he liked what I did with it. It's a backwards kinda compliment. If he continues to do it, fine, I can keep coming up with new stuff anyway so he'll always be chasing me.

I remember I was once interviewing one Irish stand-up (a really cool guy otherwise) and said a joke of his to set him up for a routine he'd published on YouTube. He got really thick with me, on-air:

"That's actually a routine of mine, man."
"I know, I did my research. I was setting you up so you could sell a few tickets."
(cue blushes on his part)

AnonoBoy · 21-06-2012 05:53PM

derfderf wrote: »

Stewart Lee was bitching about joe pasquale stealing jokes but he uses a Billy Connolly joke in this video (the tea cosy one)

I'm pretty sure he readily admits that he took that joke from Connolly. The thing with Pasquale was that Pasquale claimed he'd written it, then claimed one of his writers had and then claimed that you can't own a joke.

Comedians do other comedians bits every so often but it's when they start claiming that they own them or written them is when people start getting disgruntled.

locum-motion · 21-06-2012 07:29PM

One fairly famous example is that Marcus Brigstocke constantly gets accused of stealing a joke that he actually did come up with first.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Brigstocke#Pac-Man_joke

Eggy Baby! · 22-06-2012 12:27AM

Comedians are really touchy about this, ridiculously so IMO, as nobody really cares except for themselves. And it's very easy to accidentally steal a joke, as mentioned original thought is almost impossible. It doesn't mean that someone deliberately ripped them off.

But accidentally using someone else's joke and copying it almost word for word shamelessly without acknowledgement are two different things!

Capt'n Midnight · 22-06-2012 12:41AM

lots of the old comedians had notebooks to write down their jokes in, for copyright 'n safekeeping

flanum · 22-06-2012 04:05AM

Thank god nobody copies "Sil's" material!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or1vrmCc7ek

southcentralts · 22-06-2012 04:16AM

Fair play AH, could have seen this degrade into who stole who's jokes from who's posts.
Then it would be off to the DOME for 'conflict resolution'.

leggo · 22-06-2012 04:33AM

Eggy Baby! wrote: »

But accidentally using someone else's joke and copying it almost word for word shamelessly without acknowledgement are two different things!

Look, I agree in theory. Stealing is wrong. Having been ripped off myself by businesses, competitors and so on, I know how much it hurts seeing people make money off an idea while you don't. But it happens, and no amount of moaning on their parts will stop it. Plus they also have to realise that protecting your ideas are part of retaining their value. So, imo, stand-ups should see it as an occupational hazard, work on protecting their best stuff as best as they can and just pride themselves on being able to constantly come up with quality new material instead.

You watch that Joe Rogan video, for example (and I like Rogan), and do you not just think that's all very petty? Sitting backstage bitching about this guy stealing from them? Then interrupting his show to confront him? If I was in that crowd, I'd be pissy that I'd paid to see two professionals squabble on stage instead of a show.

later12 · 22-06-2012 04:41AM

has anyone said the michael mcintyre jews one
i dont want to nick someone elses post oh, lol.
but there was some blatant robbery there or maybe some mere borrowing

Comedians nicking each others jokes?

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