Flat out joke stealing

GearSolidMetal said:
Add Trevor Noah to the list of joke stealers.



Apparently if you're a progressive, you don't get any mainstream coverage for being a piece of shit.
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That's really crazy because last I heard, Russel Peters is a joke stealer as well.
 
Brodels said:
That's really crazy because last I heard, Russel Peters is a joke stealer as well.
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If it happens once, its a mistake. The benefit of the doubt is warranted.

If it happens twice, especially when the comedian doesn't have much material to begin with, then they're a confirmed thief.

If it happens repeatedly, even after they have the reputation for stealing jokes, then they're Amy Schumer.
 
bandicoot said:
Schumer is a shameless ditch pig who doesn't deserve any of her notoriety.

Still wood.
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I would go necrophiliac for her, but that is about it. Sell the leftovers for those Asian speakers to cure their bald boners and shit.
 
Aegon Spengler said:
Robin Williams at least cut people checks. IMO that takes a good person and good heart. Dude was a powerful force in comedy for years, even on the come-up he was filling up rooms. He could have stolen their shit and told them to fuck off. And he was so fucked out of his mind on drugs you can kind of forgive him. His original material was great so I would be willing to give the benefit of the doubt to him that he didn't steal jokes from other comedians intentionally.

Stand up is tough, you start flying by the seat of your pants and you're so full of adrenaline/anxiety on stage that suddenly morals go out the window and you will almost do anything to get that laugh. I've never stolen a joke myself but I know a comedian who tells my favorite joke of all time and he is almost an unknown, I first heard his joke when he was just rolling in the open mic scene in Toronto. I wish his fucking joke was mine. It will never be though. I do like to tell people that joke at like parties and credit it to him, however. Comedian's name is Graham Kay.
Anyway, IMO as long as you admit it afterwards, try to explain yourself, apologize, and attempt to make restitution you can be forgiven, which is what happened with Williams. Dane Cook, Amy and Mencia all denied it even though it's right in our faces - and it appears Trevor Noah does too. He should at least admit his joke is very similar to the Russell Peters bit.

As for Peters, his white-kids joke that he stole from Eddie Murphy, he never seems to have been called out on. I actually suspect Paul Mooney wrote the joke for Eddie because he worked with both Eddie and Peters on their big specials.
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It sounds like he had a really bad reputation for being a joke thief.

He'd pay the comics he stole from but only if they confronted him. It wasn't just small bits either. Apparently, he repeated Ray Romano's act word for word one time on national TV.

I guess Williams talked about this topic on Maron's podcast. I'll give that a listen sometimes in the future for sure.
 
Overpressure said:
Let me guess, there's a crazy political theory going around on J. RightFatty's basement blog about it, but before you tell us all,

Shut the fuck up
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You shut the fuck up old man. Go have a seizure in the bath tub.
 
This is the worst example of joke stealing you will find imo.

 
Schumer also stole a Babe Ruth joke from Tosh.
 
Aegon Spengler said:
Robin Williams at least cut people checks. IMO that takes a good person and good heart. Dude was a powerful force in comedy for years, even on the come-up he was filling up rooms. He could have stolen their shit and told them to fuck off. And he was so fucked out of his mind on drugs you can kind of forgive him. His original material was great so I would be willing to give the benefit of the doubt to him that he didn't steal jokes from other comedians intentionally.

Stand up is tough, you start flying by the seat of your pants and you're so full of adrenaline/anxiety on stage that suddenly morals go out the window and you will almost do anything to get that laugh. I've never stolen a joke myself but I know a comedian who tells my favorite joke of all time and he is almost an unknown, I first heard his joke when he was just rolling in the open mic scene in Toronto. I wish his fucking joke was mine. It will never be though. I do like to tell people that joke at like parties and credit it to him, however. Comedian's name is Graham Kay.
Anyway, IMO as long as you admit it afterwards, try to explain yourself, apologize, and attempt to make restitution you can be forgiven, which is what happened with Williams. Dane Cook, Amy and Mencia all denied it even though it's right in our faces - and it appears Trevor Noah does too. He should at least admit his joke is very similar to the Russell Peters bit.

As for Peters, his white-kids joke that he stole from Eddie Murphy, he never seems to have been called out on. I actually suspect Paul Mooney wrote the joke for Eddie because he worked with both Eddie and Peters on their big specials.
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I think that's one of the reasons Shumer doesn't get as much shit from comedians because she hired a bunch of them to work on her show and promotes other people where as Mencia wasn't doing that and was fucking with people's livelihood
 
Overpressure said:
I'll never understand people that let their personal politics dictate what they laugh at.
They're usually the same people that can't keep it out of every OTHER aspect of life either.
I don't laugh at those jokes because they make fun of the right! Suddenly the comedy isn't funny!
Somebody get me a handkerchief
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It's about stealing, not politics.
 
Meh its only comedy. For me stand up comedy is probably the lowest form of entertainment. It is possible that two people thought of the same idea.
 
mb23100 said:
Question: can a comic legally buy a joke from another comic?
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Yeah. You can sign an agreement that would probably hold up in court. I'd be surprised if Schumer and others who don't write much of their own material don't have NDA's with their writers.
 
Carlin stole his famous "7 Words" bit from Lenny Bruce. It's the only joke I'm aware of him ever lifting. Interesting that it was a throwaway line for Bruce in the middle of a longer bit, but it was a career-defining one for Carlin. I forgive him for the impact it had in fighting the Christians for free speech when I was a kid.
 
I wrote a joke once that ended up being very similar to a Pete Holmes bit, I performed it on stage and had someone pull me aside afterwards and tell me it was a Pete Holmes joke, I had never even listened to Pete Holmes before.

Obviously this isn't always the case and joke thieves are absolutely real, but I've experienced first hand that sometimes you come up with something that someone else already did.

I think Mencia is a joke thief, however I don't think Schumer is, I just think she is very unoriginal and kind of hacky so she ends up doing a lot of material that has already been done to death by better comics.
 
Peteyandjia said:
Denis Leary shamelessly stealing bits from Bill Hicks is also a known thing.
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But one of the best stories is that when Bill Hicks found out he had cancer, he asked the doctor "Oh, great. So is Denis Leary going to get cancer too?".


But my all time favorite is:

"I have a scoop for you. I stole his [Leary's] act. I camouflaged it with punchlines, and to really throw people off, I did it before he did"
-Bill Hicks

AntonioBanderas.gif
 
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