Joke theft

File:Carlos Mencia Not fot the Easily Offended.jpg

Carlos Mencia, Supposed "hack".

Joke thievery, or "Hacking", is the act of performing and taking credit for comic material written by another person without their consent. This plagiarism is technically a form of copyright infringement.

History

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.

Milton Berle and Bob Hope had a long-standing feud due to Hope's accusation that Milton Berle had stolen some of his jokes. Berle never refuted the claim, but instead embraced the title "The Thief of Bad Gag".

In the late fifties and early sixties Will Jordan perfected a caricature performance of Ed Sullivan (Incorporating mispronouncing the word "show" as "shoe") that became the basis for all other impersonators that followed (much like Dana Carvey's version of George H. W. Bush, became the standard for others. Carveys impersonation was based on his observation that Bush sounded like an amalgam of John Wayne and Mr. Rogers). Soon after, Jackie Mason, Rich Little and others began adapting Jordan's caricature to their own acts. This resulted in many of Jordan's shows being canceled due to other performers doing his bit two weeks previous to his shows at the same venue. John Byner, in turn, developed his own, oft-imitated, version of Jordans caricature that George Carlin cited as being set up with the words, "Now you know!"

In the sixties, comedy took a turn for the more personal. Comics like Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, and George Carlin were no longer regurgitating joke after joke, but instead were offering insight to their own lives from a comedic point of view. As a result, the jokes were much more unique to the performer. Theft proved more difficult, but also more offensive to the writer.

In the seventies Joke theft became more prominent again with the boom in popularity of comedy. Robin Williams was frequently accused of joke theft. Even today, many comics walk offstage if they see Williams in the audience.

The eighties and nineties saw the popularity of stand-up comedy 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. 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. 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. As a result of this, it is claimed that after Bill 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"). 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

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 Cooks album, "Retaliation" that bear some resemblance to three bits on CKs 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 Martins album, "A Wild and Crazy Guy".

Joe Rogan, by contrast has been notoriously open in accusing Carlos Mencia of Joke theft.

Recourse and Consequences

There is, historically, very little legal recourse taken in cases of joke theft, however, some comics have chosen to exact their own justice. W. C. Fields reportedly paid fifty dollars to have a thieving comics legs broken. Boston stand-ups Kevin Knox and PJ Thibodeau interrogated Dan Kinno like mafia hit men in the green room of a comedy club.

It is possible that some instances of supposed joke thievery have more benign explanations. On a live radio broadcast, Carlos Mencia explained to the listening audience that it is impossible to determine the true originator of any piece of comic material due to the fact that some issues are universally pondered.

Typically, the repercussions of joke theft are limited to personal animosity. On this issue, it appears that the offended comics are alone in their concern. It also appears that outing a "hack" comic does more damage to a comic's career than the act of hacking, itself.

Joe Rogan said, "People take plagiarism so seriously in all other forms of media, whether it's music, newspapers, books, but with comedy, it's like, 'You're on your own, fucker.'"

"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."

The internet, however, has opened up a new medium for "outing" a joke thief. Websites like YouTube allow users to upload videos and share them with others. This has made it much easier to show evidence of joke thievery in a public forum.

Steven Rosenthal and Steve Silberberg have published a "Guide to Hack" to help new comics avoid Joke theft , which references (and gives credit to) an earlier work on the same subject by Andy Kindler called, "the Hacks Handbook"