Comedians nicking each others jokes?

Eggy Baby!

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?

cloptrop

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?

Why did the chicken cross the road ?

christmas2012

the difference between comedians and non comedians is they get paid to joke around..thats all they are touted as huge celebrities its time we brought them off that pedastel and not buy..comedians are two a penny now..sick of them

El Weirdo

In before Denis Leary gets mentioned.

4zn76tysfajdxp

Eggy Baby! wrote: »

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?

Not any more, robbing material is totally frowned upon. American comedians are very competitive in particular. I've seen videos where this one guy who was huge over there a few years ago was accused on stage of stealing jokes by another comedian. His career plummeted soon afterwards.

Pushtrak

Dane Cook/Louis CK, anyone?
Edit:

BRAIN FEEDs

El Weirdo wrote: »

In before Denis Leary gets mentioned.

i have never heard of this guy nad no,i aint going to google him either:(

Sparklepants!

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.

El Weirdo wrote: »

In before Denis Leary gets mentioned.

Oh well.

The Master

El Weirdo wrote: »

In before Bill Hicks gets mentioned.

Who?

dango

Jerry Fluffy Square wrote: »

Not any more, robbing material is totally frowned upon. American comedians are very competitive in particular. I've seen videos where this one guy who was huge over there a few years ago was accused on stage of stealing jokes by another comedian. His career plummeted soon afterwards.

Dane Cook and Louis CK comes to mind.

MonkieSocks

cloptrop wrote: »

Why did the chicken cross the road ?

I deduce this was a Rock Island hen, eleven months old, and that it was kept in a mesh cage composed of galvanized iron.

Surely Watson, you can see this was a festive Sunday afternoon, and the chicken is but one step ahead of the family stew pot.;)

Shryke

It used to be that every comedian would steal the other guys stuff but that's going decades back. These days it's frowned upon. Only the more old school plebs like Brendan Grace carry on like comedians did back then.

There's only so many topics to make jokes about too. Drug use in the olympics is a fairly huge target.

carefulnow100

On one of Dara o Briains live show's he mentioned something along the lines of how science doesn't know everything, which is why science keeps going with development of new drugs and such.



Russell Howard said the same thing, almost word for word on another program a few weeks later.


Was funnier when Dara said it anyway.

4zn76tysfajdxp

El Weirdo wrote: »

In before Bill Hicks gets mentioned.

Who?

Professey Chin

Joe Rogan confronting Carlos Mencia about it was pretty good :pac:

30txsbzmcu2k9w

Jerry Fluffy Square wrote: »

Not any more, robbing material is totally frowned upon. American comedians are very competitive in particular. I've seen videos where this one guy who was huge over there a few years ago was accused on stage of stealing jokes by another comedian. His career plummeted soon afterwards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M42BflUZry8

recylingbin

Tommy Tiernan is a comedian??? :eek:

It's probably more widespread than we'll ever know. Here's a video of Stewart Lee talking about Joe Pasquale stealing Michael Redmonds (Fr. Stone from Father Ted) joke.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YE9Kthyaco

deco nate

Jerry Fluffy Square wrote: »

Not any more, robbing material is totally frowned upon. American comedians are very competitive in particular. I've seen videos where this one guy who was huge over there a few years ago was accused on stage of stealing jokes by another comedian. His career plummeted soon afterwards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M42BflUZry8

you mean this:D

Helix

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?

that joke is around a LOT longer than tommy tiernan

Eggy Baby!

Helix wrote: »

that joke is around a LOT longer than tommy tiernan

I'm not saying the joke was originally Tiernan's, it's just where I heard it first.

Bbbbolger

carefulnow100 wrote: »

On one of Dara o Briains live show's he mentioned something along the lines of how science doesn't know everything, which is why science keeps going with development of new drugs and such.



Russell Howard said the same thing, almost word for word on another program a few weeks later.


Was funnier when Dara said it anyway.

Another one I've heard Dara O'Briain say is about how herbal medicines that work are called medicine. Heard Tim Minchin use the exact same joke. I looked O'Briain up on YouTube and they were word for word th same. Don't know who had it first but it's bad form if you steal a joke and don't even change it a little bit!

SouthTippBass

In before Krusty the clown.

im invisible

In before joe paskwale pasquale pascalue...
Too late..

ejmaztec

In before the 50,000 word post about a shaggy dog.

Vicxas

The most famous one i heard of that was mentioned before was the Denis Leary nicking Bill Hicks' jokes and Bill Hicks taking immense offense to it.

humanji

Wasn't there a warm up act for Tommy Tiernan who was booed off stage for suing a Tommy Tiernan joke, a few years ago?

Everyone brings up Dennis Leary and Bill Hicks, but not many bring up Bill Hicks and Lenny Bruce. And I'm sure Lenny Bruce was heavily influenced by someone before him too. I'd say it's more difficult to find a comedian who hasn't stolen a joke or a style from someone else.

smash

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!

elefant

carefulnow100 wrote: »

On one of Dara o Briains live show's he mentioned something along the lines of how science doesn't know everything, which is why science keeps going with development of new drugs and such.



Russell Howard said the same thing, almost word for word on another program a few weeks later.


Was funnier when Dara said it anyway.

That doesn't surprise me one bit.

Actually,what would surprise me is if I heard Russell Howard say something funny.

biko

Shamefully stolen from a thread in Stand-up forum (sorry bmbm).

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

optogirl

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

smash

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

UglyBolloxFace wrote: »

Two words: Carlos Mencia.

He's a master at robbing jokes.

Even stole the Fish Sticks joke :mad:

some random drunk

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

How come Karl Spain never steal any good jokes

sheesh

not that theres anything wrong with that sort of thing!

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

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.

smash

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

YFlyer wrote: »

How come Karl Spain never steal any good jokes

I think he stole his ones from Frank Carson

YFlyer

D1stant wrote: »

I think he stole his ones from Frank Carson

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

derfderf

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

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.