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Joke Thievery is the act of performing and taking credit for comic material written by another person without their consent. It is technically a form of copyright infringement.

From the Catskill and Vaudeville beginnings of stand-up comedy, thievery was common[1] 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 jokes origin, but the value of each joke was immeasurable to a comedian[2]. Milton Berle and Bob Hope had a long-standing feud due to Hopes accusation that Milton Berle had stolen some of his jokes[3]. Berle never refuted the caim, 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 that became the basis for all other impersonators that followed[4](Much like Dana Carveys version of George Bush became the standard for others). Soon after, Jackie Mason, Rich Little and others began adapting his caricature to their own acts. This resulted in many of Jordans shows being cancelled due to other performers doing his bit two weeks previous to his shows at the same venue. 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. Resultingly, the jokes were much more unique to the performer. Theft proved more difficult, but also more offensive to the writer[5]. In the seventies Joke theft became more prominent again with the boom in popularity of comedy. Robin Williams became well-known in comedy circles for theft[6]. To this day, there are many comics who will walk offstage if they happen to see Williams in the audience. The eighties and nineties saw the popularity of standup 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. Bill Hicks had gotten a lot of mileage from a bit he had written about John Lennon being shot, but had to drop it when Denis Leary performed it on his album/video "No Cure For Cancer". In turn, Leary was accused of joke theft by Sam Kinison. Today, the subject of joke theft can't be addressed without mentioning Joe Rogan who has publicly accused Carlos Mencia and Dane Cook of joke theft.

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[7]. Boston stand-ups Kevin Knox and PJ Thibodeau interrogated Dan Kinno like mafia hitmen in the green room of a comedy club[8]. The regular performers at the Improv and Comedy Store in Hollywood have both instituted "Hack Watch" warnings when certain entertainers enter the club.

Typically, audiences don't seem to care whether jokes are original. Nor do media outlets such as TV networks or record companies. On this issue, it appears that comics are alone in their concern. It also appears that outing a "hack" comic does more damage to a comics career than the act of hacking, itself. As 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.'"[9]

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