You canāt copyright an idea. While a couple of the jokes in the video are nearly word-for-word, most of them are just good concepts with, as Mister44 says, obvious jokes.
The Obvious Child bit is even more absurd. Because no 2 women have ever had similar thoughts about their dirty underwear. /sarcasm
I can understand the frustration and outrage at seeing someone get more/massive success from similar jokes, but itās unfair to suggest that Schumer is outright stealing.
Emo Phiilips
uhmā¦ sorry does not come anywhere near stealing a joke. First of all most of these lines arenāt even jokes, or bits, they are just a line. Feels a lot more like, lets take the successful woman down bit. So, I have to immediately suspect the accusers here of being flaming douchebags.
Didnāt they make a whole movie documentary about comedians all telling the same joke? Oh, yeah, The Aristocrats.
Of course, they expect each other to add their own material and style to the thing and not just rip off someone elseās delivery word-for-word, but beyond that no-one claims ownership of the basic joke.
Like whatever number of basic stories there are in the world, I expect thereās only a limited number of basic jokes. Like the post about magic tricks and storytelling that was put up a few days ago, the art isnāt in the joke but how you tell it.*
*44! 27! 78!
Sighā¦ Some guys just canāt tell a joke.
Serious allegations require serious proof. Playing videos of other people making the same joke years earlier isnāt proof ā you need to prove that she saw that but and lifted it. Schemerās jokes are mostly in the arena of sex and dating ā thereās only so much to be said on the matter, and if she talks long enough sheās going to say something someone else has ā itās inevitable.
The only odd thing was the mad TV sketch similarity. But again if you produce a show with oodles of sketches, eventually youāll do something someone else as ā and unless youāre aware of it itās not copying.
Also odd that sitcom plots get rehashed without issue. Nobody gives a crap.
Amy Schumerās jokes are mostly in the arena of sex and dating. Thereās only so much to be said on the matter, and if she talks long enough sheās going to say something someone else has. Itās inevitable.
If you produce a show with lots of sketches, eventually youāll do something someone else as, and unless youāre aware of it, itās not copying.
from the video it was pretty clear that she or one of her writers has regularly been lifting jokes. this makes sense as she has churned out so much material, it must be difficult to keep everything fresh and original and funny. she has most certainly had a lot of original material. I think with all the writers she has used she might not even be aware that some of her material was lifted, and it doesnāt comprise the bulk of her work. if i were her iād say, yeah those do seem similar, this wasnāt intentional, sorry, and move on.
A frog you say, what thenā¦
[quote=ālogruszed, post:12, topic:72876ā]
The only one I see as troublesome comes from her TV show, the one that is very similar to a Mad TV sketch, but since she employs over a dozen full time writers I think itās going to be hard to pin that on her specifically.
[/quote]The MadTV sketch is pretty different - Theirs plays on the idea that the woman doesnāt want to seem racist, and is having trouble describing a person without saying theyāre black. Schumerās is based on the fact that she canāt tell them apart, because to that skit character, all black people look alike. Thereās similarities in setting, and they both share the general theme of racism, but the jokes and angles are different.
Fun facts - for quite a bit of his career, Louie CK has faced repeated accusations of stealing jokes, particularly from David Cross.
I made up a joke with a friend. He told his friend, who was a previous agent for a Big Name Comedian. Days later, I caught Big Name Comedian doing the joke on a tv interview. My friend and I laughed about it. (Weāre not in the joke selling business so I understand this is different from what Schumer is accused of). Big Name Comedian passed away. Wish he was still around to steal stuff from me.
The list has actually become a running joke around here
But yeah, I agree with that and still find the coomment funny YMMV
And if there are enough comments on a topic someone will eventually say something very similar to what the previous poster saidā¦ So much so that Iām not sure if you did that on purpose.
He ripped off the āYou can do what you want to me when Iām deadā bit at the very leastā¦
Iāve been reading this blog for years, M_Dub. Years before September of 2013, by the way. I simply donāt make a lot of comments on blogs, but this article really bothered me, especially coming from Xeni, who usually does a bit more research before kindaā hanging someone out to dry.
Itās ill informed, and sensationalistic, which are two things Boing-Boing seem to strive really hard not to be.
But hey, Iām glad I could help you feel better by providing you an opportunity to point out this account is new. I also have a Twitter account I created in 2007 but I use it to read posts rather than make them, so perhaps that would be a good opportunity to boost your sense of pride in yourself. See, I donāt have a lot of followers based on my Twitter usage patterns, so you could attack me for that. I canāt help but think that would make you feel better.
So everyone in this thread will come to the defense of Carlos Mencia and Dennis Leary and Dane Cook next?
I agree, ideas canāt truly be proprietary, and some of the proof is a stretch. But Amy Schumer did make a lot of money out of the hard work of others. I believe sheās being targeted because of her politics, but I also believe that that is the same reason for so many defensive arguments.
Or maybe I am projecting my cynicism.
In Louieās defense, I think itās also possible that itās just a case of Parallel creation - after all, my father tells the exact same joke, and he wouldnāt know Louie CK if Louie was waving his dick at him in a hotel room. Let alone David Cross, who heād probably think was a Bond villain. The core concept of the joke isnāt a very unusual one.
But, he may have also swiped it, I genuinely havenāt dug to deep on that one, so I donāt know. I havenāt even seen the bits side by side, let alone tried to establish how likely it is that Louie had seen the bit before he had it in his act.
Well yeah and Iām happy to give Amy Schumer the benefit of the doubt, so I should probably do the same for Louis CK. Iām a big David Cross fan though, and when I saw Louis CKās bit I really bristledā¦