Which is indeed possible, and not just in comedy, and part of the reason that current IP laws are such shit, they don’t allow for that.
Also, comedians love jokes, they enjoy watching each others work. After so long and shoving so much into your subconscious, similarities are bound to rear their heads. Like others have pointed out, no one creates anything in a vacuum. So it is quite possible that she or one of her writers unknowingly created something very similar to something they were previously exposed to.
It’s more like you found someone else’s comment from 5 years ago somewhere, and it’s pretty darn close to mine, and then offer that as evidence of me stealing other peoples comments!
The list is bullshit. I’m Disappointed With Boing Boing all the time, and I’m still not on there. What does a guy have to do for some recognition, huh?
I think that’s true to an extent, but I also think it’s really, really hard to imagine Louis CK hadn’t seen the David Cross bit, and the delivery of each has a really similar tone.
I’d probably say that bit and the Amy Schumer sketch that was like the Mad TV sketch both come across a bit like a cover of a song to me, they are referencing another idea quite directly, but giving their style to it.
I mean yeah multiple people may have invented calculus, but if one of them invented it years earlier and had the invention published in a major journal first, it might not seem quite as coincidental.
So a young boy walks into a whorehouse with a dead frog tied to a piece of string slung over his shoulder. He walks right up to the Madam and says “I’d like a dirty whore ma’am”. The Madam replies “We don’t serve dirty whores here son, this is a reputable establishment – and besides, aren’t you a bit young to be in here?” Without blinking the boy slaps a hundred bucks on the counter “I’d like a dirty whore ma’am”. The Madam leans forward and says “we still don’t serve dirty whores”. Undeterred the boy slaps another hundred on the counter and says “I’d like a dirty whore ma’am”.
The Madam collects his money and, gesturing to the boy, “last door at the end of the hall son”.
“Thank you ma’am” and the boy and his dead frog turn and head down the hall.
The Madam, puzzled by what’s transpired, calls after the boy “Hey boy! Now I know it’s none of my business, but what would you want a dirty whore for? You’re still so young and you’ll be carrying some of those diseases for the rest of your life!”
The boy turns, and with a steely eye, replies: When I get home, the baby sitter will get it. When my Dad takes her home, he’ll get it. Tonight, Dad will give it to Mom and she'll get it. Then, in the morning, when the milkman comes, he’ll get it too...
...and that’s the son-of-a-bitch that ran over my frog!
Of course, Madigan is doing the “Oprah’s on every cover of her magazine” joke, like a hundred comics before her. Where’s the outrage about that?
And a couple of guys are claiming that SNL stole the idea for their “SETTL” fake commercial bit from them. It’s about a dating app for people who are ready to “settle”, for someone a bit less than perfect. Apparently, these two guys never saw the 50 or so different “Lowered Expectations” fake commercials that ran on Mad TV, which were about, you guessed it, a dating service for people who were ready to settle for something less.
Most of them, actually. You will get the occasional case of ‘great minds think alike’, some jokes are just sort of obvious, but good comedians (improv aside) put a crap-ton of work into writing their jokes. It’s one thing to use somebody else’s joke as a source of inspiration, or paying homage to another commedian, but actually just copying the joke is monstrously unprofessional.
For reference - here’s a comparison of the two bits. For what it’s worth, I disagree with you. Louis very much delivers it in his own, trademark way, similar to how he delivers all of his other jokes. So if it’s similar to Cross’ delivery, that’s really just down to them having similar delivery styles. Having said that, it is also entirely possible that Louis saw Cross’ bit, and then a decade later, came up with the same bit himself, not remembering having seen it so long ago.
There is, after all, nothing new under the sun. That’s actually a very possible explanation for quite a bit of artistic theft of any kind. It’s a lot more plausible than Louis watching the Cross bit and saying, “I’ll just write this down and years from now I will do it myself. It’s not like anyone has ever heard of David Cross!”
Fortunately I found it repeated in reddit so I don’t have to write it all down - but it loses the majority of the joke because this one has a lot of boy language to sell the joke & this isn’t the telling I used, but it’s the gist of it. Sadly, I can’t tell that joke any more as I broke my “groove thing” a while back.
Whenever I hung out with my comedian friends and got pressured (and drunk enough) to go “on stage”, I only ever agreed to tell two jokes - these were them.
I’m still trying to find a source for them, but I don’t know where they came from other than a blackout time of my life.
Edit: clarity
Edit: Did a quick google and the oldest reference I found (not to say an older one isn’t out there) was:
Date: Tue, 9 May 1995 08:13:46 -0700
…but that’s a good 4-5 years after I started using it, but to be clear, I’m not claiming origin.
Ha! Good points all. Unfortunately it’s usually irritation or disappointment that finally gets people to take an action, no matter how small, eh? Appreciate the post though. I’ll wear my badge. ^_~
I’ve some trouble with that “nothing new” thing. Who asked you, you say? No one, no one did, but here it is anyway. The idea that there is nothing new relies on there being a date positive after which everything is just a repeat of what has come before.
Pretty obvious, I guess. I just wonder when exactly that was?
