The Swamp

Those were both great. Just when I was mourning the loss of Key and Peele.

wlu_lax6 wrote:Took my son to see Jim Gaffigan at Wolftrap on Wed night. What a great time. Good seats on the lawn, friendly people, and pretty easy getting out after the sellout show. The opening act was probably as good as Gaffigan, Ted Alexandro. I think he just was working a bit harder to make sure he connected. Has a 10 episode web series with lots of guest comedians called Teacher's Lounge (Gaffigan, Norton, and Attell where my favorite episodes)

Neglected to post, but saw this tour here in CO. Gaffigan, was great. Good mix of old and new. He had some good local themed stuff as well. Thanks for the reminder in Ted, wanted to watch his series.

Watched the first two episodes of Gaffigan's sitcom, thought they were amusing...plus I love the actress who plays his wife, she was in HIMYM, and should have been the mom!

Pretty good. I just watched it. I completely forgot about his Boston Marathon tweet and I had never seen his show, but he got death threats over a skit on it from New Zealand.

I love this guy. "More Phil Kessel, less Sid Crosby"

Oddly soothing and very funny.

"It's not going to be healthy, tell yourself you're going to the gym."

We went and saw Geoff Tate last night. He was pretty damn funny. Very low-key, but great observational humor.

Here's a taste of his stuff:


He had a great bit about Donald Trump ("A sweet potato that can talk") and his hats. He was saying his father bought one of the "Make America Great Again" hats. And its the worst hat ever. So, he said, if that's the best his "hat guy" can do, what is Trump's "Foreign Policy" guy going to do.

The feature was Emma Arnold. She was funny, but my GF didn't like how female comedians now feel like they have to "out-schumer" the men, and be especially raunchy.

I can't remember the openers name, but he was funny. He was talking about being in Rehab....saying "The women in rehab? Awesome! Lets just say they aren't known for making good decisions!"

DaveInSeattle wrote:"The women in rehab? Awesome! Lets just say they aren't known for making good decisions!"

And it's funny because it is true.

So Amy Schumer is being accused of some significant plagiarism, and this stuff is pretty damning.

I am sure Bud Light is excited about a new campaign the features her and Seth Rogan

Also,
Marc Maron defended her during his intro earlier this week (although a few months ago he thought he had stepped on her stuff). I think he was focused more on the one liner throw aways.

I have to admit being original and not accidentally stepping on someones bit must be hard (Although I am not saying that is what happened in this case)

Yeah, I watched that video the other day. A few of those look to me like cases of different people coming across the same ideas. And not crazy ideas that you wouldn't expect anyone else to come up with (the idea that married women dress husbands in unsexy way has been around for decades).

A few of those were pretty blatant though. At the same time, two of the three I'm thinking of were from her show, and I'm pretty sure she has a team of writers there. It'd be hard to say who "stole" the idea.

Then you also have the problem - and this happens in music as well - where you THINK you've come up with an original idea, but it's actually something you heard previously, but don't consciously remember. I have to think that that happens a lot, particularly in comedy.

Absolutely. There is some gray area for sure. But the Patrice O Neal stuff was blatant. And I give a bit of leeway to her not checking her writers, but that one with the Magician was ridiculous.

Amy Schumer is being accused of plagiarism, and some of this stuff is rather incriminating.

What am i missing.

OH! A plagiarism joke!

A_B wrote:Absolutely. There is some gray area for sure. But the Patrice O Neal stuff was blatant. And I give a bit of leeway to her not checking her writers, but that one with the Magician was ridiculous.

Yeah, the Patrice one was the most damning to me. I don't think pulling sex acts out of urban dictionary is that clever (or funny, IMHO), but she used the EXACT same ones with different names. Hard to explain that one.

Tough call...

On the one hand, she can't be held responsible for the pitches that her writers bring to the table. And there's a good chance that some of the duplicated skits (like the clothing store one) were subconscious thefts. You remember a funny idea and aren't sure if it's something one of your drunk buddies said at 2 a.m. or something you saw on a sketch show 5 years earlier.

The ridiculous sex terms bit ("gorilla mask" etc)... that crap's been out there for years. Heard it on It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, had a friend go on about things like ""donkey punches" and other things like that. Most teems probably know those things from UrbanDictionary and other places, so I give her a complete pass on that. And a lot of stand up stuff is in a grey area - ideas very similar, but presentation different enough to make it unique.

but that magician skit, and a couple of the other jokes like the blacking out joke (but not the Mark Maron thing) are pretty clearly stolen. But again, a lot of stand ups ay writers to come up with material, so it is conceivable that she is innocent of all charges here.

Just like Tom Brady didn't want those balls deflated.

(If the show has your name on it, and you've got at least a semblance of stealing shit in your stand up, she should be much more aware and vet the jokes harder. Probably terribly difficult but I think it's pretty clear that she stole shit.)

Yeah, she clearly took some jokes.

But she's got producers, other writers and (probably) a senior writer who should be vetting stuff. I don't blame her for the skit theft.

I would not be surprised if a few of the writing staff on her show have recently had pretty uncomfortable conversations with their superiors.

(edit: the last half dozen or so posts went up as I was writing this, so I didn't read them until after, so sorry if I repeat points made by others above, irony right?)

----

Just last night I watched an old episode of Louie that involves Dane Cook accused of stealing jokes from Louie CK. And once, long ago, I had a conversation about joke stealing with Marc Maron, because at the time (late 90s) some prominent comedian was facing this, but I can't remember who (probably Denis Leary, but I'm guessing and playing the percentages.)

Lots of comedians inadvertently steal jokes, without bad intention, because they hear something, it seeps into their subconscious, gets twisted and processed in the brain, and weeks or years later it pops up and they sincerely treat it as an original thought. Of course in the internet age, this is much worse; now you can have young comedians who have watched thousands of hours of comedy on youtube as they are growing up.

Any professional comedian should realize this phenomenon happens to them (and to everyone), although many are willfully ignorant of this process, or in public they pretend ignorance. It is how they conduct themselves when this pops up which is telling.

Standup is very very different than creating a comedic television show on this issue. Any tv show has lots of writers contributing content, and as a collaborative work, the taking of ideas and even specific words from outside sources, intentionally and unintentionally, is hugely multiplied. Plus, the constraints of a television show, sketch or sitcom, makes the borrowing from prior shows that much more likely. Not only did "The Simpsons did it!"; The Honeymooners did it, and it was done multiple times since. That magician in bed joke I first heard/saw in the 70s.

I don't think plagiarism should or does count for television comedy shows. Mostly because it is the product of so many brains. Even a show like Louie CK's where he writes, directs and creates, he has writers and others helping him.

Standup is different. Even a big star who has a team of writers, and a body of several years work from which he may recycle, it is still one person standing up there on a stage. That one person has responsibility for stealing, whether it is just him writing every single joke, or the product of a team. Again, plagiarism is inevitably going to happen, willfully or accidentally. The industry seems to have a whole complex ethos for how to behave when it happens. I don't understand all those unwritten rules, but it seems they are not evenly applied. It seems some folks get unfairly vilified, while others unfairly skate w/o damage to their reputation even when they blatantly steal.

With the specifics cited in this video, I discount nearly all of them, some of them seem blatant but the earlier citation is far from the original use (the magician in bed, the black sales clerk in the clothing store, both decades old bits), and a couple of them are pretty direct takes.

The Patrice O'Neal ones - that was a cultural/internet meme for a good while, which again goes back decades, naming various disgusting sex acts. There were long lists on the internet. It is very easy for Amy to have alternate sources for first hearing those.

The 'slap the food out of your mouth' diet method - another old joke, long predates Kathleen Madigan.

Wendy Liebman; yeah that looks/smells like a theft. But there is an expiration date, isn't there, and Wendy won some award for best new comic back in the early 90s when I went to lots of comedy clubs/shows, and here she is doing a very similar act 20 years later on America's Got Talent and I think that is kinda weird which has nothing to do with whether Amy stole that line, and I like Wendy, but, where was I?

The Tammy Pescatelli joke looks lifted, but again that was for a movie, not Amy's stand up, and from the interview clip, it sounds likes the two of them talked it out, which is how it is supposed to be handled.

Paternity test for the Virgin Mary? I think that one dates a bit earlier than 2006. Like maybe 6 or so. Hell, by 6 is was a hack bit around Galilee.

As Dane Cook said in this episode of Louie, there was a joke about an itchy asshole, and he pointed out, 'Louie, it's not like you're the only one who has ever had an itchy asshole'. There is a limit to how original you can be making jokes about sex, excretion and other bodily functions which have been around, and funny, for a long time.

I haven't heard Maron's intro where he deals with this, I haven't heard anything outside of this thread, but I'm giving the girl a pass, because joke stealing happens, and it has to be much worse than the examples cited in this video for me.

Now, Led Zepplin's Stairway ripoff of Spirit's song Taurus: " onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

(but it's not like Willie Dixon never ripped off a song or lick from some other ancient anonymous bluesmen.)

Sure Joke stealing happens, Howard, and often inadvertently. But damn, the presentation, set up etc sure seem pretty familiar.

This was pretty good.

Steve Martin Performed Stand-up Last Night for the First Time in 35 Years
(night night, last week)

should have put it directly under the D

Just picked up tickets for my son and I to see Brian Regan in DC in May.

wlu_lax6 wrote:Just picked up tickets for my son and I to see Brian Regan in DC in May.

Took the wife, and two older boys (8 & 9 years old), in December. He was great.

He's coming to lexington but I thought it was a bit pricey.

I heard Ali Wong on WTF, and Maron had me sold on watching her Netflix special. She seemed like the coolest girl ever, and I've never heard Maron continually praise someone's special that much and keep going back to point out specific things they did. Having gone through the pregnancy process, including trying to get pregnant may be necessary to fully appreciate the humor, but man I thought this was great. It's so great seeing a really cute Asian girl talking about being a sexual deviant and openly talking about disgusting aspects of pregnancy.

I don't think I've ever heard of her, but that was great.

howard wrote: Just last night I watched an old episode of Louie that involves Dane Cook accused of stealing jokes from Louie CK. And once, long ago, I had a conversation about joke stealing with Marc Maron, because at the time (late 90s) some prominent comedian was facing this, but I can't remember who (probably Denis Leary, but I'm guessing and playing the percentages.)

Lots of comedians inadvertently steal jokes, without bad intention, because they hear something, it seeps into their subconscious, gets twisted and processed in the brain, and weeks or years later it pops up and they sincerely treat it as an original thought. Of course in the internet age, this is much worse; now you can have young comedians who have watched thousands of hours of comedy on youtube as they are growing up.

It's happened to me when I'm in the studio.

Gunpowder wrote:

howard wrote: Just last night I watched an old episode of Louie that involves Dane Cook accused of stealing jokes from Louie CK. And once, long ago, I had a conversation about joke stealing with Marc Maron, because at the time (late 90s) some prominent comedian was facing this, but I can't remember who (probably Denis Leary, but I'm guessing and playing the percentages.)

Lots of comedians inadvertently steal jokes, without bad intention, because they hear something, it seeps into their subconscious, gets twisted and processed in the brain, and weeks or years later it pops up and they sincerely treat it as an original thought. Of course in the internet age, this is much worse; now you can have young comedians who have watched thousands of hours of comedy on youtube as they are growing up.

It's happened to me when I'm in the studio.

Macklemore copped my steez!

♫ Somewhere in Pennsylvania, born and raised
Playing football is how I spent most of my days ♫

mister d wrote:♫ Somewhere in Pennsylvania, born and raised
Playing football is how I spent most of my days ♫

I thought that was so original!


Actually among others, I remember this one in particular:






The Rick Ross thing put the JFK abbreviation into my subconscious. I also repeat myself a few times since I recorded the CD over 5 years and had things in my head that I didn't even know I had already used.

Bill Burr just shared this on his official Facebook page:

Happy Harassment Day!

Seeing Louis C.K. tonight. Should be fun.

Jeez. Dis has so much free time!

DaveInSeattle wrote:Seeing Louis C.K. tonight. Should be fun.

Louis CK was awesome. The venue was terrible. Decided that I'm not going to another show there, regardless of how much I'd like to see someone (for example, PJ Harvey in the spring. Would love to see her, but not at that venue).

Guess whose first words on Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee are "Good Christ, goddamn, holy crow, what the fuck this is a car?"