If no one was around, and you knew you would never get caught, would ya do it?
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In my act, I use a joke that was originally posted on the internet by one of my facebook contacts as an online status.
What I did was send him a message, ask if it was ok if I used it, he said sure and that was it.
But it was a constructed joke, specifically crafted to be funny.
If someone used a funny image in a conversation (even a conversation on an internet forum) or made a point that was interesting or funny in its own way, I think its ok to use it in your material because as Brian said it is like using a conversation you heard in the subway.
(sidenote: I am having my first paid gig in february in Nantes, one week in the comedy condo and all. Considering I am in my 30s,life on the road should get old quick, so I might as well enjoy it now.)
Assuming it is true, Lewis Black uses a conversation he overheard in his act (“If it weren’t for my horse I wouldn’t have spent that year in college”). To me if it’s put out there, especially on the internet, without any kind of copyright info then I’d say it’s fair game. In the hands of a creative person it might even morph into something funnier or possibly a totally different direction.
Aziz (sp?) sounds a lot like Mitch Hedberg the cadence is faster possibly from a lack of drug use or amphetamines rather than depressants. At least that’s the feel I got from the bit you played.
If we can grab snippets of conversations we overhear on the street, why not snippets of conversations we read on a forum or in comment threads? Ever peruse a thread under a story on a news site? Wow.
I think next week will work, Brian. Looking forward to it.
My level of paranoia is such that if I tried open-miking ONE TIME and did this, I would be approached by somebody afterwards, “Hey, I’m Snotnose69 from the cat lover’s message board at Yahoo….you stole my line.”
Where this gets sticky is when you want to adapt ideas or approaches from people outside of comedy but who have creative (and copyrighted) material of their own.
If you’ve read Terence McKenna, you may have noticed that he was the one who first theorized that magic mushrooms jump-started human evolution, an idea Bill Hicks lifted pretty much wholesale. Hicks even mentioned McKenna in one of his pro-mushroom bits. Can’t remember if it was the same one.
McKenna was not a comic (though he was funny). But he was a writer and public speaker with his own “act.” I don’t fault Hicks too much for re-casting an idea he obviously agreed with into a bit, but he clearly did not invent it.
Are you cool with that?
IMO, if Mckenna is credited with the idea and Hicks expands it to be even funnier, no prob, but I am furthest from being the comedy ethics guru.
Leonardo: That’s the thing. I don’t think he did credit McKenna in that particular bit. I need to go through my Hicks CD’s to be sure, but I think the “ape man/walk on the moon” bit and the “McKenna/five dried grams” bit aren’t even on the same one.
But the reason I’m interested in what people think about this is because I have a couple bits I’ve been trying to flesh out where someone else in a completely different field has at least nailed the concept, and I’m torn on whether to incorporate that stuff, ignore it, or abandon the bits altogether.
I think that it is Ok to take topics and even premises as long as you add your original twist and point of view. Comics all talk about the same subjects / premises all the time. If your being original in the way you contruct bit I think its fine to use something you read on forums. What’s wrong is when you copy something exactly or too similar to an existing bit.
On same note what’s the proper edicate when you know someone is using stolen material? Not your material but some known comic.
The danger with cribbing something funny that you’ve seen on a website as your own is not knowing whether the bit is actually original. I’ve seen a few funny comments or phrases on website forums that have made me jealous at their inventiveness and wit, only to realise later that they’d been taken from somehwre else. Being inspired to write a comedy piece from a non-comedy source like the above example of Bill Hicks and Terence McKenna is totally valid. But a comedian considering using someone else’s witty line as their own from something so public as a website forum isn’t worth the danger of being rumbled and getting labelled a joke thief IMHO.
For the record, I totally get what you’re saying about comedy albums; waaaay more convenient.
The only time I actually sit down and watch comedy dvds is while I’m driving (while also texting).
Did anyone catch the last episode of The Tonight Show? I found Conan’s last bit about cynicism and his fans really profound and moving. It’s odd, though, hearing a comic speak so sincerely when you are used to jokes.
Conan rocks.
This might be sort of a cliche question, but has anyone ever used a joke based on some thing that really happened with someone superclose, to have them wig out at revealing something too personal? Like, sex jokes when you are married must cause friction. “Honey,I’m a comic, they think I make that stuff all up.”
Actually, Leonardo, I’m the other way around: I just lie constantly onstage; my girlfriend has worried before that people will think it’s true. So somewhat of a polar opposite.