Are You Havin’ a Laugh?

Anyone who has ever performed stand-up is familiar with the red light, the universal signal that warns dawdlers it’s time to wrap things up. In the ’80s, comics at the Hollywood Improv came up with a novel use for the light. When shining steadily, it had the conventional meaning. But if the bulb began sputtering, it was the comedic equivalent of an air-raid siren, warning performers to lock up their original material immediately unless they wanted to lose it to a master thief.

Robin Williams, comedy’s most notorious joke rustler, was in the house.

Though the rap has followed Williams for years, he’s not alone. In the world of stand-up, joke-jackers are as common as exposed brick walls and liquored-up hecklers—an occupational hazard that eventually robs every working comic of time-tested material. It’s the dirty little secret of the comedy world, a crime committed at every level—from amateurs at open mikes to big-name pros on late-night TV. Though rarely discussed outside the clubby, if sharp-elbowed, comic community, the subject is the surest way to wipe the grin off a funnyman’s face. Daily Show correspondent Demetri Martin learned the lesson during his first year on the circuit, when he watched in horror as a comic brazenly recycled a joke he had told the previous evening. “I thought, Jeez, this is how it works?” he recalls.

So begins Take the Funny and Run, a story about plagiarism in Radar Magazine. The reporter actually–gasp–did some research for this one, talking to a bunch of comics and others from the business. The story makes the argument, pretty convincingly, that plagiarism in comedy is not a cut-and-dried offense–to a degree, people have been stealing each other’s material for decades, and some comedians seem to consider it part of the cost of doing business. And, for that matter, the case against some of the most notorious joke-thieves is a lot weaker than it may seem (there’s a very interesting rundown on Denis Leary, who’s been accused, persuasively, of highjacking Bill Hicks’s entire career). Anyway, if you are one of the few people who’s been following this Ned “Carlos Mencia” Holness fiasco, I think you’ll enjoy the article.

[Fimoculous]