And I love that every time Tommy gets all "I'm a 9/11/ hero." he gets the smackdown for it.

And I love that every time Tommy gets all "I'm a 9/11/ hero." he gets the smackdown for it.

I was confused for a second....

Totally don't approve of plagiarism, of course.

Really? Not even tacitly by accepting Leary's plagiarisms, endorsing his shows and lusting after his bad boy act?

I could care less

But you'd care if somebody started passing Joe's columns off as their own words, right? Because you'd know how hard Joe worked on them, and that's his voice?

It'd be handy if they were the right length to not hit the ground, in a newborn bungee sort of way.

snerk

I don't respect anyone who's willing to take credit for someone else's work. It's not like the music field where there are singer/songwriters and just plain singers and just plain songwriters (have I typed that already today? I think it's time for me to get some air--the headache's easing up). Standups are assumed to have written their own stuff.

Performing is an art. I knew a standup named Bobby Hsu who was an acerbically hysterical writer. Couldn't deliver for shit. The comedians lined up at the back of the room would be howling with laughter, as would his friends, but the general audience couldn't give a damn. I wonder what he's doing now. I hope he's writing somewhere, and someone with a performance gift is displaying it. With appropriate credit.

But you'd care if somebody started passing Joe's columns off as their own words, right? Because you'd know how hard Joe worked on them, and that's his voice?

Totally. But I see it as spoken word vs written word.

To my knowledge, Leary, Mencia, etc have never started their shows with, "I wrote this shit. This all mine." It's an assumption on the audience's part that it is the comic's original material.

I don't know if it happens to anyone else, but I get really paranoid about plagiarism in my own work.

It's weird because a lot of the time, when I'm working on edits, I have no memory of how I came up with something, and worry, "is this something I heard somewhere, before?"

It's a different thing than ripping someone off with intent, but it's a genuine squick.

It's an assumption on the audience's part that it is the comic's original material.

Hicks never wrote for Leary. I think it's a fair assumption that what someone is performing is something they have a right to perform, although I'm abusing the term "right." But you see what I mean. Why should Leary use the material and never give credit? Why does Mencia lie about using other people's material?

It's not just the audience that makes that assumption. The industry makes it too.

Yeah, I suppose that's true...I had assumed that that was a comedian burn. I suppose I might have to rethink my opinion of Leary and his stuff. But it's not quite like having "Thriller" ruined by thinking of Jacko and his Jesus juice.

I think I'd have to see some side-by-side transcripts of Leary v. Hicks. I can see how they would have similar *subjects*, and similar takes on those subjects, but...

...if Leary did plagiarize Hicks I will wax sore wroth because Leary has always cracked my shit up and I thought he was brilliant.