Joke Stealing

Recently I saw a youtube clip of Joe Rogan disrupting one of Carlos Mencia's sets. Rogan was accusing Mencia of stealing jokes. I guess youtube pulled the clip off the internet, but I am sure if you look hard enough you can find it.

Anyways, a wiki search of Joe Rogan has a little history of his battle against other joke stealers, including Dane Cook, Denis Leary, and Mencia.

Obviously Mencia is a bit of a hack. I do not find him that funny, and it is amusing that he steals material. Making bad jokes about Mexicans can get really old. Do any of you actually watch him?

As most of you know, I enjoy Dane Cook, but I have noticed that some of his material feels like it was taken from other comedians I have seen. I noticed the other night (I cannot remember the guys name) this comedian who was on Tourgasm with Cook, made a joke very similar in nature to the kind Cook uses. The show seemed like it came from early 2000ish. The two guys may be good friends and just have similar styles, which is my guess.

I have noticed though that many comedians seem to take material from George Carlin. Does that mean they steal his shit? Not really. Carlin talks about everything, so it would not be that hard to make the same observation as him.

On the other hand, Denis Leary blatantly steals Bill Hicks' Jim Fixx joke. I guess Hicks and Leary were friends until Hicks learned Leary was stealing some of his material. I guess there is a joke that goes "How come Bill Hicks never became as popular as Denis Leary?" The response: "Because there is no cure for cancer." No Cure for Cancer was the name of Leary's comedy special, and Hicks died of cancer (sad that I have to explain this to some people.)