Our Litigious Society: Woman Sues Daughter-in-Law Comedian Over Jokes

from the no-laughing-matter? dept

In-law jokes are a pretty standard staple of the standup comedy business. They can be pretty funny too... even if the concept is a bit dated. But, apparently, they're not so funny to the in-laws of comedian Sunda Croonquist. ChurchHatesTucker alerts us to the news that Croonquist's mother-in-law and sister-in-law are suing the comedian for cracking rather typical "in-law" jokes, which, apparently the in-laws didn't find to be all that funny. They're suing for defamation, even though you have to wonder if anyone actually takes such jokes seriously. I mean, it's a comedian. Of course the jokes are either made up or exaggerated for comedic effect. Still, probably makes for a frosty family gathering.

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Thin Skin: SMS Political Jokes In Pakistan Can Get You 14 Years In Jail

from the can't-take-a-joke? dept

It would appear that the typical late-night TV comedian in the US would face serious jailtime in Pakistan, were he based there. MK alerts us that President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan is so annoyed by people passing around jokes about him via SMS that the gov't has started threatening to charge people for passing around such jokes, as "slandering the political leadership of the country" under a vaguely worded Cyber Crimes law, that could lead to 14 years in jail. It seems that should only lead to more jokes. How does one get to be a political leader with such a thin skin?

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Comedian Smashes Mobile Phone; Fearing 'Joke Stealing'

from the ok,-this-is-going-too-far dept

The concept of stealing jokes seems pretty ridiculous to us. Jokes are something that people pass around, and the real challenge is in how well you tell the joke -- not in the joke itself. Yet, it's no secret that some comedians have been going on tirades about joke stealing recently -- with one comedian in the UK, Lee Hurst, going so far as to smash someone's cameraphone during a show, after he accused the phone's owner of filming him to steal jokes (thanks to everyone that sent this in).

Talk about paranoid. It seems equally likely that whoever was filming it just wanted to show some friends. Besides, if you want to "steal" jokes, can't you do so simply by remembering them. Smashing someone's phone isn't going to stop that. Unless they invent one of those science fiction devices that erase short-term memory, no comedian will ever be able to fully stop others from making use of their jokes (and, in that case, I'd bet the comedian wouldn't do too well, since no one remembers his act).

In this case, Hurst plead guilty and paid a fine for destroying the camera... but says he'll do it again. Then he demanded stronger copyright protection over jokes and said he thinks YouTube should be banned:

"I don't regret what I did because the police wouldn't turn up to defend me, would they? It was in anger, but it is like having your tools stolen if your material is taken. We just need the same protection that is afforded to the cinema on copyright theft.... Ban YouTube -- it is the biggest piece of c*** ever."

Perhaps he really doesn't like that up-and-coming competing comedians are using YouTube to their advantage, while he's stuck wallowing in the past. It must suck not to be able to compete with upstarts who know how to embrace modern technology, but that's no excuse for getting violent.

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Pink Panther Studio, Producers And Star Sued For Joke Theft

from the a-lawyer,-a-copyright-and-a-loser-walk-into-a-bar... dept

Historically, jokes have always been things that were shared and passed on. The power of a joke is not in the idea behind the joke, but in the telling. Yet, in this era when people have it drilled into their brains over and over again that every creative thing is "ownable," we're now seeing this great tradition of joke sharing and joke telling stifled by claims of "ownership." The latest such example, found via Michael Scott, is that two people are suing over jokes in the Pink Panther movies. Specifically, Jean Epstein and Gary Stretch have sued "MGM, Sony, Fox, producer Robert Simonds, star Steve Martin and others" because they say the Pink Panther movies violate their copyright on certain jokes. Apparently, Epstein and Stretch made a short film that they placed on YouTube and iFilm, which included a few jokes that are similar to jokes in the movies. So, be careful next time you're "performing" a joke you heard somewhere else. Perhaps you'll get sued for copyright infringement.

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No Laughing Matter: Can You Copyright A Joke?

from the knock-knock dept

Last year there was a bit of a fuss when comedian Joe Rogan accused Carlos Mencia of stealing jokes. Amusingly, Mencia responded to the claims of plagiarism by using a copyright infringement claim to get Rogan's video of the accusation taken down. However, in a more detailed discussion of the issue, we pointed out how silly it is to claim a copyright on a joke. There are a ton of joke books out there, many of which collect all kinds of jokes that have been told by many people, without bothering to find the originator and pay them (or even credit them). In fact, with most jokes, it's not the joke that matters, but the delivery. As I noted, I had recently read Isaac Asimov's "Treasury of Humor" where he admits that almost all of the jokes are ones he heard from others -- and no one seemed to think it was infringing.

However, that didn't stop Jay Leno and some other comedians from suing a woman who published a recent joke book that included some Leno jokes. Rather than go through a lawsuit, the woman and her publisher quickly settled the lawsuit paying an undisclosed sum and publicly apologizing. This leads William Patry to put together some details of other court cases looking into the copyrights of jokes, noting that Jeff Foxworthy sued someone for using his jokes, even though he admits people send joke ideas to him that he uses.

All of this seems to be an unfortunate extension of the increasing use of copyright to "control" every last use of content. Telling jokes is a social experience, often having little to do with the material itself, and quite a lot to do with the performance and delivery. Witness the movie The Aristocrats, where the entire premise is getting a bunch of different comedians to all tell the same joke, and looking at the different performances and embellishments. No one screamed about copyright infringement in that case -- and the comedians seemed to relish the chance to tell the same joke in many different ways. It's unfortunate that we're now reaching the point that something that used to be a shared experience is also going down the path to being protected and limited.

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Latest Thing To Blame On The Internet: The Death Of Jokes

from the you-just-aren't-funny-any-more dept

People love to blame the internet for "the death" of things (newspapers, music, social lives, grammar, etc., etc.). Those claims are rarely (if ever) accurate -- but at least you can sort of understand where they're coming from. However, this latest study makes almost no sense at all, claiming that the internet is killing the ability to tell jokes. According to the short blurb about the study, 40% of people would rather forward an internet gag such as a video or a rambling joke email than tell a joke themselves. Of course, given the joke-telling ability of many people, this might not be a bad thing. Furthermore, it seems like, if anything, this has simply expanded the market for humorous content, rather than shrunk it. Perhaps, instead, we should be more worried about the decreasing ability for people to understand jokes than the desire to tell them.

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