The Naked Truth - Did the 'Naked Gun' Movies Steal Jokes?

[@mikedrop4421]

I think we're missing a very important point here... You found a topic that required watching Get Smart, Sledgehammer and Leslie Nielsen's catalogs in their entirety. That's brilliant!

[@HatsOffEntertainment]

It was a good month or so!

[@eduardo_corrochio]

@@HatsOffEntertainment Did you watch all the Peter Sellers Clouseau flicks too?

[@Burns_RED]

@@HatsOffEntertainment Sledgehammer looks pretty funny! I had never even heard of it!

[@CordellPotts]

This comment should have all the likes. It turned my frown upside down knowing I'm not the only dork that loves all 3 of these shows..... And Son of The Beach.

[@ZillMob]

​@CordellPotts I just happened to buy all the pink panthers and get smart a week ago

[@Weatherman4Eva]

I truly was not bothered by what appears to be joke stealing until i heard him throw his brothers under the bus and try to claim he has no influences and that his own work is truly the first of its kind.

[@mostlyholy6301]

Exactly, "joke stealing" is not a bad thing if you acknowledge it, but this guy seems addicted to claiming other people's work as his own.

[@ConstantContentWatcher]

He also disparaged his own star Leslie Nielsen.

[@KurticeYZreacts]

I too found it rather... disgusting, as well... 🤴 quite frankly

[@_zigger_]

that's just how ✡behave

[@Dream0Asylum]

James Cameron once said to "Starlog" magazine that old Twilight Zone episodes and the works of Harlin Ellison were influences on him in his youth. To this day Harlin Ellison is credited for Terminator 1 despite not doing one iota of work on the film because he sued James and the production for plagiarism - despite the fact that the only similarity to any of his work is the barest premise of time-travelers fighting. I don't think for one minute that the Zuckers think their material is 100% original, but they know better than to dig their own graves on broadcast television.

[@ItsOver9000Productions]

The way he dodged the question in that interview was hilarious. He made NO ATTEMPT to answer whatsoever lmfao

[@jasonblalock4429]

Plus, the way he threw his collaborators under the bus was pretty gross. Hell, even if that business about 'he typed, and he got the coffee' were true, you'd have to be an utter dick to say it out loud. And I doubt it was totally true.

[@rosebyanyname]

The look the interviewer gave was very telling - just a total "that's not what I asked at all but I don't want to make a big problem about this" face XD

[@DickDiamond74]

A very Frank Drebin thing to do.

[@themacocko6311]

He should be a politician

[@_zigger_]

very ✡- like behavior

[@hulotati]

Sledgehammer certainly needs to be praised more and acknowledged. Great show.

[@TheConorsmithusa]

It looks proper shit pal 😂

[@ConstantContentWatcher]

It paved the way for other stuff and had some political satire in there. The first season cliffhanger was the GOAT.

[@Wallyworld30]

I recall when Sedgehammer was on TV my father refused to let us watch it because he said it sucked and was terrible. Funny thing is he LOVED Airplane and the Naked Gun Movies. Maybe he should have gave Sledehammer another chance. He must have read really bad reviews of the show because he loved other comedies on TV like Married With Children and In Living Color.

[@ConstantContentWatcher]

@@Wallyworld30 Sledge Hammer got great reviews. Married with Children didn't. The Naked Gun movies followed Sledge Hammer.

[@poindextertunes]

I had a toy revolver and my Dad drew a sledgehammer on the faux ivory grip 🔥

[@ashtviceland]

Fun fact: The creator of Sledge Hammer (Alan Spencer) wrote a potential fourth Naked Gun movie in 2009 that was thought to be very funny and Paramount was even on board and Leslie Nielsen was in on it. But the Zucker Abrahams Zucker team tried to prevent it from happening. Ultimatley Leslie died and the project never happend. You can read about this in the Naked Gun 3 wikipedia artictile

[@bradwhite5884]

Welp, it's all on them, their star talent passed and now here we are, right?

[@Venomonomonom]

Prevent it? Wtf? That's so sad

[@clubcasabe3450]

that could be a nice video

[@victornewmanforever]

It doesn't make sense, they couldn't prevent it, like they can't prevent the reboot, Paramount owns it. Spencer tried to convince Paramount to hire the original team, at least as consultants, because he wanted to be sure he was on the right track. He said the producers didn't understand the genre and thought a spoof movie could be written in a couple of weeks because all you do is stealing scenes from other movies and add jokes. He was actually glad the project got cancelled.

[@KenLieck]

@@bradwhite5884 Well, for one thing I'm sure they felt burned by the re-release of Leslie Nielsen's 1981 piece of raw shit sci fi "comedy" The Creature Wasn't Nice as Spaceship when Airplane was a hit, and again as Naked Space when the Police Squad movies got big...

[@joshshoberg8598]

Something worth noting about the Zero Hour / Airplane issue is that per Surely You Can't Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane! the studio brought up the issues with the seeming idea of their parody being plagurism with jokes sprinkled in. In the end to mitigate any legal problems they literally bought the rights to Zero Hour. That doesn't excuse anything else that they may or may not have done with taking jokes straight from other sources of course, but figured it was worth mentioning.

[@HatsOffEntertainment]

Great point! Also Paramount, the same studio that produced Airplane, also produced Zero Hour so it really was fair game.

[@verdatum]

I remember learning about this from the DVD commentary track.

[@BillJohnson-x6s]

I thought it was common knowledge that Airplane was a remake of Zero Hour.

[@eduardo_corrochio]

@@BillJohnson-x6s Strikes me that this fact is more of a cult trivia nugget that a chunk of movie fans know about. To me, if someone is a big fan of Airplane! then the person ought to know this Zero Hour info about it ... just like you should know exactly who June Cleaver and Charlton Heston and Ethel Merman are, haha. :D

[@verdatum]

@@BillJohnson-x6s I think that depends on your age. If you were not old enough to watch it until after it came out, there's a good chance you've never even heard of Zero Hour, and it's just a hilarious movie on its own. And there's nothing wrong with that; similar to not knowing that Kung Pao: Enter the Fist re-edited a serious film, or so I'm told, What's Up, Tiger Lily, though I never watched that one.

[@Rognik]

There's a difference between stealing one joke, and stealing a ton of jokes. The shoe thing, for example. Maxwell Smart was famous for his shoe phone, used in practically every episode. Meanwhile, the clip you showed from Naked Gun was about tools in the shoe, which is fairly different. The "prison changes you" joke, though, is practically the epitome of "let me copy your homework".

[@tubasaur]

Yeah, The Naked Gun's shoe is clearly parodying From Russia With Love's knife shoe.

[@dashmagic6211]

Yep. Don’t like the guy much. He reckons he wrote all the jokes… but seems he stole all the jokes…

[@jeffalexander8219]

I think the shoe joke is one of the legitimate examples of homage. Get Smart was spoofing the James Bond “Q” scenes and the absurd shoe phone was kind.of a symbol of that. So turning the show into a Swiss army shoe is just carrying on that joke. Some of the other jokes seem clearly ripped off and it’s too bad he can’t acknowledge his influences. Still love the Naked Gun movies but it’s disappointing Zucker seems to be such a jerk.

[@worthatrey1992]

Btw that wasn't a prison changes you joke in both they are trying to gain the favor of there criminal roommate by acting hard

[@ingvarhallstrom2306]

To their defence, they bought the rights to "Zero Hour" so they couldn't get sued. So that makes "Airplane" both a parody of and a remake of said film.

[@WordslingingStephen]

And yet, "Zero Hour" itself is a remake, based on a Canadian TV-movie, "Flight Into Danger".

[@consistentlystupid4726]

This is a fascinating subject, because it really is such a fine line between homage, plagarism, or simply people thinking of the same joke. The swiss army shoe, as an example, I think is clearly an homage. Even as a kid I saw that as an homage poking fun at the shoe phone from Get Smart. Little jokes like Nordberg kicking through the door while trying to kick it open I think can be written off as simply someone else thinking of the same joke. It's such an easy joke, that I think MOST people could have come up with that if they were told to write an absurdist police comedy. There are definitely jokes in this list though that are sus. The "I used to be white" joke is clearly just taken from the other show. I don't even know if I could consider it an homage. It's a bit of a shame that the writers, even during interviews, wouldn't state their sources of inspiration and give credit where credit is due.

[@HatsOffEntertainment]

Valid point! It's further complicated by all of these shows/movies centering around bumbling cops/detectives/spies.

[@KairuHakubi]

well said I would also add that for some jokes, if it's been a long time, it kind of makes sense to do 'reruns' of the joke. You don't wanna do a LOT of those of course, but a couple it's like, hey, the guy who wrote it.. he's not using it anymore. the trouble is that if you did something nice like throw that writer's name in the credits, you would get in more legal trouble than if you didn't.

[@MAMoreno]

In the case of the shoe, the gag ultimately traces back to the novel and film From Russia with Love, and the version seen in The Naked Gun bears a stronger resemblance to Rosa Klebb's lethal bladed shoe than it does to the shoe phone. (Even the idea of someone giving the hero the gadget is a spoof of Q from the Bond films.) That's where these things can get fuzzy: when it is an homage to an earlier joke, and when is it a case of two different writers riffing on the same earlier source?

[@Belgand]

@@MAMoreno That was my take-away on that as well. It's taking the knife in the shoe idea into an absurd direction. Whereas Get Smart was more making fun of Dick Tracy and his two-way wrist radio by using a clumsy and inconvenient version instead, alongside Bond-style gadgets.

[@AdeptPaladin]

​​@@MAMorenoGet Smart is very clearly parodying other similar spy shows of the time: Bond, Man from UNCLE, Mission Impossible. The spy thriller was a big thing during the cold war era. Naked Gun/Police Squad grew out of that into the surge of detective noir shows like Mickey Spilllane's Mike Hammer, Columbo, Murder She Wrote, etc.

[@FluidHyena]

With Airplane it's not an issue because that was a direct parody and the point was they added jokes on top of that existing story. The Naked Gun ones? Yeah that's not a good look, especially considering Zucker's comments.

[@justinmanser7525]

My friend's uncle wrote Sledge Hammer, a brilliant show and the episode 'Haven't gun will travel!' has one the best ending jokes of all time, like the entire show was made just for that one sentence at the end and it's brutal!

[@noahbossier1131]

Agreed 😊😊

[@marchingham]

I detest when comedians/comedy writers act like they invented something all on their own. Like they didn't grow up watching comedy and that's why they got in the business in the first place. The best artists are the ones who acknowledge what came before as building blocks to where they are today. Excellent video. Very informative and entertaining! 😊

[@jameslacey5474]

I agree, It was disheartening to see how much comedy 'they ripped off' from other shows to write their movies. And then on top of it when asked who his influences were, David Zucker just started naming some of his own films. What a narcissist, it's obvious he was influenced by "Get Smart", which was created by Mel Brooks and Peter Seller/Blake Edwards films. As you said the best artists acknowledge those who had an influence on them. I lost a lot of respect for him after seeing that interview.

[@BobbyGrand-xk9iw]

While I do feel like some were copied. A lot of examples are just different guys doing the same joke. Of course they both rattle cups, It’s one of the most iconic things to do in prison movies.

[@HatsOffEntertainment]

Good point!

[@moonverine]

Usually accompanied by the inmate singing "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen, nobody knows my sorrow" for whatever reason.

[@ConstantContentWatcher]

But why was the character named Nick the ________ in the same way?

[@thorthewolf8801]

​@@ConstantContentWatcherHaving the same surname while having a different nickname seems perfectly fine for me either as a fun reference or an inconsequential coincidence.

[@BainesMkII]

It's annoying that Zucker wouldn't acknowledge Sledge Hammer as an influence. The examples are transformative enough that I consider them "inspired by" rather than "copied", at least in this case I don't feel there was anything to hide, and perhaps more people would have know about the series if Zucker *had* given it credit. It does make me wonder if Zucker *did* feel the degree that he could be "inspired" by others was something he didn't want to draw attention to, and Sledge Hammer just happened to be unlucky in that it was neither popular enough for enough people to catch the influences (unlike Get Smart) not copied so directly that Zucker couldn't ignore it (unlike Zero Hour).

[@rangeboy7210]

Sledge Hammer was shown on ITV regional tv in the UK when they moved to 24/7 programming. It felt like a well kept secret that only me and my best mate knew about. "Trust me. I know what I'm doing" was a catchphrase only we used. Thanks for your great detective work on this one. Smart, Drebin and Hammer would all be proud!

[@willmistretta]

Thanks for the Sledge Hammer exposure. As a fan since it aired, I've long been convinced it was just never going to get any respect.

[@nolancho]

Don't care!

[@DanJackson1977]

​@@nolanchoYou cared enough to write that lame ass comment.

[@JimmyMon666]

Trust me, I know what I'm doing.

[@ShadowAngel18606]

Then you must have been completely new to this world and the internet 🤣

[@jtmichaelson]

This is both heartbreaking and heart warming at the same time. I hate that it wasn't as original as I once believed, but I do love Get Smart and loved Sledge Hammer for a shirt time back in the 80s but remember it so little. And who doesn't love the old Peter Sellers movies. Especially The Party and the first two PPanther movies? For my money, I'd much rather watch Get Smart and The Peter Seller movies.

[@nolancho]

Don't care!

[@mostlyholy6301]

Neither Get Smart nor the Sellers films were wholly original either, the difference is that the creators of those never denied their influences and borrowings.

[@DasHumanCentipede]

The Swiss Army Shoe seems more like a reference to 'From Russia With Love' to me, rather than theft of the Get Smart one. Interesting video, if a little disappointing to see that a lot of the jokes weren't too original. I've also never heard of Sledge Hammer, but it looks great.

[@bowlsmaclean3910]

Another stolen joke in Airplane is where some reporters are interviewing someone and then they say "Aright, let's take some pictures!" They then proceed to remove framed pictures hanging from the walls. That same joke is in the 1941 film Hellzapoppin!. There might be more parallel jokes in there as well. They both operate in that heightened reality.

[@nixonismyhero]

I'd never heard of Sledge Hammer before. I'll have to check it out now!

[@MikkoAPenttila]

I love the Naked Gun movies and the writers seemed superhuman to me. This puts it into perspective. They should've given credit to their influences and then it would've been fine.

[@eduardo_corrochio]

For all I know the Zuckers could've credited people for the borrowed stuff, in the end credits of their movies--- but I don't read all that stuff. I'm assuming they did not do that, because then there would not be video essays like this about them.

[@stanmarsh4566]

@@circusbrains No its not, otherwise you should be ok with Amy Schumer and her stealing jokes.

[@Attmay]

@@stanmarsh4566 maybe she should try stealing jokes that were funny the first time.

[@stanmarsh4566]

@@Attmay I don't care about Amy Schmuer to begin with, I have no idea what jokes she is stealing. Just pointing out hypocrisy.

[@LisaCrawford-my1wi]

@@Attmay My god, you hypocrites, of course, men can steal jokes, but when women do it then there is a problem.

[@chanceotter8121]

Excellent video. Get Smart is one of the great comedies in American television, finding a unique niche in the spy craze of its era, especially when many examples were already tongue in cheek as is. The original series Police Squad was a spot-on send up of those Quinn Martin-type TV shows that dominated the airways of ‘60s-‘70s. Sledge Hammer was a great parody of post-Dirty Harry cop films and TV series, something that needed ribbing very badly. The problem with Mr. Zucker is his refusal to acknowledge his predecessors in any way. Certainly, Blake Edwards knew his silent comedies; The Great Race is one long silent film gag reel, and with Sellers’ Clouseau he found the perfect vehicle for these elaborate sight gags he adored. But I don’t think Edwards would ever claim he was never influenced by Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, or Laurel. He wanted to continue in the tradition. Zucker fails to admit he is in a tradition. He does not know how to differ between taking melodramas like Zero Hour or MSquad and redoing them as farce, and redoing scenes from previous farces. He seems to think the copying of whole comedy skits is the same thing as copying scenes from a melodrama. It is not. From melodrama it is parody: from another comedy it is plagiarism. Great essay.

[@ConstantContentWatcher]

Blake Edwards dedicates THE GREAT RACE to Laurel & Hardy at the beginning.

[@chanceotter8121]

@@ConstantContentWatcher even though the film is a bit too long, as was the style of the time (see Madx4 World), it is very funny, a favorite rainy day watch. I remember one of my sons as a child, who knew Peter Falk from my love of Columbo, watching ‘Race’ with me on TCM, and saying “That’s Columbo? And he’s funny? Wow, he must be a good actor.”

[@Attmay]

Edwards’ wife launched her film career with a *Song of the South* knockoff.

[@chanceotter8121]

@@Attmay You mean “Mary Poppins”? Hard to say Walt Disney ripped himself off, but you never know. Whenever he gets defrosted we can ask him.

[@cmtippens9209]

That swinging door gag has been around for so long, its been an expected joke since films began. But, as you mentioned, that's typical of comedy through the years.

[@aresef]

The line between homage and theft can get a bit blurry. The jokes taken from Sledge Hammer, though, that’s straight up plagiarism.

[@davecolumbo]

This is heartbreaking to see as a HUGE Naked Gun fan, but thank you so much for this research. This is important for people to see.

[@triggeredcat120]

I feel like my world has been shattered😂. Honestly this channel always brings quality to the table.

[@torstenscholz6243]

This video is also really heart-breaking for me. I always loved the Naked Gun films so much, but finding out that so much of it was rather blatantly copied from other shows really makes me feel betrayed.

[@triggeredcat120]

@@torstenscholz6243 Felt the same way

[@khaymenbrock645]

You're probably the movie youtuber that does the most research and I really really appreciate it!!!

[@svarthofde2492]

David Zucker seems to have a wee bit of a problem sharing the credit....

[@mostlyholy6301]

I think the line between plagiarism and homage is actually a pretty clear one. If the influence is acknowledged, it is homage, if it is denied, it is plagiarism.

[@taionalmeida5337]

I understand it on self contained pieces of art. But with a joke? A single one? I can say a text is plagiarism when the Words, the form, the ideas ... Everything is taken somewhere Else. But a Joke is like a line Of text in a play. Can we atribute ownership to that Little fragment? I think There's a huge chance ALL these Jokes presented Here probably where presented in similar fashion somewhere Else before. Not to say we can't take a position on this case - Zucker clearly had a lot Of Jokes From other movie on their films and his refusal to acknowledge that he even has item influencers is an absolutely Vanity shit show. But my Point is more deeper - can we atribute ownership and authority to a Joke - ALL out Of context?

[@sprouting_lady]

As inclined as I might be to suggest we're only giving Naked Gun a pass because we're all familiar with it and love it, as it's pretty clear they were pilfering ideas and fitting them into their own scripts....you've set up a really black and white line to draw. A lot of ideas are just kind of out there, and have been done before, and an author may well genuinely be unaware of them.

[@ScooterinAB]

Not really. Doing a wink and nod is an homage. Taking the same lines, set design, and cinematography would be plagiarism. Whether you admit it or not is irrelevant.

[@KairuHakubi]

judge things by their label instead of their content, got it.

[@KairuHakubi]

@@ScooterinAB consider the work it takes to replicate a scene exactly.. why would you do that if all you were trying to do was get away with plagiarism? you do it because you love it, and the perfection IS the acknowledgment of the homage.

[@jasonblalock4429]

Oooh, I'd love for you to cover Sledge Hammer! someday. Seems like it fits this channel perfectly.

[@jamesl9371]

Looks like the Zuckers didn’t have any original ideas. They just took directly from others. Airplane was a carbon copy with jokes added

[@Krshna28]

Brilliant video. I'm a big fan of Naked Gun and Leslie Nielsen, but I never knew any of this. That being said, I wouldn't trust David Zucker with anything I've created or anybody else's creations.

[@adamadkins4028]

Man this is rough. I love these films so much, but the evidence is pretty cut and dry. Homages only work if you’re blantant about them or if they're from well-known entities (doing a Godfather parody, for example). Taking from lesser known works and not giving them any recognition at all looks like you're blatantly trying to hide something

[@yournamehere6002]

Nah, the jokes are somewhat similar, but not the same at all.

[@oldhickory4686]

I agree. Zucker sounds like a real slimeball.

[@yournamehere6002]

@@oldhickory4686 He's not. The jokes are similar concepts, but the execution or context and set ups are different.

[@Attmay]

@@oldhickory4686 Lorne Michaels is worse and he never gets called out on it because he still kisses the right *asses* in town.

[@ConstantContentWatcher]

@@yournamehere6002 Making it derivative and not original. He also stole lesser known gags versus when Sledge blew up an entire building to get one sniper.

[@ConstantContentWatcher]

ZAZ bought the rights to “Zero Hour!” so that was fair, but there’s no mention whether they also did the same with “M Squad” since they were matching the story, dialogue and even the delivery of the lines.

[@613aristocrat]

A lot of those scenes really transform the joke, even if it's just adding a stethoscope to Leslie Nielson's ears. A few are derivative, and I think only one, the swear joke, seemed to be a joke that really wanted to be told again and again. It does not feel like plagiarism, just like a great love for comedy. It is pretty bad that the influences are not acknowledged, though, but some people's egos are amazingly big.

[@HatsOffEntertainment]

Very good point!

[@darrengordon-hill]

Like sampling in hip-hop

[@dimitreze]

David Zucker does the same thing that Jimmy Page does when people ask him if he stole some song. He avoids the question and never acknowlesges it.

[@cbamr]

Difficult topic to have a divinities answer for. It’s like comparing Dr Strangelove to Fail Safe. They both share the same story but tonally are very different

[@Villafarrell]

Is David Zucker running for office? The way he completely ignored a revealing question & talked about himself was truly spectacular!!😂 Amazing presentation & research

[@KasumiRINA]

He IS very political. The last original thing David Zucker did was American Carol, which, despite the name, is just roasting Michael Moore, the guy who is so unlikeable he did major disservice to things he criticized anyway because of his presentation.

[@eddiedingle767]

Plagiarism exposure week

[@Planag7]

Honestly I don't mind if people are open and honest it's a good point to discuss

[@dynomar11]

I think it's important to discuss. People work hard on their artwork and it should be protected

[@joe_higachi]

There’s no new ideas. You can only recycle and spew out your own take

[@leavinglamancha]

That plagiarism, so hawt right now.

[@luchomscyfy]

​@@leavinglamanchayou comment could be considered plagiarism too, if it matches other comment.😂

[@christopherrichardson2945]

Beverly Hills Ninja (which I love) also used the grapple hook gag Also, Sledge Hammer is the GOAT

[@actionstudios9502]

I hate that movie

[@KairuHakubi]

@@actionstudios9502 it's one of those movies I love, but have absolutely zero surprise when others don't.

[@MLJ7956]

Also remember Inspector Gadget (the 80s cartoon series) - did they steal jokes (from 'Get Smart and other spy related movies and shows?)....look into that too....

[@andrewgrove1691]

Inspector gadget does have get smart type episodes

[@BFIrrera]

Inspector Gadget also stole Don Adams!!😂

[@Attmay]

@@BFIrreraCanada stole him for a forgettable sitcom around the same time called *Check It Out* where he managed a grocery store. Most of the budget must’ve been used to get him.

[@ghostfires]

I grew up watching Get Smart and Police Squad in the 80s, but I LOVED Sledge Hammer!

[@NinjaMatt2201]

I like it when they take a serious scene from another source and add a joke to it. I think in Airplane, it's changed enough that it works as parody and isn't just plagiarism. It's also very effective. There are actual jokes there, it's not just a reference joke, so it's still funny even if you don't get the reference. I heard they bought the rights to Zero Hour so they didn't have to worry about legal issues, so there is some awareness there that they knew they might be crossing a line here. That being said, airplane/airport disaster movies was a genre back then, and all those movies were similar enough that if you didn't know about Zero Hour, but had seen the other movies in the genre, you'd just think Airplane was just a parody of the genre in general. The name is a play on Airport '78 or something, so again, some awareness there as they avoided calling out their reuse of the Zero Hour script by not using a movie title that's a parody of Zero Hour. So definitely pushing the line, while trying not to go completely over the line, being aware of how close they are to straight up plagiarism. Or at least trying to not get in trouble. I do think it's going too far when it comes to recycling gags. I prefer it when they take a serious scene and make it funny. I think it worked better when they played it deadpan. Although I did enjoy the Naked Gun movies, I've always thought Nielsen peaked with airplane and slowly declined throughout his career. If you watch all his movies and shows in order in reverse, from his last to Airplane, everything is funnier than the last.

[@darrengordon-hill]

Hip-hop sampling/interpolation. It's not a reboot or remake. It's a whole different film. Unlike say Ghostbusters 2016. I sample music. I WANT you to recognise the parts used. Not trying to steal and claim them as my own.

[@emgeejay]

10:26 "We use The Naked Gun as a rulebook. In all the movies I've done since we ask, 'What's the driving instructor?' For example, we do a typical car chase in The Naked Gun and when Leslie jumps into a car, it's a driving school car - that's what made it funny. Do that and the jokes write themselves." Pretty telling quote here. The difference between the Sledge Hammer bit and the Naked Gun version is that in the latter, the driving instructor’s in the car and continuing the lesson. Zucker’s rule is “what’s the driving instructor” (the original element they added to the existing joke) but when he explains further, he says correctly that commandeering the student driver is the heart of the routine - and “once you have that” (the foundational part they didn’t come up with themselves), the jokes are easy to write!

[@jculver1674]

The plotline with the undercover cop in prison sharing a cell with a dangerous criminal may have also been used in Sledge Hammer, but it's actually a spoof of the movie White Heat (1949). I'm pretty sure that both Sledge Hammer and Naked Gun got their inspiration from that earlier movie.

[@jry3270]

White heat is a classic gangster film! Love it !

[@Attmay]

Carl Reiner actually used clips of that movie in *Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid.*

[@BonJoviBeatlesLedZep]

I wouldn't be so sure. Because Zucker clearly lifted other jokes straight from Sledgehammer

[@MAMoreno]

Whether ZAZ ever watched _Sledge Hammer!_ or not, it's fair to say that the _Naked Gun_ trilogy does feel like _Police Squad!_ and _Sledge Hammer!_ were put into a blender (albeit with fewer exclamation points).

[@Attmay]

ABC must have regretted canceling the earlier show if they gave the later one a second season.

[@chaseb5376]

“Did Hats Off Entertainment plagiarize the idea of doing a video about plagiarism in December 2023 from HBomberGuy?”

[@bobafettjr85]

He even cites the sources in the corner like hbomberguy.

[@marcofreitas3844]

Pretty cool video...just one detail/piece of trivia that slipped by ya: as you mentuoned, A. Spencer created SLEDGE HAMMER but you may not know is that he also wrote many gags for THE NUDE BOMB.

[@verdatum]

"In preparation for this video, I forced myself to watch MOST OF THE BEST FILM AND TELEVISION COMEDY EVER MADE." I resepct you suffering for your art. If you had to toss in all of the Marx Brothers' films, you probably would've died.

[@jameslacey5474]

You don't know what you are talking about, THE MARX BROS. are great!

[@verdatum]

@@jameslacey5474 That's my point. If they were included in the preparation, that much comedy would have killed him, not unlike the climax of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

[@jamesbevan9939]

Given John Landis' reputation, it's best to keep him away from any kind of aircraft.

[@Attmay]

*The Stupids* is the movie he deserved. Although I was impressed that he actually got Robert Wise, the director of *West Side Story* and editor of *Citizen Kane,* to act in a small part in it.

[@CHoustonify]

Something like this kind of does make something like An American Carol make more sense.

[@Attmay]

That, to me, is just the flip side of *Naked Gun 2 1/2.* He already used that to promote an environmentalist message. Also, keep in mind how many American Jews’ families escaped from countries that have been under some form of totalitarian rule at some point or another. 9/11 and 10/7 changed things for many Jewish people.

[@howardsternisbatman]

The opening of a door and it hitting someone in the face goes back to at least Laurel and Hardy, and probably before them.

[@martinmcwilliams]

Sledge Hammer is one of the greatest and underrated shows of all time.

[@PlaylistGeneral]

The funniest thing in that Airplane comparison is that all the actors in the satire have WAY better screen presence and are way more believable, despite being slightly less low-key in their performances. It makes it so much funnier.

[@JanetDax]

At least with Peter Sellars, he was such a unique performer that no one, not even Steve Martin, could duplicate his performance. Maybe it's not always about who originated the material, but who owns the performance.

[@kurtb8474]

@@JanetDax I knew Steve Martin was a bad choice to play Clouseau. My choice would have been Rowan Atkinson. But, the studios don't listen to me. 😆

[@JanetDax]

@@kurtb8474 I heard Sellars would totally lose himself in a part and that made it hard to imitate him. Martin was too much Martin doing Clouseau

[@E1m0ren]

People with nothing to hide don't answer questions like that in interviews.

[@travtotheworld]

A lot of early film comedy bits originated, or at least spread, via vaudeville. I recall the bit where George M. Cohen says to Bob Hope "I know all your jokes because I told them first." To which Hope replies, "Yeah, but I told them right." There's a joke in Frozen where the common phrase "finish each other's sentences" is completed as "finish each other's sandwiches." That's a joke from Arrested Development about ten years earlier. I've never heard anyone complain about that one. To me, a movie stealing jokes is different than a standup because the movie already exists, the money has already been made, and the whole experience was what was paid for and not just a quip or two.

[@Attmay]

Disney has picked practically every pocket in Hollywood including its own.

[@chrisschumacher8553]

Sledgehammer was also the origin of the joke: "Do you know the next time I shoot someone, I could get arrested?"

[@johnlee7164]

That's just police everywhere.

[@ConstantContentWatcher]

@@johnlee7164 No it isn't.

[@fedefyr]

Hey, fun fact: whole car-chase with someone still taking their license ALSO appears in the 1977 danish movie "Olsen Banden Deruda"

[@deptofcarstereorepair]

He watched every episode of Sledge Hammer!! Does this mean retrospective on Sledge Hammer! soon???

[@filmnobelpreis]

Just by his reaction in the interview when asked to name some influences you could see he clearly didn't intend to "pay hommage"...

[@HindiRapGuru]

So basically what still goes on Instagram and TikTok! Got it! 😂👍

[@mtank30]

I can't believe he praised BASEketball and Scary Movie 3 in the same breath as Airplane! and The Naked Gun.

[@torstenscholz6243]

That was just a Filibuster - He was just trying to talk around the actual question as much as possible.

[@PaulDozierZZoMBiE13]

I mean, those of us who liked this kind of comedy saw them all. We loved Get Smart and Naked Gun because they were all the same kind of gags. I never really thought of it as ripping off stuff so much as it's just the kind of absurdist comedy that made me laugh. Especially Sledge Hammer. Thanks for showing off that show, I used to love it so much back when it was originally airing. Dirty Harry parody (Dirty Harody?) was exactly the kind of thing I'd laugh at when I was younger.

[@circleinforthecube5170]

yeah, a modern equivelant is eric andre and tim and eric, similar editing and gags, but important differences, they are absurdists aswell but in a very different way thats too much for some people

[@buxeessingh2571]

Note: the "Swiss Army Shoe" owes part of its humour to having a tip like Rosa Klebb's shoe in "From Russia, With Love."

[@Alexander_Stern1]

I’m shocked that they stole jokes from “Sledge Hammer” barely two or three years later for “The Naked Gun”. How did nobody notice that?!

[@jasonblalock4429]

Because nobody watched Sledge Hammer. The ratings were so bad that the showrunners themselves were shocked when it got renewed for a 2nd season. Hell, I remember they even snuck in a meta-joke about how much it sucked being in the same timeslot as Dallas and Miami Vice, guaranteeing bad ratings. (Also, these were the days before on-demand reruns, so it's entirely possible that someone would see a joke on Sledge Hammer only once and then have simply forgotten it 2-3 years later.)

[@ConstantContentWatcher]

@@jasonblalock4429 Everybody in comedy watched Sledge Hammer and it had better ratings than Police Squad. Those low ratings back then were twenty million viewers and it was a hit internationally, which is one reason it got renewed. When it came out on DVD, even CNN reported how strong the sales of Sledge Hammer were.

[@Attmay]

@@jasonblalock4429IIRC that’s where *Diff’rent Strokes* and *Benson* went to die.

[@PopeSixtusVI]

I have since watched a few Sledge Hammer episodes (thanks for the tip off) and Rocco Dillon has a more than passing resemblance to the ex-cop villain in the shooting record episode.

[@DenkyManner]

Airplane! has nothing to do with plagiarism. They bought the rights to Zero Hour, Airplane is literally a remake/send up, with Mystery Science Theatre style piss-taking jokes mixed into the script itself. The Naked Gun jokes being copied is more problematic and I didn't know anything about that

[@NessyBoy64]

tru

[@SimoExMachina2]

Nude Bomb! I have not heard that name spoken since the days of watching the film. Almost feels like a hidden museum treasure of comedy, with the original actor playing Maxwell Smart and even Dana Elcar, "Pete Thorton from MacGyver", playing his boss. I love that movie so much!

[@yoshi5I4]

I love the whole dimwitted cop comedy idea of like a Get Smart or Naked Gun\Police Squad, that's why I'm surprised to just hearing about Sledge Hammer. I'm gonna have to look into this

[@TomNardi]

Managed to watch the new Hats Off Entertainment video within 10 minutes of its release...rookie numbers, I gotta do better.

[@bobafettjr85]

I started watching it 9 minutes after it dropped but I had to pause it a minute in to go deal with the cat who got his claw stuck in the couch.

[@questionblock8949]

The Naked Gun movies are amazing! Especially 1 & 2. I will never tire of them. Isn't that right, mr. Poopy Pants!?

[@saryphx]

I beg your pardon?!

[@HatsOffEntertainment]

My favorite exchange was always “Sex, Frank?” “Uh no, not right now Ed, we’ve got work to do”

[@questionblock8949]

@@HatsOffEntertainment yep that is probably the best of them. Classic

[@redman9493]

@@HatsOffEntertainment For some reason, Frank offering Ed and Nordberg cupcakes and then Nordberg excitedly saying "Hey! Thanks!" always stuck with me.

[@miniatures1]

​@HatsOffEntertainment The part that always makes me laugh when I see and think about it was the part in second naked gun when Frank looks down and his safety helmet falls off and lands into in exposed set of turning gears keeping all the electronics and mechines working in a room that was spared from the explosion only to then be ruined by something as simple as a helmet and then Frank has to quickly leave the room before they find out it was his fault.

[@HistoryonYouTube]

I had never heard of Get Smart until I started watching this. I shall be looking for it right now!

[@Kacpa2]

Its pretty clear by his behaviour on those interviews that he hides the fact they got influenced and borrowed from shows like Sledgehammer and Get Smart. The fact he avoids that fact and tries to hide it when rest of the people involved say it more openly is what makes it tither on the edge of being plagiarism. Given the fact that we see references and very direct copying of jokes in that context very commonly since it's probably not seen as that much of a deal but mentioning in interviews those less knows shows they borrowed from is least they should do especially Zucker.

[@tecpaocelotl]

I thought these movies were spoofing with jokes. You could include Mafia and Dracula: Dead and Loving It to the list. I laughed at how he avoided the question of who influenced him.

[@hattorihanzo2275]

I am not familiar with Sledge Hammer! but I've seen the DVD cover before. Going to check it out. I liked the Deer Hunter joke.

[@KasumiKenshirou]

I found the DVD set of Sledge Hammer! at Half-Price Books.

[@JuanWay2Rock]

I remember when THE NAKED GUN first came out, I would tell people that some of the joke scenes were almost carbon copies from the television show GET SMART. I really don't have anything against it because THE NAKED GUN actually pulled off every comedy skit pretty well. I would like to add that the scene where Nordberg (OJ) breaks into the 'I LUV U' boat and says "Police...Drop your guns!" was basically another scene from GET SMART where the Chief of Control (Edward Platt) would say "Drop your guns" and Larabee (the Chiefs assistant) would end up dropping his gun. There was also "the money for information" off the pier which was again a copy skit from GET SMART.

[@jeffcarlin5866]

I'm skeptical of your comment.

[@Clay3613]

Airplane! gets a pass because satire can get away with copying lines verbatim if the delivery and intent is different. It's like a comedian doing impersonations.

[@HatsOffEntertainment]

Good point!

[@Vicullum]

Also the producers bought the rights to Zero Hour anyway. You can't steal what you already own!

[@Fellipe2k5]

Back then it was easier to copy because people didn't have easy access to movies and TV shows from the past.

[@Dr-Zoid-Berserk]

Pointing to American Carol to point out how Neilson fails without good jokes was excellent.

[@KairuHakubi]

yeah... but Mr. Magoo was hilarious! And Dracula: Dead and Loving it? masterpiece.

[@johnlee7164]

​@@KairuHakubiDracula Dead And Loving It was written by the great Mel Brooks, so his point of Nielsen needing good joke writers still stands. He can make some bad jokes almost work with his mannerisms but I've watched so many bad Leslie movies to acknowledge that there were multiple cooks to make the kitchen work.

[@KairuHakubi]

@@johnlee7164 too right ! i'm just saying, that footage appeared during that part, suggesting that was 'one of the bad ones' i think mel is the first to admit comedians should just do what's funny and who cares if someone else did it first. if it's really such a ripoff, it won't be funny. because people will go "i've heard that one already." I doubt he cares if somebody nicked a Get Smart joke.

[@What_Makes_Climate_Tick]

Many of the examples are good ones in making your point, but the Swiss army shoe isn't one of them. The shoe phone is so well known and iconic from Get Smart that Zucker couldn't get away with simply copying it, but had to one-up the silliness of it, which I think he did successfully.

[@kamdan2011]

If anything, it’s a parody of the knives that pop out of shoes from movies like From Russia with Love.

[@robertpierce6436]

There are a few other things to factor, some of these jokes are also found in old Bob Hope, Three Stooges, Marx Brothers, Hellzapoppin’ Silent Comedy. Any gag from Get Smart, Blake Edward’s, or Sledge Hammer, you might find similar versions of it that came before. And as for parodying something, two different people could come up with the same joke if the source material is the same. The tin cup in prison gag, I’m sure are both parodying some old prison movie. The knife in the shoe is more closely referring to the Bond film From Russia With Love, than Get Smart’s phone in shoe, but that too was a parody of Bond films. The sprinkler going off isn’t a gag, it’s just what happens when there’s a fire. And accidentally starting a fire has been done as a gag dozens of times. Getting hit in the face by a door, can anyone truly claim to “created” that gag? And there’s putting a new twist on an old cliche’ like how many times is there a variant of two people look a like, one good one evil, a third person holding a gun asking which one is the real one? I don’t know if Zucker is a joke there, but a lot of the examples you showed as being similar jokes and not stolen jokes. And I would argue that 50% of good humor is not just what the joke is but how well it is delivered. And the Naked Gun version of these jokes were just better executed. The Naked Gun films often repeated jokes from police squads.

[@jcollins1305]

I could live with the movies being “homages” to those other films and series until the interview with Zucker was shown. When you totally avoid the question, it’s clear that he knows these movies are plagiarized.

[@MidniteTease]

I think the fact that he goes out of his way to deflect questions on inspiration and influence kind of seals it.

[@jry3270]

I remember watching Sledge Hammer about a year ago and noticing jokes not only from naked gun but also from SIMPSONS. Yes some early Simpson jokes are actually lifted from sledge hammer. Also Danny elfman did the themes for both sledge hammer and Simpsons- coincidence??? Prob had some of the same writers too .

[@ConstantContentWatcher]

Al Jean and Mike Reiss wrote for "Sledge Hammer!" and Mike wrote in his book how it taught them to think visually. The main character in "American Dad" talked to his gun a few times which was one of the completely original jokes from "Sledge Hammer!" too.

[@jry3270]

@@ConstantContentWatcher that’s true I forgot about the similarities between Sledge and American dad ! Haven’t seen American dad in many many years that’s why

[@BonJoviBeatlesLedZep]

​@@ConstantContentWatcherOh wow Al Jean wrote for it. Hadn't heard of it till today. Wanna give it a watch now.

[@Mondomeyer]

Dracula: Dead and Loving It stole a gag from Transylvania Twist. It's the one where they plunge the stake into a vampire and are hit with a caroonishly large gush of blood.

[@HeartyArtie]

'The jokes write themselves.' Well, you certainly didn't fucking write them, Zuck.

[@CoinOpTV]

watched Sledgehammer and Get Smart back in the day - funny stuff…. now I kinda wanna see you make a video comparing After Hours shots to Three O’clock High!

[@bradleykemper9488]

One thing we do know about David Zucker's comedy influences is he loves the Marx Brothers. He produced the almost cult classic 1992 homage Brain Donors.

[@mrwittyone]

I LOVE that film! It's hilarious and sooo quotable.

[@SixWheelsDown]

Sledgehammer and Get Smart are top shelf. so at least they were borrowing from the best.

[@awaasproductions]

Very good video! I think it's a bit of a mixed bag that can go either way in many regards. In the Zucker's defense: Yes there are only so many jokes out there and when there are very typical cop show tropes I can imagine two people coming up with the same idea to lampoon it.. I.e. Cop goes undercover in prison, eating food at inappropriate times, kicking a door but the foot goes through it. This is also just true for regular comedy bits like eating a fancy meal and and the bumbling character causes their food to fly across the table. Against the Zucker's there are way too many ultra specific jokes that the odds of it being a coincidence. I.e. Sledge Hammer and Frank's Fake prison names rhyming and the Get Smart race swap prison joke. Especially the student driver bit. Basically a lot of the criticism is well founded, but I think some is people over analyzing just basic comedy tropes that appear in everything. Regardless Zucker should be way more honest here instead of pretending that they came up with everything.

[@MaxZed1101]

Made me wonder, do you think maybe they paid the Sledge Hammer writers to use their jokes? I'm thinking of how anonymous writers are used to fix up scripts. A lot of them seem to be plausible that other people could make the same joke. However, I think that the Sledge Hammer stuff is too specific.

[@awaasproductions]

​@@MaxZed1101 That's for sure possible, and maybe Zucker is just an ego hog for all the credit but the people were paid. IDK for sure.

[@spacemanspud7073]

Exactly my thoughts, some are just jokes on the general idea like the building on fire, ect. Others are quite blatant and cast a shadow on all the other similarities. Like I thought the leg through the door was just a happy coincidence (Clear train of thought from "What's something funny we can do when he breaks through door?") But after the Student driver joke it makes me re evaluate that judgment, and it's pretty damn similarly done.

[@awaasproductions]

@@spacemanspud7073 yeah. I hesitate to say all examples are fraud for like you said a logical train of thought for the joke, but if something else surrounds it that can’t be defended it taints it for me. The prime example is going undercover in prison. Cop shows do it all the time, and I don’t think the over the top clanging the cup on the bars is so unique as that’s in legit prison movies, but when that scene has an similar ultra similar joke cover name that unless I’m missing something isn’t a real life reference I’m inclined to throw the baby out with the bath water and say they lifted the entire sequence, not just one or two jokes.

[@PaulLoh]

I had completely forgotten about Sledgehammer. I used to love that show! That and Car 54 Where Are You? Of course I loved Police Squad, and Leslie Nielsen in general. One of my favorite gags of his was when he walked into a crime scene and asked one of the detectives, "Have you found any evidence?" And the guy holds up a handful of slime and says, "Yes, but nothing solid." I don't remember what that was from, but you've probably seen it. Great video you've got here!

[@MorganEdgy]

"mostly new jokes" hits very different now

[@montewright111]

Get Smart AND Naked Gun both used a lot of vaudeville humor. It’s a MASSIVE BODY of jokes used over and over.

[@NightAtTheOpera3]

This week's internet is brought to you by the letter PLAGIARISM

[@stewarttrickett3033]

The Swiss Army shoe was a takeoff of the dagger shoe from James Bond (From Russia With Love), not Get Smart. The idea was also borrowed by Kingsman and The Beverely Hillbillies and probably a thousand other shows.

[@ty-guy4458]

Totally theft. And yet, I laughed harder EVERY time at The Naked Gun's versions... I'm so conflicted.

[@HatsOffEntertainment]

The filmmakers of The Naked Gun movie definitely had the time, resources, and budget to expand on a lot of the jokes, if they were indeed inspired by them I mean. It really makes for a compelling debate.

[@brunovance8101]

The Bill Murray sequence in Loose Shoes uses the same prison cafeteria joke as Naked Gun 3 when he complains about the temperature of the Champaign

[@Alejandroigarabide]

The out-of-control automatic wheelchair gag was also used in 2006's Pink Panther; and the student driver gag was used in the 3rd Johnny English.

[@Endocrom]

This is how I find out there were 3 Johnny English movies?

[@Alejandroigarabide]

@@Endocrom Now you know. And they're good.

[@DHealey]

I think the swiss army shoe (and perhaps the shoe phone) is a parody of Colonel Klebb's shoe in From Russia with Love. The fight with pushing the hospital bed around is from Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein. The driving instructor gag was also in Johnny English Strikes Again

[@mikemayberry7121]

It's an interesting watching this video so soon after watching HBomberGuy's video on plagiarism. I think the unspoken rules in comedy are different than, say, the works of Illuminaughty (as presented in HBomberGuy's video) Comedians steal jokes all the time. Some of the most beloved comedians have had very credible accusations of joke theft leveled at them. Robin Williams, Denis Leary etc. Besides, I think it's ridiculous to try to claim you "invented" the gag where a cop's foot gets caught kicking a door open, for example. Anyway, that was a very thought provoking and well edited video. Nice job.

[@HatsOffEntertainment]

Cheers!