Should I Research my Jokes to be Sure they are Original?

In this video Jerry Corley covers a great question on Twitter! Someone asked if they should research their jokes to see if they are someone else's.
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[@sigmakhi2117]

Love the Patrice shout out... and the Amy Schumer diss 😂😂👍🏼

[@janitorandalifecoach2112]

That low hanging fruit point was a good one. I really shouldn't treat writing jokes the way I do swiping on tinder 4 gin an Turkeys in after midnight.

[@alexvaldez4481]

I did my first open mic at an established club, the name I won’t mention. That day an established comedian who’s name I won’t mention was sitting reclined in the back of the room. I told my one good joke on stage and after the class he walked up to me and told me that I was funny. I was so ecstatic. A few months later I went to another club (established) in LA. He showed up and got on stage. He told my joke word for word but added a middle sentence to chance it up then noticed me in the audience and just locked eyes with me. When he finished his set he walked straight out of the club. This guy has an HBO special.

[@AnnusMirabilus]

It's more common than you think. If you didn't include HBO I would have guessed Chris D'Elia, who did a similar thing to me. I name names. Plus that guy is a total d1ck to waitstaff at clubs (a lot of them refuse to work when he is in town) so I have no problem with calling him out.

[@michaelsix9684]

@@AnnusMirabilus it's common, and hard to fight, Joe Rogan called out one comic on that and it hurt the guy's rep for a long time--I'd send a note to the comic's mgmt.

[@ghagzor]

This is why I'm tempted to have my phone recording my set at every open so I have proof I said shit first. My jokes are all personal stories I had happen so I would be horrendously offended if they were stolen as I've had a hard, crazy, fucked up life to get these stories. I earned them the hard way and have no problem physically assaulting someone and going back to prison if they stole my shit.

[@XiagraBalls]

@@ghagzor Definitely record your gigs for this reason (also it helps with honing later, if you want to review what worked and what didn't). I've got a case with a stand built into the back of it, so i can just stick it on a chair or a table nearby and it'll be recording at the right angle.

[@nickychops6729]

Thanks so much for sharing this advice

[@KimberleyHume]

WONDERFUL advice, thank you!

[@jontnoneya3404]

@14:55 - "Keep writing hard" - is that a callback? ;) Great advice!! Thanks for sharing this vid. This has been an issue that concerns me but I love the advice, just keep writing. It's so simple, if we've got lots of material and generating lots of material, if something has been done by someone else and we honestly use it, dropping it shouldn't be a big deal at all. We should have plenty of material to pull from. Thanks again!

[@DawgPoundCity216]

I needed this thank you!

[@ChiseledAdonis]

Great video Jerry, when I got started in comedy last year this was one of my biggest fears. I studied a LOT of Patrice O'Neal & often I would throw away a chunk of my material because I didn't want to find myself being an Amy Schumer on stage & subsequently making my career a trainwreck. This was very helpful & I have already started applying some of these tactics into my writing!

[@xilo3012]

Everybody copy themes but plagiarism is copy exactly.

[@julianchristensen6895]

Nice trainwreck double entendre

[@0O0Oooooooo00000000o]

Yep, I love Jimmy Carr's comedy and one day I was listening to an hour of his that I assumed I've never heard...it was new for me, but as it carried on, I've started to grumble and proceed to my notes and had to cross out quite a few ideas because they were too simmilar....I think what happened was, I listen to stuff at night and probably heard this special but didn't remember....it would be terrible to learn this on stage...

[@SeriousMoh]

Thanks, mate. That was the info I was looking for.

[@Doniedaff]

This is very useful. I took up comedy last October. One of my first bits was on the ten commandments. My favourite Comic is George Carlin and while the joke I wrote was very much my own and based on my experience of growing up in a heaviliy Catholic country (Ireland) where that hegemony is increasingly rejected, I was tortured by the fact I knew George had done his own bit. on it. To the point that I couldn't watch that routine while I was perfecting mine. No one could look at George's routine and mine and say they were the same as the emphasis was very different, but it was something in the back of my mind and for a beginning comment the need to have an idea that has never been done before can be debilitating

[@xilo3012]

You plagiarised the ten commandments. Shame on you!

[@nicolasraulpostica8868]

Wow, this was very useful!

[@TheRealVdawg]

I literally just asked myself this question today! Nothing I hate more than a joke stealer, would never want to be one. Thank you!

[@0O0Oooooooo00000000o]

yep, I'd be worried of this more than just bombing...but yep, people has similar thoughts and similar lives, sometime....so it is inevitable :)

[@GustavoShrapnel]

I actually legit LOL'd at the "No, it's too hard" joke.

[@TheGreatBoutelli]

Thank you for this channel! Im finding it extremely valuable. "When Louis C K was doing his thing"

[@RobinMonkMonkey]

Thank you, this video is very helpful to me! You are funny!

[@BrooklynPeterParker]

"I've had people steal jokes and I've had jokes that were similar to other comedians" - every comic

[@ered203]

Colbert actually wrote the joke first, but Corbin is from Britain so there's the time difference to consider.

[@QueensCurryKitchen]

They can steal the honey but they can never be a bee!🤣

[@janenothisrealname6789]

Brilliant!

[@trier4952]

12:15 I had no idea that you worked with Carlos Mencia 🤣🤣

[@sliceofbread29yrago52]

As always very helpful. What's your opinion on Amy S? (No idea how to spell her 2nd name)

[@paulgreengod]

Schumer

[@Batronyx]

~12:00 in "Work hard. Write hard...." I can't focus when I'm hard.

[@0O0Oooooooo00000000o]

I was dying listening to one bit on YT that was taken from Carlos you-know-who...that chick even called herself Carlos in it....good for her, it was funny

[@lionman1309]

The problem with modern joke stealing is that mainstream comedians hire a team of writers, these writers in turn go around open mics and underground shows desperate to get ideas and end up getting them from the comics on stage. That way the writer gets no credit for the joke and the comedian can’t be accused of stealing since they paid the writer for it. I’ve seen it happening and have experienced myself.

[@DaveTheGreat0008]

Work hard and write hard, just never go on stage hard.

[@douglasarnold5310]

I do ventriloquism talk about routine theft, I don’t know if I have seen much original stuff done.

[@felicity4711]

I wrote a joke years ago that I thought was original (i.e. I came up with it on my own) but that my teacher said a lot of comics had done. So I dropped it from my act and kept writing. But when I was at an open mike recently, I decided to try the joke just once. It didn’t get a laugh, which tells me that it can definitely be dropped.

[@xilo3012]

There are a million of jokes. One cant know all. The point is not to copy literally.

[@Observ45er]

YIKES!! How the bleep did I miss the double "too hard" thing...?? I am slipping.. . . . . . . .

[@jewelofdasouth96]

My problem today. 😢😂❤

[@corystheboss]

Thank you for giving Patrice props. The only people who think Amy didnt steal from him are deaf or names who's specials begin with "Amy Schumer presents: .."

[@jarommatson8268]

the louis ck burn tho.... XD

[@homerdadon6363]

today is new year's eve 12/31/21 3:52 PM Jax Fl

[@micsmif79]

I've heard that comics will approach each other and ask to borrow jokes. I've also seen comics not have a problem sharing jokes. Basically doing what they gotta do to get themselves over

[@RUSSIAN_SPY_INC]

I worry about 2 jokes, every time I run through them I hear another comic. Lewis Black and Mike McDonald. I keep looking through the web for the jokes.

[@JeffSayYes]

I'll take the F is a double entendre too

[@CD-wp8fc]

I bought your ebook but haven’t received it. No one is answering my calls or emails.

[@JerryCorley]

Sorry you’re having trouble. What’s the email you used to purchase? I’ll have my team get it to you ASAP

[@janenothisrealname6789]

Good man 50 per cent irish!

[@jarrettlecamus7069]

I had a good 5 minutes until I was watching Norm Macdonald and saw he thought about the joke a decade before!

[@nickrobinson6041]

RIGHT AMY??

[@davidhoj]

The premises can be similar, the tags and punches need to differ

[@stopmakingsense1543]

Late night talk show hosts very often have similar jokes on the same subject (especially in the Trump era). And very often, I think of the same joke. I don't consider that stealing - that is observations reaching the same conclusions. Those writers are working from the same source material and they are writing at the same time in different places. There is no way to research. However, doing the same joke a day or so later is definitely unnecessary. I don't use the same wording, I just approach differently. Listening to other comics and hearing the same punchlines and/or premises as I have written myself makes me think harder and probably makes my jokes that much more original even if the subjects are the same.

[@xilo3012]

For me the point is not saying the same words. Like when a student copy from other.

[@TreasureByMeasure]

"Just keep writing jokes." Great advice. Thieves will always have to steal, but writers will work forever.

[@XiagraBalls]

Colbert has a writing team, as, no doubt, does Corden, Kimmel, Bill Maher, Seth Mayers, etc. I tend to watch all of the them and there have been countless times I've heard nigh on exactly the same joke repeated from show to show. Still love them all, tho, altho Colbert is the best. The worst well-known joke thief was Carlos Mencia who stole jokes (like the Bill Cosby routine) and was such a back hack that he even fecked it up by adding unnecessary filler and stepping on the laughs at the end. Joe Rogan called him out and got banned from the club for ruining the night. Mencia lost his show, tho, which was the right thing to happen. There was also the guy on Australia's Got Talent with the teeth. Look it up. It's cringe. Record your gigs! I do. I do a lot of one-liners and I have come across people telling a joke I've written years before but not performed, so I just shrug and let it go.

[@wombywill1424]

I think Amy Schumer should watch this video

[@xilo3012]

She has a shield that protects her from humour.

[@reservoirfrog1]

Good video. I hope Louis CK comes back, he's one of my favourite comedians and a real auteur.

[@ghagzor]

He's back and then some

[@frosth5514]

I like yours better ( but at the time he came up and came in and the mindset of the 80s or 70s) they wanted to be bad ass on the street corner, both racies of males that is and even some woman. It made sense then, but since more people now want be more intelligent it seems and that so many things seem taboo or looked down on then you need to use double- entendre.

[@bodiedoyletheprofessionals6796]

How can you struggle to write jokes? Nobody is saying don't hire writers to write them, just don't pinch them outright. I know Mencia has stolen other jokes, but those bulid the wall jokes were really obvious. And Joe Rogan is about as funny as arse cancer of the mouth.

[@taitertotz6359]

Love the videos but they could be trimmed down a bit.

[@serggonzalez84]

Once youre caught, that shit is unforgivable and I cant ever respect you.

[@AnnusMirabilus]

9:00 I'm glad that you have the balls to say those things. Eddie has a few great jokes, but his stand up is *profoundly* overrated.

[@lutherlinglong8760]

You can’t lie though his drunk father but was hilarious

[@RonnieMinh]

People perform and record their interpretations of other peoples songs, so why should there be a different standard for jokes? I listened to a Denis Leary routine and most all his jokes were direct steals from other comedians.

[@JerryCorley]

Ronnie & Minh If you perform a song that is copyrighted in a venue that is making money, you must be sure the venue has the proper licensing in place or you could be liable for the fees. No such agreement is in place for comedians. However, recently, Conan and TBS were sued by a comedy writer for using his jokes without permission. deadline.com/2017/05/conan-joke-stealing-lawsuit-moves-forward-1202094386/ So be careful simply thinking that you can freely use someone else’s intellectual property, it could be more complicated than you might think.

[@RonnieMinh]

Thanks Jerry, I appreciate that.

[@JerryCorley]

Dennis Leary got in a lot of trouble for that. He's been condemned by other comics. Just not a good reputation to have. Comedians are not singers. The best comedians pride themselves in originality. And although there was a lot of joke "sharing" back in the days of Milton Berle, today comedians frown upon it. In fact George Lopez punched out Carlos Mencia for stealing jokes. Till this day Carlos has been struggling to rebuild his material.

[@kannon3979]

@@JerryCorley he should take your comedy class 😂