WHAT? Just… what? Good God.
Yeah—I concur. I was under the impression that plagiarism was a mortal sin in the arts. Apparently, it’s not a universal view. That’s surprising.
Then you didn’t want a thread; you wanted an echo chamber.
I don’t hate Carlos Menica; just don’t find him funny. The silly conceit that he’s somehow “shocking” is tiresome.
I don’t know much about Mencia stealing material; I do know that some damn fine comedians, like Denis Leary, have been accused of the same thing, and that sometimes it’s hard to draw a bright line between plagiarism and the almost-inevitable reappearance of similar (or even identical) ideas.
Baldwin: I was unsure until I spent about 20 minutes on YouTube—it’s indefensible and blatant plagiarism. The Cosby link (upthread) is a great example and predates Mencia by decades. And the joke is about a billion times funnier with Cos delivering it.
I never cared for the guy. He had gone down in my esteem thanks to this thread.
Perhaps its a mortal sin in the arts, though I’m not sure why, exactly, considering the number of times hollywood has made remakes, or bands do covers, etc. If they didn’t have permission, then that is a legal issue, but its not going to make me enjoy it less.
A joke your friend tells you at the office is still funny, even if he got it from a comedian he watched the night before.
Hockey Monkey, I feel your pain. I normally hate threadshitters and threadshitting but this guy is a thief and I feel like that should be pointed out. Plus everything he does is done better by someone else . . . Mexican humor: George Lopez, offensive humor: Dave Chappelle. Ned Holness (“Carlos”'s name before he changed it for career purposes) just plain sucks.
Plenty of comics have been joke stealers - Robin Williams being the most successful; the difference is that Robin Williams was actually funny (at least in the 80’s). It was my impression that Denis Leary didn’t steal jokes per se, rather he stole Hick’s schtick (band name!)
I do apologize, Hockey Monkey, but I find Carlos Mencia to be the most unworthy successful comic I have ever had the displeasure of seeing.
Out of curiosity, have you ever checked out Bill Hicks? Zach Galafiniakis? Patton Oswalt? David Cross? Steven Wright?
Love him or hate him, he is officially a dick.
http://www.dickipedia.org/dick.php?title=Carlos_Mencia
And holy crap, valeriablaise, long time no see.
Joe Rogan NEEDS to steal some jokes. As much as I loved NewsRadio, he had a TON of good will built up with me. . .then decided getting ppl to eat horrible things for prize money was a good idea. I’ve never laughed at anything he’s done outside of NewsRadio. Add to that the way he turns up in the media yelling at someone or being a jerk a couple times a year, I just don’t have any love for him.
I’ve seen Youtube footage showing how Dane Cook has stolen jokes from Louis CK. I think it happens more than we’d like to think in that business. Also, I imagine after doing hundreds of shows and hanging around backstage while another comedian does his set, you might get some jokes thru osmosis. You hear them, then later your trying to come up with new material and they rise to the surface.
I have a friend that has taken credit for my ideas and jokes several times(social situations, no money at stake). I don’t think he does it to steal from me: I think they get into his head and after awhile, they seem like his ideas and jokes. Still pisses me off.
ETA:
Also, on topic, Carlos is a’ight. Not great, but OK. I don’t get the hate for him, except that he was unfortunate enough to have a show after Dave Chappelle.