From Joe Rogan’s website, here is a video of Mencia stealing from Bill Cosby in the early 80’s. This guy is ridiculous. Anyone who doesn’t have a problem with this, must not realize that the real talent is in creating new material in any art form. It takes talent to perform, but not nearly as much as creating and writing.
I havent followed it extensively, but I really haven’t seen ANYTHING that would indicate that he lifts material other than that clip… which may not be the case. The only other clip I have seen is the Rogan V Mencia in which rogan basically just says “you steal jokes fucker!!!one11”!!!" and doesn’t cite any references.
The football jokes a pretty obvious joke from a writing perspective… Guy sees football player thank his MOM on TV and thinks that his DAD must have played ball with him as a kid… The obvious joke is to build the situation from backyard ball to superbowl.
Way back when Colbert first started he did a joke about smashing a donut into sphere because it was recently proven mathematically impossible to turn a donut into a sphere… He was accused of stealing the joke because 1 day before he said it someone else did… But the joke basically smacks you in the face right where you hear the premise.
[quote]Lonnie123 wrote:
I havent followed it extensively, but I really haven’t seen ANYTHING that would indicate that he lifts material other than that clip… which may not be the case. The only other clip I have seen is the Rogan V Mencia in which rogan basically just says “you steal jokes fucker!!!one11”!!!" and doesn’t cite any references.
[/quote]
I don’t know if we saw the same clip with Rogan and Mencia on stage, but the one I saw showed several clips of other comedians doing jokes and then of Carlos doing them. Plus, other comics agreeing with Rogan about Mencia stealing their stuff.
The argument that the joke is obvious and more than one person could come up with the same joke is weak. If that happened once in a while, then maybe. But he does it way too much to call it that. What about 13 minutes of Mecia’s HBO special coming from George Lopez’s material? You can’t say those are all obvious scenarios that two people would write about.
The problem that comedians have, is that there is no system for the intellectual property rights as there is in other forms of entertainment.
[quote]Lonnie123 wrote:
I havent followed it extensively, but I really haven’t seen ANYTHING that would indicate that he lifts material other than that clip… which may not be the case. The only other clip I have seen is the Rogan V Mencia in which rogan basically just says “you steal jokes fucker!!!one11”!!!" and doesn’t cite any references.[/quote]
http://break.com/index/carlos_mencia_stealing_jokes_from_cosby.html
I’ve never found Mencia funny. It always seems like he’s trying too hard, and it comes across as lame and ingenuine. Now I know he’s unoriginal to boot. Good finds.
[quote]olinerules87 wrote:
Lonnie123 wrote:
I havent followed it extensively, but I really haven’t seen ANYTHING that would indicate that he lifts material other than that clip… which may not be the case. The only other clip I have seen is the Rogan V Mencia in which rogan basically just says “you steal jokes fucker!!!one11”!!!" and doesn’t cite any references.
http://break.com/index/carlos_mencia_stealing_jokes_from_cosby.html
[/quote]
Thats the clip from the original post.
I don’t care enough to go searching for the clip that I saw, mainly because I don’t think mencia is funny enough to defend that he made it all up. He does some funny material, but its mostly just racial jokes… which get old.
The other thing I REALLY don’t like about “Carlos” is that he calls everyone who doesnt laugh at his jokes stupid because they must not get it…
Right…thats the reason we aren’t laughing.
Meh, I don’t care. I don’t watch his show because he is a quality entertainer. I watch it because it makes me laugh.
That would be like reading Dickens because he is a good writer. I despise his writing and find it incredibly wordy, but because it skilled and complex, I am going to read it?
[quote]Taquito wrote:
Meh, I don’t care. I don’t watch his show because he is a quality entertainer. I watch it because it makes me laugh.
That would be like reading Dickens because he is a good writer. I despise his writing and find it incredibly wordy, but because it skilled and complex, I am going to read it?[/quote]
You’re missing the point. HE DIDN’T WRITE IT, yet he’s taking credit for it. That’s the point.
This is pretty interesting. I used to like Mencia, but I’ve checked out his show recently and it hasn’t been very funny at all. It’s like he’s doing his own stuff, and it just isn’t working.
The ethnic schtick was getting old anyways. I like guys like Carlin and Wright. Those guys are more like very funny wordsmiths.
[quote]Taquito wrote:
Meh, I don’t care. I don’t watch his show because he is a quality entertainer. I watch it because it makes me laugh.
That would be like reading Dickens because he is a good writer. I despise his writing and find it incredibly wordy, but because it skilled and complex, I am going to read it?[/quote]
What in the blue hell are you talking about?
[quote]nephorm wrote:
http://www.digg.com/offbeat_news/Carlos_Mencia_banned_from_the_Mikey_Radio_Show_Caught_using_a_stolen_bit[/quote]
I didn’t hear about that one. It just keeps piling up.
[quote]Nothingface wrote:
nephorm wrote:
http://www.digg.com/offbeat_news/Carlos_Mencia_banned_from_the_Mikey_Radio_Show_Caught_using_a_stolen_bit
I didn’t hear about that one. It just keeps piling up.
[/quote]
Ehhh… The cosby one is a little more compelling than this.
ALL CARLOS MENCIA DOES IS STEREOTYPE JOKES… Stereotype Olympics, again, is an obvoius idea… That wasn’t the first time I have heard about it nor did I hear about it on that other radio program.
For someone whose bread and butter is sterotypes, this idea is another no brainer. I’m still not convinced.
The cosby one is the only thing that I have seen that even comes close.
^ Note - I am not Carlos Mencia defending myself, nor am I “defending him”, I’m just trying to keep an even head and look at it from a guy who writes comedy sometimes.
Think about it in weightlifting terms… If Chad Waterbury recommends varying your rep range 40 years after that became popular, is he “stealing material”? No. It is the obvious conclusion to reach.
Comedy is about EXTREMES… If your bread and butter is stereotypes, the extreme is to have them all face off in an olmpics-type event… I’m sure a group of kids in every high school in America has thought of this.
[quote]Lonnie123 wrote:
Nothingface wrote:
nephorm wrote:
http://www.digg.com/offbeat_news/Carlos_Mencia_banned_from_the_Mikey_Radio_Show_Caught_using_a_stolen_bit
I didn’t hear about that one. It just keeps piling up.
Ehhh… The cosby one is a little more compelling than this.
ALL CARLOS MENCIA DOES IS STEREOTYPE JOKES… Stereotype Olympics, again, is an obvoius idea… That wasn’t the first time I have heard about it nor did I hear about it on that other radio program.
For someone whose bread and butter is sterotypes, this idea is another no brainer. I’m still not convinced.
The cosby one is the only thing that I have seen that even comes close.
^ Note - I am not Carlos Mencia defending myself, nor am I “defending him”, I’m just trying to keep an even head and look at it from a guy who writes comedy sometimes.
Think about it in weightlifting terms… If Chad Waterbury recommends varying your rep range 40 years after that became popular, is he “stealing material”? No. It is the obvious conclusion to reach.
Comedy is about EXTREMES… If your bread and butter is stereotypes, the extreme is to have them all face off in an olmpics-type event… I’m sure a group of kids in every high school in America has thought of this.[/quote]
I don’t care for the guy personally. And I care even less about this whole “stealing” thing, however, when every other joke the guy tells is a version of someone else’s, then it starts to get suspicious.
There’s a difference between being influenced by other comics and not having any of his own original material. But, since he never appealed to me in the first place, I don’t feel that strongly about this ordeal.
Okay so Mencia told a joke that was similar to something Cosby said 23 years prior. This is the end of the world?
I’m sure many comics tell similar jokes. I’ve been to many shows where a comic picks on the idiots who buy and never use their gym membership, and pick on the naked guy on the bench in the locker room. We all have one at our gym. No matter what time we lift, he is in there, butt ass naked.
I’ve heard this joke many, many times. Should every comic who tells it be bashed for stealing? No. A joke is a joke. There is no intellectual property on humor. If Mencia, or any other comic, tells the same or a similar joke, the others should consider it as flattery and move on.
I’m sure many others repeat all of TC’s stripper jokes, is his thong in a knot?
[quote]TrainerinDC wrote:
Okay so Mencia told a joke that was similar to something Cosby said 23 years prior. This is the end of the world?
I’m sure many comics tell similar jokes. I’ve been to many shows where a comic picks on the idiots who buy and never use their gym membership, and pick on the naked guy on the bench in the locker room. We all have one at our gym. No matter what time we lift, he is in there, butt ass naked.
I’ve heard this joke many, many times. Should every comic who tells it be bashed for stealing? No. A joke is a joke. There is no intellectual property on humor. If Mencia, or any other comic, tells the same or a similar joke, the others should consider it as flattery and move on.
I’m sure many others repeat all of TC’s stripper jokes, is his thong in a knot? [/quote]
Exactly. I’m not saying I have no problem with comedians stealing material and declaring it for their own and making money off of it, but people have to realize that we as humans see certain things very similarly sometimes… Naked gym guy (who I have also heard referenced in standup) is a PERFECT example.
Racial/Ethnic jokes are a dime a dozen, I could probably make up 10 right now and so could everyone on here, so the fact that 2 people create a similar joke about illegal immigrants (whose main source of income is physical labor) are getting kicked out of the country and a fence is being built… your first thought is probably “who is going to build it? ha ha” jokingly.
How many people have made jokes about illegals not speaking english… EVERYONE. That doesn’t mean that everyone is a theif.
The main problem I have with the stealing claim is that the jokes are so obvious anyway that not only could 2 people come up with them, 2,000 people could. I’m going to need a little more evidence than these OBVIOUS jokes I keep hearing. If we can find data on mencia doing these jokes first does that mean someone else is a theif?
[quote]Lonnie123 wrote:
The only other clip I have seen is the Rogan V Mencia in which rogan basically just says “you steal jokes fucker!!!one11”!!!" and doesn’t cite any references.
[/quote]
LOL! You certainly are funnier than either comedian.
[quote]TrainerinDC wrote:
Okay so Mencia told a joke that was similar to something Cosby said 23 years prior. This is the end of the world?
I’m sure many comics tell similar jokes. I’ve been to many shows where a comic picks on the idiots who buy and never use their gym membership, and pick on the naked guy on the bench in the locker room. We all have one at our gym. No matter what time we lift, he is in there, butt ass naked.
I’ve heard this joke many, many times. Should every comic who tells it be bashed for stealing? No. A joke is a joke. There is no intellectual property on humor. If Mencia, or any other comic, tells the same or a similar joke, the others should consider it as flattery and move on.
I’m sure many others repeat all of TC’s stripper jokes, is his thong in a knot? [/quote]
The problem is he is getting paid to tell those jokes.
If your co-worker ripped of your work took it to your boss, and took credit for it would you be ok with it?
I remember there was speculation that Carlos did like 15 minutes solid of George Lopez material… If we could get an audio/video of that, THAT would be more than convincing.
I’ll look right now actually.