The Internet is an awesome invention, but it also means that originality is hard to come by, and preserving original works in any format is increasingly difficult. That’s why so many copyright problems exist, even for big celebrities. Take, for instance, Conan O’Brien. At the moment, Conan’s facing a lawsuit filed by a blogger who says that the comedian stole his jokes for use on his show — a claim which Conan vehemently denies.
From TMZ:
Robert Kaseberg sued Conan for copyright infringement, claiming several of his monologue jokes were lifted from Kaseberg’s online blog — but Conan responded to the suit this week, saying his material is 100% “independently created.”
Truth is, some of the jokes are very similar — but Conan says Kaseberg’s comedy was so general and based on current events, it can’t be copyrighted. For instance, they wrote almost identical shrinkage quips about an announcement the Washington Monument is 10 inches shorter than previously thought.
Conan’s kinda calling Kaseberg’s jokes lame. Yes, that also comes off like a shot at his own monologue writers, but Conan’s bigger point is you can’t steal something so unoriginal.
It’s difficult to prove that sort of thing, especially when the joke essentially makes itself and isn’t all that unique. That being said, I’m sure plenty of big show researchers/writers scour obscure corners of the Internet looking for material, or “inspiration” as they’d probably like to call it, so this dude may be legit, even if his particular instances aren’t applicable. I don’t think it was Conan O’Brien himself that would’ve been guilty anyway, but his staff. Still, I’d like to think Conan is enough of an industry stalwart that he wouldn’t be so desperate, but who can say?
Amy Schumer steals from @MaidNotForYou.