If the best jokes are stolen, the best comedians do not think it is funny when they are accused of ripping off material.
That is why Conan O’Brien is vigorously defending himself from copyright infringement allegations by a writer who said he plagiarized punchlines about Caitlyn Jenner, Tom Brady and the Washington Monument.
A federal judge in San Diego refused to toss out the lawsuit last week, potentially setting up a novel trial over comic creativity and the value of laughter.
Robert Alexander Kaseberg said he posted several jokes online that the late-night comedian repeated almost verbatim later that day or the next on his “Conan” show on TBS.
“The laughter stopped in late 2014 and early 2015, at least for a spell, when (Kaseberg) began to notice similarities between his posts and several of the jokes used in the late-night television show Conan’s monologues,” US District Judge Janis Sammartino said in her ruling.
Kaseberg has written for various publications and had more than 1,000 of his jokes told by Jay Leno, an archrival of O’Brien.
The judge tossed out allegations over two jokes Kaseberg claimed were originals, but she allowed the lawsuit to go forward on three others, saying the law provides “thin copyright protection” for those.
Comedians have been accused of ripping off each other’s material as long as chickens have been crossing the proverbial road.
The lawsuit compares Kaseberg’s tweets and blog posts with the timing of e-mails from O’Brien’s writers later the same days.
“The problem used to be that if you’re not famous and someone else was telling your joke, they would think you ... are the thief instead of the victim,” Oliar said. “Famous comedians could easily steal jokes with impunity. Now technology can help the novice comedian.”

Source: Arab News