Revenge is best served cold
F you write a song, a book or a play and someone uses it without permission and/or doesn’t pay for it, that’s a breach of copyright.
A book I read about copyright explained that some people don’t think there’s anything wrong with ‘acquiring’ it for free.
I only read the opening chapter because when you’re browsing through the books in WH Smith for an hour or two, people reach past you to buy a book while saying “Excuse me!” and jostle your arm, which is so annoying.
Comedians say: “There’s no copyright on a joke”.
My comedy is mostly about observation, using stories which eventually reach the punchline.
But if I’d written a one-liner, used it on stage or on TV and then later heard a young stand-up tell it . . . I wouldn’t be best pleased.
It’s not just inexperienced comedians who ‘acquire’ jokes.
Some years ago an up-and-coming (and somewhat naïve) comedy writer, eager to get his work seen, sent a page of jokes to the agent of a well-known comedian.
He received a terse letter back, stating the performer wrote all his own material and didn’t require writers.
Interestingly, the page of jokes was not returned.
Several months later, after the writer had started selling jokes to various comedians on a regular basis, he watched the first episode of a new series starring the comedian who, according to his agent, wrote all his own material.
The comedian’s opening joke was… “I was in the front room with my girlfriend and she said, ‘I want you to make the earth move for me!’ and I thought, ‘Where am I going to find a JCB at this time of night?’”
The exact same joke, word for word, that the comedy writer had sent to the comedian’s agent months before!
Although angry, having no clout at the time, he did nothing about it.
Many years later, he worked on a TV show on which the comedian in question had a short guest spot, his star having faded considerably.
Wisely, the writer didn’t mention the JCB joke to him, but instead remembered the old adage about ‘Revenge being best served cold’.