Why It's Okay for Carlos Mencia to Steal Jokes: Comedy and the Tradition of Appropriation
Comedians, for the most part, cling to their material and react emotionally to its unauthorized re-use, but the act of stealing artistic material is a long standing human tradition. Beyond comedy, all art forms utilize appropriation, as it is called politely, to recreate and reinvigorate old ideas. All art uses appropriation in one form or other. To draw from nature, as Leonardo did, is to essentially steal an image from the world.
The greatest of creative geniuses have all been frauds to some extent. The most famous love story of all time, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliette, was an unoriginal story, being based on an older poem about the exploits of Tristan and Isolde. Picasso, possibly the most powerful and inspirational painter in two thousand years, is noted to have gained influence for his cubist style from his visits to Africa and exposure to their artistic culture.
All of this was placed center stage during the age of Andy Warhol as outright copies of soap boxes and soup cans crowded the minds of the great artistic thinkers. Warhol offered us an almost quantum-mechanical view of art and the creative process, one where observation held a vital role in creating the nature of that which was being observed. In this slightly extremist viewpoint, theft is impossible, since any re-creation will unavoidably be altered by the context of its retelling.
Literary material, like artistic images, is recycled persistently and endlessly. As the wise King Solomon was once rumored to have said, "There is nothing new under the sun." Author Dan Brown, of the smash occult hit The Da Vinci Code, is accused of stealing his best-selling plotline from the late Robert Anton Wilson, whose dozens of books explore Illuminati and Gnostic mysteries surprisingly similar to Brown's.
In the comedy world, theft is a repetitive accusation, and one which has felled few great comics. Robin Williams is apparently notorious in comedic circles as a wholesale vulture of others' material. Comedians were once noted to end their routines and walk of stage when Williams would enter a club. Dennis Leary had been lambasted for stealing various cigarette and drug routines from the late Bill Hicks, while Bill and Dennis are both accused of stealing material from the legendary Lenny Bruce.
It's in the nature of a joke to be retold. While our modern mass-media system has created a world that epitomizes individual creativity, the legacy of our human oral tradition continues to thrive. In the act of re-telling a joke, one cannot help but punctuate certain parts, extend others, and add ones own personal inflection to the telling. In this way, jokes and stories have rolled across civilization for thousands of years.
There is also the synchronistic nature of comedy to consider. For a wonderful example of comedic synchronicity, visit Daryl Cagle's daily political cartoons page on msn.com. If you read every cartoon for a particular day, you will notice abject similarities between certain cartoons. On the first anniversary of the American invasion of Iraq for example, at least six cartoonists, completely independent of each other, drew cartoons featuring a birthday cake with a single stick of dynamite placed festively on top.
Carlos Mencia is as brilliant as he is bigoted and as offensive as he is endearing. His racially charged jokes and stubborn, unapologetic style have endeared a large fan-base and a strong opposition. Visionary or exploitative jerk; Genius or fraud, Carlos Mencia carries the immeasurable energy necessary to engage his audience and sell even the most wrong-headed joke. In this way, he remains a truly great comedian.
Published by George Marker
George is a writer set loose to ponder upon the glut of philoso-babbel pundit tom-knockery disco boogy-voogy clinging miasma of our media mind and unique time. To align the throws of our age for my fellow hu... View profile
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25 Comments
Post a CommentI Disagree with this, there is a difference between taking someones material and improving or changing it/working with the idea, and just flat out copying someone elses work, the difference is one is a comedian who actually comes up with things, and the other isn't a comedian who is trying to make money off of someone else's talent.
yeah I could paint a picture that looks similar, the same style and color of the mona lisa and call it my mother and everyone would be fine, but if I 'cloned' the mona lisa, called it the mona lisa, claimed I painted it first....
....then I would hope any human being with an appreciation of art in any form would club me over the head with a 2x4
I disagree...STRONGLY
It's a huge challenge for comedians to come out with good material, especially comedians who are new and/or not too well-known. People like Mencia who steal material and take credit make it a nightmare, especially when their stolen material brings them fame. If Mencia can't come up with his own jokes then he should not do stand-up. Comedy is not about repeat and fans of comedy can look back on older comedians for laughs rather than counting on joke thieves to take the credit for original material. And yes people do re-tell jokes that they overhear but when you're a comedian and people are paying you for your humor, you need original material done by you and only you.
A comedian telling an Aristocrats joke is an oral tradition. Carlos Mencia/Robin Williams/Denis Leary hearing another working comedian's joke and saying "Hmm..I'm going to steal that because I'm not intelligent or funny enough to write my own" is blatant, pathetic theft. We all know the difference. So should they.
re-telling a joke is part of comedic tradition, but you ALTER the joke enough to where there is something NEW..Mencia tells the same damn joke...."the aristocrats" is one of the most famous jokes..every comedian tells it..but good comedians add new stuff which is why it is still classic..watch the 2005 documentary..
You can't really compare DaVinci to Mencia. DaVinci was a scientist and artist who would steal pieces and then add his own contributions.
Mencia doesn't add anything. He'll take material, dumb it down, do some goofy faces and an annoying voice and then repackage it as his own work. It's theft, and to make it more aggravating for the artist who had created it, he dumbs the material down so they look like a hack for protesting that they came up with it.
It would be as if Nike sold a shoe, he bought it, sewed off the swoosh and then crudley reattached it upside down, after soaking the shoe in Drakkar Noir, and then sold it as an original.
ok think about what you just said... your honestly compairing Leonardo... to Carlos Mencia... a great mind who if given enough engine power could have made flying machines that WORK to a basic "racist" comedian whos so unfunny he has to use jokes from WELL KNOWN comedians and not as known ones as well... and your saying its ok? a real comedian could make a joke on the spot which is like painting a sky above ur head what He's doing is like painting the 16th Chaple RIGHT after is was painted... if you use a campairision.. use a better one.
Mencia is very little more than a racist. His jokes aren't funny and are only used to push more racial slurs in your face. His jokes that are funny arent even his. And when a comedian steals anothers work, it is attacking their livelihood. If a band or singer rips off anothers song, its all over the media, and followed by lawsuits. but when a comedian does it its tolerable.
...I don't think George Carlin ever required long winded, defensive articles comparing him to Andy Warhol, saying it is totally cool to be a plagiarizing comic.
I don't think you ever lost substantial chunks of your life cross referencing other comedians' material to see if Mitch Hedburg actually wrote his own material.
If the question wether or not Carlos Mencia is good even begins to formulate in your head, it means he's not.
HA! This is pathetic! Why are you trying so hard to defend this guy? Even if you remove the issue of theft, Carlos is so weak anyway, he is like a whole level down from truly brilliant comedians. He franticly attempts to construct a persona and performance by emulating his perceptions of actual talent.
He does not get it, his observations all seem to be stuck in the consensus reality, merely the sleepwalking consumer level of consciousness.
He never cuts through and reveals truth, just content to make the most superficial and slightly edgy musings on stereotypes.
He seems to be doing what he does based on his idea of what people like about other comedians.
Real comedians function on a whole different level, they touch truth, they are sincere and their observations are unique and genuine. The things that make the good ones brilliant are innate and effortless, and above all, deeply unique and original.
I don't think George Carlin ever required long winded, defensive articles comparing h
Most comedians learn to write. They sit down and write what makes them laugh. Other comics work things out on stage.
It is stealing when you take the words out of someone's mouth verbatim, or only change a couple of words. That is stealing. That is what Carlos Mencia is doing. Carlos Mencia is notorious for not even trying to write. He's already built his fan base and made his money so he is unapologetic. I am a huge stand up comedy fan, drawn to the alt comedy scene, which is full of unique voices. Full of kids who WRITE their own shit. you know it's theirs because they have a style. Adding DEDEDE to every punchline isn't style. He upsets because he is poisonous to the environment. People go up there and work out their demons. But it's be harder to steal the more personal stuff. I'm glad comedy is moving away from the broad, joke-joke-goodnight style.
This was a bogus argument from the get go. Someone playing devil's advocate just because.