Thief Chegwin

[tracteurgarcon]

Is there no thread on this yet?

Cheggers is stealing circuit comedian's jokes and passing them off as his own

It raises a lot of questions re. joke "ownership".

As a stand up and joke writer myself I'm really not happy with what he's doing but there seems to be a huge weight of public opinion that once jokes are "out there" that they're public property and anyone can benefit from telling them and passing them on.

People seem to think that jokes just coalesce out of thin air. I've had lots of jokes stolen by Sikipedia, another major culprit of "joke theft", which I guess is a by-product of my willingness to put a lot of material on Twitter and Facebook.

I'd be interested to see what people think.

[adams house cat]

Thief Chegwin

If you could show that the joke was original work it could count as intellectual property. Be an interesting case.

[Er Liquidatore]

Thief Chegwin

The link doesn't work

[Stumpy Pepys]

Thief Chegwin

ian64 on the Guardian comments (presumably they're one in the same) is getting told off for being nasty to Cheggers.

[Mumpo]

Thief Chegwin

I presume Chegwin is not overly concerned about the potential backlash from this endeavour. Perhaps his self-esteem is so low that the sustained ridicule and vitriol he will receive cannot dent it further.

[Janik]

Thief Chegwin

The link doesn't work

http double-up.

[Mumpo]

Thief Chegwin

On the other hand, perhaps the wronged parties' means of revenge will be to muscle in on Chegwin's pitch, by going on a quiz show to display their cock and balls.

[caja-dglh]

Thief Chegwin

Wow, you got some momentum on this one! I have to say I am a little surprised this caught on, but then - on my blackberry - I couldn't tell whether it was actually Cheggers or not.

It is clearly a bad thing to do - the man is old, has made a lot of money, and is now using his position to screw others. It isn't like getting jokes written for you by an army of script writers (where at least cash is exchanged), but something somewhat more disrespectful.

[Mr Beast]

Thief Chegwin

The real scandal is that this clown has reinvented himself - and been widely accepted - as some sort of national treasure.

But presumably not with Ian64 though sadly all his comments have been deleted by the moderator.

[Toby Gymshorts]

Thief Chegwin

I came to this a bit late - I'd love to know what ian64 said to get that kind of response.

Then again, it is CIF, so he could have professed a liking for Red Leicester and got a virtual shoeing.

[Fatter Hipper]

Thief Chegwin

I may be able to shed some light: I actually clicked on this thread to see if the ian64 on CIF was the same ian64 who posted on here, because I was a little peeved by his claim that "Cheggers should go and work in Lidl, because that's his level" (I paraphrase). Not because it was rude to Cheggers, but because it was rude to Lidl workers. Seriously: that sort of 'people in crap jobs are stupid and somehow deserve them' thing doesn't go down well with me.

But then, I probably am political correctness gone mad, and I'm certainly far too polite to want to start any sort of argument. I shall beat a retreat to the music forum.

[Max Payne]

Thief Chegwin

If you could show that the joke was original work it could count as intellectual property. Be an interesting case.

[Gerontophile]

Thief Chegwin

I can think of 4 separate occasions (without thinking too much) where 'comedians' have ripped off other comedians. There was a guy on TV the other week (from the Liverpool area) who 'borrowed' a Billy Connolly riff about... something, but used the idea with a different punchline. Eddie Izzard has done the same.

Its ok, if you dont COPY the gag (adapt, adjust, whatever). It is NOT OK if you directly nick it. There are one or two comics who have literally used the same joke and punchline, and frankly, that is not on. Especially when they are shite.

I am keen to hear what ian64 said too... if indeed it is the same person...

[delicatemoth]

Thief Chegwin

I'd argue that with one-liners, there is always a chance that more than one person has come up with a joke independently. I made up the "I'm directing Oedipus Rex..." gag, but having seen it on the internet it's obvious that other people did too.

When it comes to a routine or a style, ripping someone off would probably be more evident (e.g. Leary/Hicks) but hard to actually prove.

[Ubik]

Thief Chegwin

I came across this article a week or two ago about an Italian comedian, Dante Luttazzi, who'd been ripping off English speaking comedians for years without anyone appearing to notice.

There's a list of the routines he pinched here. I guess to an extent he's just a conduit to expose those jokes to a wider audience but some of those comedians are very high profile, so it's surprising he managed to continue for so long.

[Wyatt Earp]

Thief Chegwin

delicatemoth wrote:

I'd argue that with one-liners, there is always a chance that more than one person has come up with a joke independently. I made up the "I'm directing Oedipus Rex..." gag, but having seen it on the internet it's obvious that other people did too.

Is that the one about your wife having auditioned for a part? I can confirm I first heard that in 1986.

[JVL]

Thief Chegwin

Michael Mittermeier has been using German translations of a lot of Eddie Izzard's routines in the last few years too.

[David Agnew]

Thief Chegwin

If you could show that the joke was original work it could count as intellectual property. Be an interesting case.

[tracteurgarcon]

Thief Chegwin

Apologies if this seems horrendously self-indulgent but Barry Cryer and Ed Byrne were on yesterday's "PM" on BBC Radio 4 arguing against Chegwin's actions and I got name checked (as a joke writer not as a thief I hasten to add)...twice, which was a nice surprise.

The bit about Chegwin starts about 49 minutes into the show