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This is what I get. Bummer.
When I was a kid, probably around the days of middle school, I used to stay up late to watch stand up comedy shows on cable. I remember walking into class the next day and reciting the jokes I heard as if they were my own. I was betting on the odds that no other kid within earshot could have been awake when I was, watching the same channel on television I was watching. Then one day the odds beat me. “Hey!” a cry of objection rang out, “you got that from Evening At The Improv!” That was the last time I ever tried to pass someone else’s joke off as my own. The internet is a little like the eighth grade, except the class is a whole hell of a lot bigger, and YES, somebody else was definitely awake watching that show. Especially the guy who was on the stage performing the joke. Yup. He’s in the class too.Comedy writer (and friend) Jordan Rubin posted this to his twitter account: “RT @jordanrubin: Sometimes my inbox overwhelms me. http://twitpic.com/1effhy”That’s actually not his tweet, it’s mine. But notice it’s in the form of a retweet. This means that I saw something extremely funny and wanted my followers to see it. Is there an internet finder’s fee for funny? Maybe a few people think I’m funnier for thinking something is as funny as they do, but that’s about it. It’s more about the good stuff getting through.Yesterday, July 25, “The Office” actor Rainn Wilson tweeted this:“Photo of my IPhone ‘inbox’ http://post.ly/ojsU”There’s no credit given to Jordan Rubin, no link to his page, no pointing Rainn’s 1,981,323 followers to a comedy writer who has 27,197 readers to his name.Now, I consider myself a comedy aficianado (some may consider me a depricianado) even if I’m not all that great at performing it. I have, however, tried long enough to create something funny that I know how much time and energy goes into it. There’s nothing comedians hate more than having their material “stolen.” I put “stolen” into quotation marks because one could argue that not giving credit is hard to prove as outright theft, but when it’s all but implied that the joke stems from the person posting it, “stolen” is a good placeholder until a better word comes around. Maybe the offense isn’t really stealing the joke but stealing the appreciation that comes in over it. And the fan appreciation for Rainn’s posting is strong, because Jordan’s joke is good. Really good. (When you work for almost an hour Photoshopping a picture of your iPhone inbox for a tweet, you know you’ve got something bigger than your average play on words.)Right about now you may be asking “is it really THAT big a deal?” Well, it’s smaller than deals bigger than it but it’s bigger than deals smaller than it. It just matters how big the other deals in your life are. For Jordan Rubin, a professional comedy writer, it’s a big deal. For every home run tweet, there are at least 10 at-bats. For every 10 at bats, there are hours of walking around like a neurotic mess shuffling words and ideas around until something even remotely sparks. That’s what makes his twitter feed so interesting to read. He’s letting you see what he has on the work bench. He doesn’t apologize for what doesn’t work, but he takes pride in what does. That’s what being a true artist is about.There are a lot of incredible writers on the internet, and they should always be credited. Maybe Rainn Wilson thought that two million followers would drown out any question as to whether a guy with 1.5% of his readership actually created the joke he passed off as his own, but I’m using my mathematical advantage to help set the record straight:(drum roll please)Credit: @jordanrubin
I feel like I may be too lazy for this.
so... is Rainn Wilson a joke stealer?
Quote from: ¡Keith! on July 27, 2010, 01:32:33 PMso... is Rainn Wilson a joke stealer?Seems pretty damning to me. It's not like a joke where 2 people could have been working off a similar premise and ended up with nearly identical jokes. This is just flat out taking what someone else has done and presenting it as your own (I'm just going off this article, I don't follow either of them).
Quote from: jbissell on July 27, 2010, 02:21:01 PMQuote from: ¡Keith! on July 27, 2010, 01:32:33 PMso... is Rainn Wilson a joke stealer?Seems pretty damning to me. It's not like a joke where 2 people could have been working off a similar premise and ended up with nearly identical jokes. This is just flat out taking what someone else has done and presenting it as your own (I'm just going off this article, I don't follow either of them).yeah, I just found this through a RT from someone else. Rainn tweeted today: "My apologies to @jordanrubin who created that amazing iPhone inbox photo from the other day & went uncredited! http://bit.ly/dDgr2c"