It’s an immutable law of comedy—under no circumstances may a comic use another performer’s material. Naturally, with so many comics making observations about the world around them, similarities are bound to exist between one guy’s airplane food joke and another’s. But some similarities seem too close to ignore. What’s truly surprising is just how successful some of the suspects are.
1. Milton Berle
The late, great star of stage, screen, radio and TV was once the nation’s most popular comedian – earning him a 30-year television contract with NBC and the endearing nickname Uncle Miltie.
But to many of his fellow performers, Berle became known by the much less affectionate nickname “The Thief of Bad Gag” for his legendary penchant for joke lifting. Fellow legend and occasional enemy Bob Hope once remarked that Berle “never heard a joke he didn’t steal”. In another instance, Jack Benny defended his own practice of using Berle’s material by saying: “When you take a joke away from Milton Berle, it’s not stealing, it’s repossessing.”
Unlike many other accused bit robbers, Berle never went out of his way to dispel the reputation, once joking to Larry King: “I don’t steal people’s jokes. I just find them before they’re lost.”
2. Carlos Mencia
The former star of Comedy Central’s Mind of Mencia has been accused of plagiarism by everyone from George Lopez—who once claimed he roughed-up Mencia over a supposedly stolen set—to South Park. However, the most famous example was shared with the world thanks to a viral internet video posted by comedian Joe Rogan. In the footage, Rogan is shown running onstage to confront Mencia during a 2007 performance at the Comedy Store in LA. Among other, more colorful names, Rogan refers to Mencia as “Men-Steal-ia.” (You can watch the clip here, but it’s not suitable for work.)
This clip compares a Mencia football routine with one done by Bill Cosby decades before:
3. Dane Cook
Dane Cook reached the pinnacle of stand-up comedy success in 2005 when his album Retaliation went all the way to #4 on the Billboard chart. Sellout concert gigs, movie flops and tabloid coverage quickly followed—and all served to fuel a rabid anti-Dane movement within the comedy world. With that came an intense microscope on Cook’s material and, predictably, a rash of joke swiping charges. The most well-known example includes a Cook bit that bares a suspicious resemblance to an earlier by Louis C.K.—one of the most revered comics working today. Although video seems to confirm that Cook has used at least three of his bits, Louis C.K. has mostly downplayed it—“I’m not going to do anything about this. I’m not going to court over a bit called ‘Itchy A**hole,’” he once joked. (See a side-by-side comparison here—again, the language isn’t exactly work-friendly.) Just for good measure and consistency, Joe Rogan has also accused Cook of lifting jokes.
4. Robin Williams

Before he was an Oscar winner, Robin Williams was known to comics as a major material thief. He was even alleged to have used other comedians’ material on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. One well-traveled anecdote claims that when fellow comics spotted Williams in the audience of a comedy club, they would immediately stop their act to prevent him from writing down their best jokes. According to Richard Zoglin’s book Comedy at the Edge, David Brenner once asked Williams’ agent to “Tell Robin if he ever takes one more line from me, I’ll rip his leg off and shove it up his [bleep]!” Williams has playfully referred to the practice as “joke sampling.”
5. Jay Mohr
The former host of Last Comic Standing is an admitted comedy plagiarist. In his 2004 book Gasping For Airtime, which recounts his tumultuous two-season stint on Saturday Night Live, Mohr details an infamous incident in which he took a New York comedian’s joke and turned it into a sketch. NBC was forced to settle with the joke’s originator, but Mohr himself escaped any serious repercussions.
6. Dennis Leary
The star of Rescue Me has been accused of stealing not only material but his entire stage persona from the late cult comic Bill Hicks. Among those hurling accusations at Leary include Hollywood super-producer Judd Apatow – the creator of Freaks & Geeks, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up. But many of the charges leveled at Leary have quieted over the years as he has continued to enjoy sustained comedy success in the 16 years since Hicks passed away from cancer.
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Out of all of these, the only one that has ever been brought to my attention before is the Carlos Mencia one. I remember when he first had his show on Comedy Central and it was really popular, until all the news about his plagarism got out..
I would be very angry if I was a comedian and someone stole my jokes! It is comparable to any type of written plagarism.
posted by Katie Rose on 3-26-2010 at 3:52 pm
I always loved Dennis Leary . . . until I discovered Bill Hicks. Leary completely ripped off Bill’s ‘everything’.
And though it’s debatable (and I could be wrong), I don’t think of Leary as having any real sustained comedy success. I kinda thought he just quit comedy and became an actor once he got a chance to do so.
I do think Leary is a decent actor (just to prove I’m not a hater). I just think his material theft is deplorable.
R.I.P. Bill Hicks.
posted by EV on 3-26-2010 at 4:03 pm
Don’t forget Jay Leno. The following quote is taken from the article linked to in my name:
‘”Jaywalking”? Stolen from Howard Stern. “Headlines”? That’s Letterman’s “Small Town News.” Leno’s “Don’t Try This at Home”? You might remember it as Letterman’s “Stupid Human Tricks.” Even the “Green Car Challenge,” the Jar Jar Binks of late-night bits, is a watered-down version of “Star in a Reasonably Priced Car,” a recurring segment on Britain’s “Top Gear,” of which Leno is an admitted fan.’
posted by Keith on 3-26-2010 at 4:06 pm
Very interesting… had never heard of the Robin Williams stuff.
Quick note– Paul Feig created Freaks & Geeks, Apatow was the producer.
posted by E on 3-26-2010 at 4:15 pm
Much ado about nothing. In the last century and before, vaudeville acts would do the \standards\, which meant watching the best comics and then mimicing their material in your own show. The Three Stooges are almost nothing but rip-off vaudeville gags. Some people could benefit from a productive hobby.
posted by curlyfester on 3-26-2010 at 5:05 pm
Dane Cook also stole a bit from Demetri Martin about shopping for shoes…
posted by k.kakes on 3-26-2010 at 6:12 pm
True curlyfester, but the world was different then. Before TV, radio, internet, etc. people might never see any act outside their city. A traveling entertainer was much safer stealing gags.
And while the Stooges mimicked other performers, they took most of the material to a new level. That kind of widespread film attention was a new thing.
Having said all that, I never could stand Carlos Mencia. He took good jokes and made them less funny. Truly a waste of time.
posted by Josiah on 3-26-2010 at 6:28 pm
@ curlyfester
An accepted practice in the past doesn’t make it right today. I’d imagine you’ve never done anything creative and had someone else take credit for it. Not a swell feeling.
posted by EV on 3-26-2010 at 7:02 pm
This makes me sad.
posted by Adam on 3-26-2010 at 7:43 pm
So I guess imitation isn’t the sincerest form of flattery in the comedy world, eh?
Recapcha: the tattlers
posted by Lynley on 3-26-2010 at 9:12 pm
I like both Denis Leary and Bill Hicks. I’ve never really heard the angle that Leary stole from Hicks. They both had the kind of “screw you” attitude, “I’ll smoke if I want to”, but Bill Hicks was much more of a big-thinker, don’t trust the government type of guy, whereas Denis Leary is just an angry Irish, “what ever happened to coffee-flavored coffee” kind of guy. Make any sense? Probably not.
My three favorite comedians and favorite albums: Bill Hicks “Rant in E-Minor”, Denis Leary “Lock ‘n Load”, and Mitch Hedberg “Strategic Grill Locations”. Two of the three were gone way too early.
posted by Justin on 3-27-2010 at 1:25 am
It drives me up the wall when I see someone doing a joke I’ve heard elsewhere. The sketch comedy group I’m in at my college has some old scripts in our archives that I recognized as Kids in the Hall sketches!
When you see you comedian, you’re engaging in THIS PERSON’S unique perspective on the world. To find out they weren’t even the same person’s observations cheapens the experience. I know comedians of days past had writers, but I think the purpose of comedy has evolved a bit since then.
Great article.
posted by Andy on 3-27-2010 at 12:19 pm
comedy is a tough business. im proud to say when i did stand up i used only my own material. making a crowd laugh is a lot of fun.
posted by dirk alan on 3-27-2010 at 4:41 pm
This may ruffle some feathers: As great and well-loved a comic as he was, I’ve always thought that Johnny Carson’s “Aunt Flabby” was a shameless ripoff of Johnathan Winters’s Maudie Frickett. His oily “Art Fern” was word for word and syllable for syllable Jackie Gleason’s Reggie van Gleason. Even “Karnak” was original “Tonight” host Steve Allen’s “The Question Man” with a turban and cape. It bugs me that he did this,because he was so funny doing his own stuff.
posted by oldguy45 on 3-27-2010 at 11:22 pm
Oldguy45: Your points made me realize how much credit older comics really get in the business.
I found myself nodding my head in disgust at the Mencia and Cook accusations.
But the second Williams, Berle and (especially) Carson get a mention, I am shocked and tend to dismiss the accusations completely.
I guess the moral of the story is, if you are going to steal jokes, you better make sure you have some kind of staying power.
posted by Tyler on 3-29-2010 at 1:24 pm