Stories from a Joke Thief

It's surprisingly difficult these days to find a good joke about robbers and thieves but perhaps the idea of being burgled or robbed is just so.
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Adams' stage persona remained the same for his entire career. The Maxwell Smart voice was evident early on. Newhart wrote some material that he thought might suit Don. I decided to become a comedy writer and sell my material to established comedians.

I felt 'The Submarine Commander' could very easily be adapted to Don Adams because of his deadpan delivery I reached Don when he was in Chicago for a show and he agreed to take a look I later learned that Don did the routine for his wife When she told him she thought it was funny, Don replied, 'It's not! And I'm not paying for it!

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He [said] it wasn't the type of material he was looking for I couldn't believe it. I was yelling at the TV, 'That's mine! You're stealing my routine! To put it mildly, I felt that Don was not a very stand-up stand-up. However, I reasoned that if other comedians were going to steal my routines, I had better perform them myself In , Don passed away, and his wife Everyone there nodded in acknowledgement.

They all knew Don. The Bill Dana Show started broadcasting in , primarily to cash-in on the popularity of Dana's best selling comedy records featuring Jose Jiminez. Adams had a regular role on the program playing detective Byron Glick, a direct predecessor to Maxwell Smart.

A Serious Look At Joke Stealing

Like every other nightclub comedian going, Don's act was pressed onto vinyl. His act would not spawn another LP until the success of Get Smart. When the season proved the show to be major success, record labels were quick to cash in. United Artists released Don Adams - Get Smart , an LP of audio straight from the show including laugh track and several visual gags that made no sense to the listener. Some very brief new pieces were featured, Maxwell Smart reminiscing about career highlights, to bridge the clips into cohesion. The reissue featured the back of a model's head, his hair groomed to give the illusion it was Adams himself.

The United Artists album was probably the strongest of Don Adams' comedy records. The reason was fairly simple. Most of the material on it had been stolen from a young punk named Jackie Mason. The record was a tour-de-force of perfectly sculpted and highly original material. It was, essentially, Mason at the height of his funniness. With another record released the following year and several successful television appearances to his name, Mason's career was on the up and up. It's well documented what happened next - his famous October performance has been recounted several times.

When Ed Sullivan gestured to Mason, off-camera, to wrap it up, Mason made reference to it within his act, asking what Sullivan's finger waving was supposed to mean and proceeded to do an impression of Ed's gestures. Ed Sullivan thought he saw Mason gave him the middle finge. That evening's broadcast was partially preempted by President Johnson, who began an address to the nation at 8: The show continued while the president spoke, resuming its broadcast around 8: The preemption threw the schedule off-kilter, and Ed was anxious about running out of time.

He began urgently gesturing to Mason to cut his act short, holding up two fingers for two minutes, then one finger as time elapsed. Mason's jokes were met with silence as Ed's frantic gesturing distracted the studio audience. Mason, afraid that home viewers would interpret the studio audience's silence as a sign that he was bombing, began ad-libbing based on Ed's hand gestures. You got fingers for me, I've got fingers for you,' he said, as he comically mirrored Ed's finger signs.

The comedian's gesticulations grew more exaggerated as the studio audience's laughter fueled his improvising. If your fingers are such a hit, why do you need me, why don't you come here and show your fingers? At first Mason didn't know what Ed was mad about. John Byner, one of the earliest Ed Sullivan impressionists and the other stand-up on the show that evening, used to do an impression in his act of Ed Sullivan and Jackie Mason arguing with each other backstage.

Laugh until you cry! Vi takes being a klutz to a whole new level. You thought you knew what being a klutz was? You've seen nothing yet! Hats Off Books April 15, Language: Related Video Shorts 0 Upload your video. Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase.

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If you need a good story to tell to friends. This is the book for you, Gloria 1. Fun to read how a fella gets into the "biz", then to read so many really good jokes. I was able to share several with friends after only the first few pages. This is a quick read that's a lot of fun. If you like vintage stand-up, you'll enjoy this book.

One person found this helpful. See all 3 reviews. There's a problem loading this menu right now. I was watching one of his DVDs yesterday and it had a joke on it he took from Bill Cosby of all people. The joke is decades old - basically a rundown of all the work that fathers put in to teaching their sons to play football for years and years and then the kid becomes a football star, looks at the camera and says 'hi MOM! Linguistical , 20 Feb Didn't anyone see The Aristocrats? All comedians, writers, musician's, artists, etc. If Mencia tells every joke word-for-word the same way other comics do, then you have something.

But doing as many shows as he does I'm sure he's bound to tell a few jokes the same as somebody else whether he came up with the same idea or just not realize that he heard it somewhere else. I agree that he should have copped to it and it wouldn't have been such a big deal. But, that's the problem with ego.

Stories from a Joke Thief: Buddy Stein: leondumoulin.nl: Books

And by the way, who gives a crap what a no-talent hack like Joe Rogan says? The only way that guy could be funny is if I get to watch someone hit him in the head with a shovel. He should stay away from comedy and stick to something he knows, like eating horse ass. Anonymous Coward , 21 Feb Carlos discusses the fight and starts talking about the new bits hes doing. The new bit he is discussing is actually a stolen bit from another radio show! The DJ announces Carlos is banned from the Mikey show now for using stolen material then all hillarity ensues If you listen to the audio, Carlos specifically said he made up the idea himself.

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And I was like, 'You know what? I'm going to have a stereotype olympics' He then tells you the details and passes it as what he did. Lee Munoz , 1 Mar Joe Rogan needs to get a life. With all that is really tragic in today's society.

Funny Stories and Jokes About Thieves and Robbers | Crime Australia

He consumes his life with this? Some guy , 21 Mar 8: The only thing Carlos changed was that he called it a super fence. He even raised his hand as if to interject just like Ari did. I mean the body language and the joke are rip offs except its not a wall its a super fence. He rips off Ari, Bill Cosby and numerous others. JustAVoice , 25 Mar Mencia is a racial and topical comic. This causes a lot of overflow into other comics of the same genre. Ari didn't come up with the idea of a large wall along the border, anti-immigration nationalists did, he just commented on it.

As humans we absorb things though out our lives and don't remember where we get them from, that's just the nature of the human brain. The fact that he says he creates all his material says to me that he takes credit for the details and considers the outside influences to be inspirational.

Its the nature of the business. His ego could use a little toning down for his own good, but that is his character so its a compromise. Lastly, the people he 'stole' from should be the only ones to throw a fuss. TheJ , 26 Mar 2: I didn't know who Rogan even is until this bit came out and I read some stuff about him.


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So I don't know his comedy or whether he is funny or not. As has been said, jokes will be retold, in different forms, all the time. The subject and the substance was the same, but they were told very differently and it didn't seem like a hard one to come up with. However, I read the day this story came out that it was more than Mencia just "being influenced" by other comedians.

More like him sitting in the back of comedy clubs watching other comedians, and then later being heard telling the exact same jokes. I don't think it would be so big if this whole comedy thing was just a hobby or a pasttime. But for a lot of people it is a [potential] career, and when someone like Mencia, that has a much more public outlet to tell jokes, starts telling it, he gets the credit and publicity for it, even though he might suck at telling it, he gets seen and heard more than a newbie or less known with a comedy club being the only outlet for them.

Tom , 31 Jan 9: Ok, so I am a new comedian. I want to write a joke. Do I first have to reference Bob Hopes joke vault 85, pages of jokes http: AND, then give credit on stage for each joke used???? Or, is there soon going to be a JIAA sueing anyone who tells a copyrighted joke without paying a licensing fee.


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