You Can’t Copyright Jokes

This weekend’s On the Media podcast had not only one, but two stories about copyright.

Here they are:

You can’t copyright jokes, just like you can’t copyright cooking recipes.

You can, however, copyright performances and comedic personalities and collections of recipes. This means that people can (legally) steal jokes as long as they are not copying comedic personalities. This makes for a more robust and thriving creative environment. Even if someone “steals” another person’s work, the creative community enforces standards and keeps people honest.

Which leads to the discussion about Carlos Mencia. The reason comedians seem so upset with Carlos Mencia is that he doesn’t not give credit where credit is due. There are dozens of comedians who crib from each other, but they are honest about where they got the jokes from. Some comedians, like Milton Berle, even make jokes about cribbing.

This is one of the reasons my book of short film screenplays was released under Creative Commons Attributions license: I want people to steal the material in the book. Just put my name in the credits and everything will be fine. Don’t be a Carlos Mencia; be a Milton Berle.