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Jay Leno sues joke book publisher
by Julia Ward, posted Nov 30th 2006 10:02AM
The Tonight Show's Jay Leno has filed a suit against comedy teacher Judy Brown. Brown has published 19 "joke books" quoting the routines of stand-up comedians - including Leno. According to the suit, Brown covered the LA comedy scene as a journalist and got the bright idea to record, copy and publish comedians' work for fun and profit. Her titles include The Funny Pages: 1,473 Jokes from Today's Funniest Comedians and Joke Express: Instant Delivery of 1,424 Funny Bits from the Best Comedians.Plagiarism is obviously frowned upon in all forms of writing, but in stand-up, it's a cardinal sin. (See the Joe Rogan-Carlos Mencia feud, the Louis C.K.-Dane Cook audio comparisons and Studio 60's "West Coast Delay" episode.) Leno's not alone in the suit. Rita Rudner, Jimmy Brogan and several other comedians have joined in to stop Brown for publishing their material without permission. Technically Brown's "work" isn't full-blown plagiarism. She quoted public figures with attribution - however, between the two titles I mentioned, she did that 2,897 times. I'm not sure where the line is between correctly citing a source and profiting off the work of others, but I'm guessing it's somewhere around #342. Seriously, folks, who the hell is buying "joke books" anyway?
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