I think of Dane Cook as the Rocco Dispirito of comedy.  Handsome, “edgy”, prone to hissy fits and famous based on being a more visually appealing version of someone doing something similar to what they do.

The proof?  The fact that Dane Cook is really not as popular as he was anymore.  And Rocco Dispirito sells crappy kitchenware on the shopping channels.

Thanks for that Steve Martin correlation, well researched.  I was certain that Cook lifted that material; my unreasonable dislike of him made me want to believe it.  But, yeah you’re probably right, it was likely that so-called ‘parallel thinking’.  Now, if Cook comes out with a 1950 year old woman routine, all bets are off.

Kept meaning to point out the Steve Martin thing somewhere but was too lazy to pull it all together. 

Thanks for knocking this off my COMEDY CORRECTIONS TO DO LIST.

Thank you for asserting some reality into this whole Dane Cook stole my bit cryfest.  I’d heard another comparison of Louis C.K. and Dane’s bits which was supposed to be definitive proof of Dane’s theft when all it did was show that both comedians had worked the same premise.  Your clip goes that extra mile to show Steve Martin’s “original” bit.  It seems like those who bust on Dane are searching for reasons to justify their jealous rage.  Show me a comparison featuring “Someone shit on the coats” and you might make me a believer, but I doubt it.

Show me proof that Dane Cook did all the same 3 routines that Louis CK did and I will believe that it is obvious stealing.  Oh, there is the audio proof. 
“Parallell thinking”!!!? Try for a better excuse.  Those 3 bits are only on the web because that was the audio proof that someone had and was able to put up.  I always liked Robert Townshend, but I did lose a lot of respect for him when he stole a huge bit from Paul Rodriguez.  I have both on old video tapes, but I can’t put them on the internet here (technically stuck).
This whole thing came to light in a bigger way when it started becoming more than obvious that Dane cRook stole from so many people.  Of course there are going to be simularities, but 3 bits from the same guy, layed out the same way?  Think a little people.  Take the facts instead of trying to cover up for someone that you accidently admitted to liking.  (Any ‘Bush’ people in the house?)

Post Script- Someone please tell Ryan Reynolds that he is not Jason Lee nor dane cRook.

I would just like to point out that most of the people who like Dane Cook are annoying as hell. I think he’s kinda funny, but i don’t like his style. People who salivate over him and scream “He’s the funniest person EVER” then try to get him to sign their tits. God i hate you all. If he’s stealing other peoples shit, let them come out and prove it. God knows my friends and I have come up with the same joke or concept independently, its life looked at through a weird prism, and GASP! many funny people find humor in life!

Thanks for posting this.  I think the whole thing is overplayed in terms of Cook stealing.  For one thing Dane Cook has at least two albums that I’m aware of.  That’s more than 2 hours of material from which people are picking at 3 jokes.  So if he has 57 of minutes of original material and 3 minutes of jokes he may have heard somewhere else and decides to riff on, he’s a thief? 

I think we should start to worry if Dane Cook comes out on stage with a banjo and an arrow through his head.

When it comes to itchy asshole, back in the mid 80’s I watched a scottish comedien, billy conneli, do a bit about itchy asshole.
Noone had heard of him yet, he was opening for Whoopi Goldburg.
Did Louis steal it from him ?

Comedians have been stealing from eachother for years.  So can anyone account for any more than 3 jokes that were stolen? Out of all the jokes he stole, only three can be found?  Music artists have been stealing (or sampling) beats for years, but we dont damn them like you are to Dane Cook. He isn’t telling the same exact joke, he’s “sampling” the basic part of the joke and making it his- just like music artists do.  I would only damn Dane Cook if he openly took credit for jokes he didn’t come up with.

Comics have writers for their longer shows right?  So can any of the writing staff be blamed in this or the Carlos Mencia vs. Joe Rogan stuff?  Some of it sounds like legitimate stealing some of it sounds like the shit that happens to everyone.  Just checking.  This stuff is ruining stand-up for me.

I don’t get why people bag on Dane Cook so much...I get it, you’re not a fan but why scour the internet looking for ways to rip on him and his fans...thats just sad.  And there’s no way anyone can say that each comedians version of the jokes weren’t way different.  Sure you have the same basic idea for the joke but it’s communicated VERY differently and in my opinion Dane’s is funnier and I like the material of his that’s original.  You apparently don’t, no reason to cry about it.

parallel thinking happens!  i just started doing stand up and i had this bit about automated public bathrooms --and how hard it is to navigate the machines when they don’t detect your motion.  anyway, it wasn’t particularly great but THEN i was watching another comic (waaay more established than me) for the first time on youtube and he had a joke about automatic hand dryers that don’t turn on.  and it just gave me the WORST feeling in the world.  obviously he didn’t steal from me --he doesnt even know that i exist.  and i didn’t steal from him cos i didn’t know of his existence when i wrote mine.  but there you have it.  “evidence” ...my clip is floating online.  his is too.  if either of us has a hater (one day when i am famous enough to have haters..) then this is perfect ammunition, ya know?

The difference here is that Dane Cook watched Louis CK do the bit, and then did it himself.

Dane Cook, Robin Williams and Carlos Mencia are all hacks who steal material. They may be good performers, but they can’t write, so they steal. The reason this is known is because I work in the comedy industry, and it’s not said about just ANYONE who is famous.
Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, and Dave Chappelle are the most respected comedians of today, and it’s because they don’t steal.  No one has said about them, “Oh man, that Seinfeld took my bit.”
But when enough people in the industry are saying, “Yeah I opened for him one time and he took something from me” it’s not jealousy, it’s just this person is a shitty excuse for a human being who takes other people’s material. 
This is a long post, but I’ve had jokes ripped off from me by people I thought were my friends, and I don’t want to hear anyone coming to the defense of a joke-stealing asshole like Dane Cook.  Fuck him, he sucks.

This is the thing that I find irritating about it all. Comedy is ideally about making people laugh, making people feel good, and forget the daily doldrums of day to day life if only for a while. Most all popular forms of entertainment follow this formula, from TV shows to Movies, the list goes on. Repetitive concepts abound in humor or drama.

I understand if someone is pissed off about an idea or a funny bit being stolen. It does suck. BUT, the fact of the matter is that if that bit was funnier or re-introduced to a new group of people in a better way that connected with that audience, who cares?

You can go back to earlier acts involving humour such as Benny Hill or Charlie Chaplin, Bob Hope or Milton Berle and find a lot of bits that are close to each other.

The course that comedy runs is not unlike a lot of other disciplines out there. There will be influence, failure, triumph, and ground breaking originality that will go hand in hand with competition, emulation, and overdone repetiveness.

I don’t find Dane to be annoying, but I don’t know him in person. He DOES make me laugh 90% of the time, and so what if he’s not that original?

After all,...not everyone can be Eddie Izzard. :D

I’m not terribly interested in debating whether or not Cook steals jokes (though I will point out that there are more audio clips on youtube and such of a routine that Cook does about going to a shoe store that is eerily similar to a Demetri Martin routine - and Martin’s was performed first).  However, stealing jokes isn’t so much about entertaining people as it is about making a living.

As Mario points out, the purpose of comedy is to entertain.  True enough, but it goes beyond that.  Yes, comedians want to entertain the audience, but they also need to make a living through their work.  And if a megastar like Dane Cook rips off material from a lesser-known comic, the material, in effect, becomes Cook’s, because he has a larger presence in the public mind.  And even though the lesser known comic created the material, he will be the one labeled a joke stealer, because more people will have heard Cook perform the joke.  As a result, the comic will no longer be able to tell his own joke, one that he put the time and effort into creating.  And that will impact his ability to make a living.

For a comic who’s getting a six or seven figure payday, the burden is on them to make sure their material is original.  Even if Dane came up with the same joke on his own, the moment he realized that Louis CK was doing it first, he should have dropped it and anything like it.  That’s the right thing to do for your audience, for your reputation, and for the industry.

See, for some reason, people believe that the same rules that apply to art, writing and dance don’t apply to comedy although technically it’s in the same spectrum.

The difference between the George Carlin routine and Louis C.K. was that it was one joke. Dane Cook is known as a joke stealer, has been in the audience while these jokes were presented (in fact, there’s even a signal in some clubs to warn the stage comic about comics like him) and on addition to that, he took three jokes and not just one from Louis C.K. The difference between George Carlin and Louis is that the joke was changed completely, switched around so it could have been parallel thinking. You can’t possibly say however that Dane Cook was parallel thinking when he “wrote” those THREE jokes the exact same way. His roles in the jokes weren’t even switched.

It is important that comedy be regarded as something higher than, “hey, if it works.” There are comedians that work really bloody hard on their act, and I don’t see why it should be accepted that someone can steal and everyone be okay with it.

As an artist, I get pretty offended if someone steals my artwork and calls it my own. Shouldn’t comedy be regarded the exact same way? It’s written, someone worked on it, and they benefit directly from someone listening/seeing it.

It’s a shame that some people think it’s acceptable.

I agree with those who think Dane Cook is a hack and not playing on a level field with guys who write their own material.

Some Cook fans try to defend Cook by saying, “All you people focus on are the jokes he stole… He has written a lot of original things as well.” My response: If I can point out half a dozen jokes Cook stole from big name comics, I can guarantee you he stole countless more from unknown comics he crossed paths with at open mikes or on club dates.

The reason people “focus on the jokes he stole” is that those jokes give you some clue as to how unethical he is and how much deeper the thievery probably runs.

First off the 3 jokes he “stole” were terrible jokes. Second out of the 3 the itchy asshole one was the only one that was virtually the same.Gratz you found 3 jokes that are similar to that of someone else. You say he probably stole all the rest of his jokes from unknown comics? Then show them. At this point you are virtually getting into a atheist vs Christian type of argument where neither side can be proven.

Dane caught stealing Doug Stanhope joke a few weeks back.  it was an abortion joke which is not dane’s style at all.  definitely a theif