New Evidence: Carlos Mencia vs. Bill Cosby

Filed Under Stand-Up Comedy

There was a shadow of doubt possible in prior accusations of Carlos Mencia, but for this latest charge of joke stealing, I have a difficult time imagining how this is defensible.

First the video, which contrasts a joke from 1983’s Bill Cosby: Himself, a fantastic example of the comic working in his prime, and 2006’s Carlos Mencia: No Strings Attached, the same show which brought the accusations of stealing from Ari Shaffir. Here’s the video:

This video fits the exact criteria that I believe makes for true joke stealing. This is unique material that fits the personality of the original performer and cannot be transplanted onto another. When Bill Cosby tells the story of teaching his son how to play football there’s such a humanity about it, a real awareness of what being a father is like that goes hand-in-hand with the humor. It’s almost touching and makes the twist of not being thanked after the big game that much more hysterical. With Mencia, the material looks shoehorned into the wrong performer. Not only is it not grounded in the small touches of being a parent, but there’s an attitude of anger at his own son which, if it’s a story drawn from personal experience, shouldn’t be there. While it isn’t the word for word plagiarism some have described it as, this is as close to a smoking gun as I can imagine.

This type of video will light the fire in detractors, making them likely to search for more evidence against Mencia. A new video quickly surfaced that contrasted a Sam Kinison bit about Jesus with a Mind of Mencia sketch (far less damaging in my mind because a staff writer other than Mencia could have wrote it). It’s not going to stop, If they are out there, more examples of Mencia’s potential larceny of comic material will come to light. I don’t see much damage yet to Mencia, but an abundance of examples drawing from multiple sources will eventually have its effect, if not on the industry then on fans, certainly many of whom become disillusioned as they have to defend the comic from the latest barrage of accusations.

When the original video came out, I had a short correspondence with a friend about how I was happy to see this brought to light, but I was worried that we don’t want to know how deep this rabbit hole goes. In truth, there’s a lot more parallel thinking going on out there than many comics will want to admit. I watched a Bill Maher special earlier this week and at one point got deja vu about a similar George Carlin bit. Neither of those two comics are thieves. Both are original comics who have similar attitudes to a lot of topics, so there’s a chance in some overlap in material. And if two comics who are as vital, smart and skillful as those two can have parallel thinking, comics who aren’t at that stage of their careers will too. But with YouTube video becoming the judge, jury and executioner for comedic integrity, I’m a little afraid we’re going to get carried away. Or are my fears unfounded?

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Comments

Posted by Erik on 03/23  at  02:18 AM

Amazing—Mencia managed to steal the joke without taking any of the humor with it!

Posted by Martin on 03/23  at  08:33 AM

Yeah - but isn’t that usually the way it goes? Stolen bits hardly ever work as good for the thief as for the original comedian. Usually because the stolen bit doesn’t fit in with the comedian’s own jokes. Unique material springs from the comic persona or soul of the performer, so a thief doing someone else’s joke lacks the persona that made the joke unique in the first place.

On the other hand - joke stealing has worked for Mencia, right? If he can do it and be successful with it - hey, let’s open up the market! 😛

I’m calling him a joke thief by now. Too many incidents like these.

“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, I’ll whip your ass.” 😉

Posted by Anthony on 03/23  at  03:20 PM

I don’t think the search for joke-jacking will get out of hand; yes, it’s true that many comic minds think alike. But it’s also true that real comedians will always be writing and evolving, which means many jokes live for a while then go by the wayside. Especially the topical stuff, which is where I see a lot of overlap in material. If I wrote a killer joke that I then found out was identified with another comic, I would drop it. But the chances of writing something from my own real life being the same as another comics stuff are rare, unless it’s a general, expected premise.

So what I’m saying is that Ned Holness is a loud, unfunny fraud.

Posted by Andrew Madrid on 03/25  at  11:28 PM

The only thing Carlos could do now is come out on stage and do ‘Wild and Crazy Guy’ word for word and then walk off stage without another word.

I don’t like Mencia, but I’m really starting to dislike this whole thing.

I’ll tell you something.  Whats going to happen if we find out Mencia has created a time machine and everything that has come out of those other comics mouths was stolen from him.  God damn it that’s gonna suck.

Posted by Prentice McTiernan on 03/27  at  12:09 PM

I remember Bill Maher doing a drugs-haven’t-hurt-my-record-collection joke on a standup special that was incerdibly similar to a if-you-don’t-like-drugs-then-throw-out-your-record-collection joke by Bill Hicks. That said, Bill Maher’s a solid performer with a well of credibility and Ned Mencia is not. And he’s never been funny. I think that’s the difference.

Posted by kerstin on 03/29  at  09:30 PM

I remember when Mind of Mencia came out, it felt like a desperate attempt by c. central to fill the ‘racially edgy’ gaping black hole (no pun intended) by Dave Chapelle. I tried to watch, but it just smelled like desperate comedy.
Having seen Joe Rogan’s video plus direct correlations like this, I’m glad people are finally coming out and calling him out on this [not to mention outright stating the fact that Mencia sucks!]

Posted by Tom on 03/30  at  01:58 PM

As a comedian who works hard to always write original ideas and has yet to get anywhere it pisses me off when guys who have made it in some way are proven to be thieves.
I can’t believe that Comedy Central still has the show on!

Posted by Ben on 04/01  at  02:05 PM

Carlos Mancia is one of the most original, talented comedians that ever lived. His material is original, thought provoking, and well delivered. He is a brilliant performer, unfettered by the constraints of society, who tells it like it is.

Cosby owns a time machine and it was in fact Cosby who stole the joke from Mancia.

(all of the above is false.)

Posted by Andrew Madrid on 04/01  at  11:11 PM

Ben,

Thank you.  I’m really starting to believe in the time machine theory as well.

Posted by Mike Still on 04/11  at  02:16 PM

It’s the delivery that’s damning in my eyes.  Making fun of the “Hi Mom” athletic greeting has been done time and time again—that’s the beauty of comedy is that the same subject matter gets analyzed from a billion different viewpoints.  Hell, my sketch group has developed sketches that we were about to roll out when we found out that other groups had recently done it.  But when its the same subject matter delivered in the same sort of way, then things get hairy.

Posted by Julie on 07/18  at  02:43 PM

First, Carlos Mencia if you get this i want to tell you this “I LOVE YOU SO MUCH CARLOS”. Continue doing your show because i like it when you dress up in one of those sexy outfits. and seconly i encourage you to do more of does race things because it’s time for all of those white’s out their to get out of their shell’s once in a while. i surpport you all the way and i hope to see you in more of your shows. please dont disappoint me i love those SEXY outfits.!!!! LOve you LOTS JULIE.
PS if anyone else reads my BLOG please try to send it directly to Carlos Mencia for me. Thanks.

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