Emo Takes Ownership of Long comedy Career

Because these sort of jokes (one-liners) are so simple, they're easy to plagiarize on the Internet.

(Steven) Wright has experienced that with a number of his jokes, which go uncredited. But (Emo) Phillips says its rarely other comedians stealing jokes, it's usually laypeople.

"There's a tremendous code of honour amongst standup comedians, which was another thing that drew me in to the profession," he says. "For instance, the Yuk Yuk's chain is run by Mark Breslin, who has a lot of integrity and bans comedians who knowingly steal material. There's a lot of honour and pride amongst comedians. We're like samurais."

Still, there are constant allegations on the Internet about one comedian stealing another's material.

Which brings up the question, does anyone really own a joke? Or is it public domain once it's been uttered?

Phillips himself had one particular joke (reprinted below) voted the best religious joke of all time on Anglican Church website Shipoffools.com — but he wasn't credited for writing it.

"It's nonsense to say that no one has ownership of a joke, of course you have ownership of a joke," Phillips says.

"I mean, you have ownership of a painting or a symphony or a novel, don't you? The problem is that no one comes up to someone in a bar going, 'Hey, you wanna hear a novel? It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . .' "

Emo Takes Ownership of Long comedy Career / By Nick Lewis /Published in The Calgary Herald on Sept. 14, 2006