Transcript: Hey, That's My Joke!

From Harvard to Hollywood, Rob Long on why it's so hard to come by original material

This is Rob Long with Martini Shot for The Ankler.

Once, a friend of mine emailed me to relay a few snippets of dialogue and some storylines from a popular television comedy.

“Isn't this your material?” he asked, and, you know, it was my material. Not entirely verbatim, of course.

It was cribbed from a television series I wrote a few years ago, but the similarity was pretty unmistakable and my friend had the standard Hollywood advice which was “sue them.”

My friend, I don't need to point out, is a lawyer who specializes in litigation.