Take My Gag, Please!Joke Theft and Copyright in Stand-up Comedy

Modern comedians are very protective of their material, and those comedians that gain a reputation for using others' gags are liable to find themselves shunned both socially and professionally. Although comedians in the United Kingdom have threatened each other with legal action for joke theft, perhaps the most notable recent case being Jimmy Carr threatening Jim Davison in 2004, there is no precedent of such an incident going to trial in the United Kingdom and very few cases in the United States. Moreover, there is no consensus amongst scholars regarding whether jokes are protected by the law. In this article I will attempt to clarify the situation. Drawing on the work of A. D. Madison, Y. Mikhaylova and D. Oliar and C. Sprigman, I will elucidate the extent to which jokes are covered by existing legislation in the United Kingdom and the United States, whether common defenses against accusations of joke theft are liable to hold up in court and what comedians can do to prevent such infringement.