Does anyone know anything about this?

A section of dialogue in my first chapter revolves around a joke which i was told by my local newsagent. He had heard it on a tv programme the day before. I don't know whether that presenter had thought it up or heard it elsewhere...

I suspect i'm okay because it's very difficult tracing the origins of a joke - am i right??

Casey

People reuse jokes over and over and over. As I read more and more comedy stuff, I keep finding the same jokes in different versions everywhere. For example I've just been reading Barry Cryer's superb autobiography Pigs Might Fly. In his postscript he says:

I should like to thank everyone who helped in the writing of this tome, especially Ainsley Harriott. Every time he came on television, I left the room and wrote another chapter.

Nice gag, I thought. And then a few days ago I came across this quote from Groucho Marx:

I find television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go into the library and read a good book.

Pretty much the same joke in different words but from decades earlier. Did Barry Cryer deliberately "steal" it ? Who knows. If he did brought it up to date and made it his own.

My guess is that a joke is essentially an idea, because you can retell it in different words or modify parts of it and it still works. And there is no copyright on ideas.

Now if you stole a whole comedy sketch, word for word, that might get you into trouble.

Thanks, Griff, that's more or less what i thought (but not as eloquently)

Casey