Comments on: Daily Show Rips Off Slublog

By: imdw

imdw — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:46:42 +0000

“imdw, similar and exact same are two different things.”

Looks like they both ripped off the same source — and not in the same way. I wonder what that source is.

By: nk

nk — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:32:58 +0000

Mark Anthony and Cleopatra. The Romans called him unmanly, too, for falling under her spell. His wife, Octavia, went to him with a navy and money to hire an army, to fight against her own brother, Augustus, and he still would not go back to her.

By: Juan

Juan — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:55:01 +0000

imdw, similar and exact same are two different things.

This is a very unlikely coincidence at best. It’s nothing I’m bothered with, but when I used to watch TV, I always saw Comedy Central comics use material, with attribution, that was invented by someone else. It’s likely they have staff that actually find funny material on fark, blogs, etc, and change it up just enough.

Oh, and slublog’s photoshop was a lot more effective and funnier.

By: imdw

imdw — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:31:03 +0000

Wonkette had a similar joke. It’s a pretty easy one that lots of writers would come up with.

By: Ken

Ken — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:08:48 +0000

It’s possible that it’s a rip-off. But then, when someone starts mooning over a mistress with lovey-dovey language, the romance novel analogy is a natural.

Similarly, when the WaPo shit the bed yesterday, everyone pretty much simultaneously started making whore jokes.

BTW, the “that’s Episcopalian for shut the fuck up” and “reading from his hello kitty diary” were both top notch.

By: Juan

Juan — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:59:56 +0000

Daryl, I do think it would be funny to rip on Comedy Central for having another Carlos Menstealia on board, but I don’t think Slublog should sue.

He should just point out that Stewart’s show needs a little more help in the creativity department.

By: Mike K

Mike K — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:55:36 +0000

That was a really funny bit and Sanford has placed himself in a spot where he will have about as much luck finding another job as the drunk lawyer will.

By: Daryl Herbert

Daryl Herbert — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:46:09 +0000

Slu should sue for copyright infringement.

By publishing his derivative work (protected as satire of Gov. Sanford, and as a parody of the romance novel genre, given how Sanford, like most real-world men, does not match up to the usual male hero characters), Slu acquired a copyright in it.

The idea of portraying Sanford as a character in a romance novel would probably be too broad to protect under copyright law. But Slu’s expression of that idea, using a very specific cover with Sanford’s face photoshopped on, is protected by copyright.

The Daily Show’s only defense is that it’s a tremendous coincidence that they happened to use the exact same novel cover to express the exact same idea.

I think Slu could make a few bucks, and in the future the Daily Show would credit authors when it uses their work.

I can’t help but wonder if there is political discrimination going on here. Would TDS have ripped off a left-wing blogger’s work? Or would TDS have simply credited the left-wing blogger?