Funny coincidence
It's a good joke, and Dane Cook delivered it well on "Saturday Night Live" a few years ago: He's in a shoe store and sees a nice pair of boots. He walks up to the salesperson and says, "Excuse me, do you have these in a 12?" The woman goes to the back room and returns with the boots. Smiling, she says, "We have them in a 9." Cook looks at her and says, "Really? Do you have a bone saw anywhere around here?"
Funny, right?
Comedian Demetri Martin clearly thinks so. Martin doesn't fill arenas, sell millions of CDs, or star in movies opposite Kate Hudson and Jessica Simpson, but he does do an almost identical bit on his disc "These Are Jokes," which came out before Cook's 2006 appearance on "SNL." (You can find a side-by-side comparison of the jokes on YouTube.)
It's "coincidences" like this that have caused some well-known comics, notably Joe Rogan and Louis C.K., to question Cook's inspiration. They say he's got a history of cribbing from other comedians, and if there's one thing the fraternity of funny men and women frowns upon, it's plagiarism.
Rogan has been particularly fierce in calling out Cook and others he believes steal jokes. Not long ago, Rogan confronted Carlos Mencia onstage in Los Angeles, berating "Menstealia" for misappropriating other comedians' material. (Their epic, 10-minute exchange is also on YouTube.)
"Stealing jokes is a big deal, and it will always be a big deal," says Stephen Rosenfield, director of the American Comedy Institute in New York. "Writing jokes is the way that comedians earn a living, and for someone to steal those jokes, that's a significant theft by any definition."
Cook has laughed off claims that he swipes from other comics, and there's reason to wonder whether his critics might just be a little envious. After all, a case could be made that Cook, an Arlington native who's just 36 years old, is the most successful stand-up comedian since Steve Martin.
Consider this: His CD "Retaliation" went double platinum; he did two shows at the TD Banknorth Garden that sold out in minutes and became an HBO special; he's hosted a season premiere of "SNL"; he was the face of Major League Baseball's largest-ever postseason marketing campaign; and he's been in more than a dozen movies. Reading his Wikipedia page, you'd surmise the guy is the second coming of Bill Cosby. (Cook's attorney said he wouldn't talk to me.)
"Dane Cook is a marketing genius, no question about it," says Rosenfield. "But he's also a very modestly gifted comedian, and there's a lot of resentment that he's been so tremendously successful without being tremendously gifted."
It's no surprise then that some of Cook's colleagues quietly delighted when, in December, cops picked up the comedian's half-brother Darryl McCauley and charged him with stealing $10 million from Cook. If there's one thing comedians do like, it's irony.
McCauley, a former corrections officer who worked as Cook's business manager, is accused of embezzling a bundle of dough from his half-sibling and then stashing it. Cops say they found $800,000 in a wall safe in McCauley's condo in Maine. McCauley denies the charge, but he remains locked up in a Cambridge jail, unable to make the $500,000 bail.
Reaction to the arrest hasn't been anger but amazement that Cook has $10 million. Some smart-alecks think he finally got his comeuppance. They've started a Facebook page called "Fans of Dane Cook's Embezzler Brother." The group - whose motto is "Take it all!" - has 72 members. One is former "West Wing" writer Michael Oates Palmer, who posted this comment: "The only thing better would be if Bernard Madoff were Carlos Mencia's half-brother."
Maybe comedians feel comfortable ripping off one another because they know they can get away with it. Rogan has said most comedians were bullied as kids, and as a result they're afraid of conflict. He might be right about that.
I wanted to talk to a couple of comics about Cook, but I couldn't get anyone to respond. No one. Not Cook's Facebook frenemies, not Rogan, not Louis C.K., not even Demetri Martin, whom I tried to entice with a promise to puff his new half-hour show on Comedy Central. Had I managed to get Martin to talk about the similarities between his joke about boots and Cook's, I imagine he might have said this: If the shoe fits. 