Comedian Dane Cook a joke thief, ‘hack’
STAND-UP COMEDY IS A TREASURED PASTIME IN America. We even have a reality show on NBC dedicated to it called “Last Comic Standing.”
This last season came down to a very attractive young man, a tattooed impressionist and a female that gradually showed more cleavage as the show went on.
The one who did impressions was great and the quirky woman defeated all the competition, but I assumed the cute one would win on his appearance alone.
Why?
Well, because Dane Cook uses looks to get away with his career.
Cook now has a couple of movies under his belt, but he started out as a stand-up comedian.
Girls swoon at the sight of him while men want to be him, mostly because of the swooning girls. These are the people who will defend Cook against all odds — even though he is a vicious joke-stealer and an all-around egomaniac.
It seems when it comes to Cook, comedians and comedy lovers alike are not shy to profess their hate.
A promotional poster for a televised Cook performance that hung outside the famous Laugh Factory was tagged with the loving word ‘hack’ across it.
‘Hack,’ in this case, meaning a joke-stealer.
I suppose that spray-painted message is more family-friendly than a previous message on one of his posters that read ‘herpes.’
Evidence of his sticky fingers appeared from at least three comics.
Cook put out an album of his stand-up that happened to have three of the same jokes Louis C.K. had on his stand-up album, which was released several years before.
Cook cleverly changed the name of two of them, but C.K. wasn’t amused and accused him publicly of stealing.
After another Cook album was released, Rolling Stone critic Joe Rogan wrote that the original performer of some of the material was Emo Phillips.
Then Cook went on “Saturday Night Live.”
Almost word-for-word Dane Cook recited a joke about trying on shoes in his monologue that Saturday that appeared on comic Demetri Martin’s album that was released the Tuesday prior.
To his credit, not only did Demetri Martin do his own joke better, he did it while playing guitar.
It could be that they ran out of ‘airplane food is terrible’ material and decided to turn their attention to another quirky thing that relates to the everyday person.
Or it could be that more people recognize the name Dane Cook since he is hosting “SNL” before they would ever hear the jokes of Demetri Martin, whose only acting credit was in a couple of episodes of “Flight of the Conchords.”
Like any celebrity attempting to keep in touch with fans, Cook sends out mass messages to all his MySpace friends.
Once, in a 356-word e-mail, he mentioned himself as a pronoun 25 times with sentences like, “My new Web site is kicking butt and new visitors are emailing me every damn day.”
How loving.
I decide now to voice my disgust of this man because Cook has a movie releasing in theaters this month.
What drew my attention was that in a blog, Cook complained about how fat the poster makes his face look.
Never mind the fact that “My Best Friend’s Girl” has a plot that can be guessed simply by the title or that it boasts a cast that includes poor Jason Biggs (who has not been in anything good since the “American Pie” movies) and darling Kate Hudson (who is stuck doing all the romantic comedies that Drew Barrymore will not touch).
No, Cook was angry at his fat face.
Yeah, well I’m angry at it too.
And I’m not talking about the poster.
Jessica Dugan is student at Fresno State majoring in mass communication and journalism. When she was four years old, she accidentally set a couch on fire. She then proceeded to try to put it out.
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Honestly, everyone gets their inspiration from somewhere so no one can really claim a joke as theirs. The only way you can accuse him of stealing is if he delivered it the exact same way which I’m sure he didn’t.
Oh and to Kylie: You’re right, we laugh because it’s true. If it wasn’t then it wouldn’t be funny. That’s pretty much how all comedians make jokes.
I wonder why people make such a fuss about this. So he stole jokes. Not his fault he’s making more money than you. Like I said: It all depends on how you deliver it.
i love him
i love him
i love him
I totally agree with this article. I just saw Dane Cook for the first timelast night in Denver and I was sooooooooo disappointed. For $100 for a ticket I would expect something hilarious and more than an hour long!!! I thought the opening comedians were 100 times more talented and actually funny. What a waste!
I totally agree with this article. I just saw Dane Cook for the first timelast night in Denver and I was sooooooooo disappointed. For $100 for a ticket I would expect something hilarious and more than an hour long!!! I thought the opening comedians were 100 times more talented and actually funny. What a waste!
I totally agree with this article. I just saw Dane Cook for the first timelast night in Denver and I was sooooooooo disappointed. For $100 for a ticket I would expect something hilarious and more than an hour long!!! I thought the opening comedians were 100 times more talented and actually funny. What a waste!
I am greatful for the unique brad of comedy Dane Cook brings to the market. If all stand-up comics were the same I doubt we would find ANY of them funny. I am not a “super fan”, I am a fan of comedy. I collect comedy. If Dane Cook wants to put his own spin on an old joke and make it his own, I can appreciate that.
His delivery is refreshing and his use of vocabulary is inspiring. Comedy is an art, lest we all forget. I am greatful for any comic who has the courage to even get on stage and try and make this world a happier place.
To Dane Cook and any other stand-up comic made or struggling out there who finds themselves on this site, you are good enough because there’s only one of you. We all have something unique and wonderful to share with the world. If you can’t appreciate that, then you should reevaluate your own position in life and stop trying to tear people down to your level.
I am greatful for the unique brad of comedy Dane Cook brings to the market. If all stand-up comics were the same I doubt we would find ANY of them funny. I am not a “super fan”, I am a fan of comedy. I collect comedy. If Dane Cook wants to put his own spin on an old joke and make it his own, I can appreciate that.
His delivery is refreshing and his use of vocabulary is inspiring. Comedy is an art, lest we all forget. I am greatful for any comic who has the courage to even get on stage and try and make this world a happier place.
To Dane Cook and any other stand-up comic made or struggling out there who finds themselves on this site, you are good enough because there’s only one of you. We all have something unique and wonderful to share with the world. If you can’t appreciate that, then you should reevaluate your own position in life and stop trying to tear people down to your level.
I am greatful for the unique brad of comedy Dane Cook brings to the market. If all stand-up comics were the same I doubt we would find ANY of them funny. I am not a “super fan”, I am a fan of comedy. I collect comedy. If Dane Cook wants to put his own spin on an old joke and make it his own, I can appreciate that.
His delivery is refreshing and his use of vocabulary is inspiring. Comedy is an art, lest we all forget. I am greatful for any comic who has the courage to even get on stage and try and make this world a happier place.
To Dane Cook and any other stand-up comic made or struggling out there who finds themselves on this site, you are good enough because there’s only one of you. We all have something unique and wonderful to share with the world. If you can’t appreciate that, then you should reevaluate your own position in life and stop trying to tear people down to your level.
To the author of the piece i appreciate your opinion and your views. I do not agree with them but that is why this country is great. I am not a “super fan” I do appreciate Dane he makes people laugh, in these time isn’t that what’s important. If you do not agree with it that is fine but don’t rip him apart because he “stole” jokes who doesn’t. I would guarantee you have told a joke that you have heard somewhere. If people do not retell jokes the world would never hear them.
To the author of the piece i appreciate your opinion and your views. I do not agree with them but that is why this country is great. I am not a “super fan” I do appreciate Dane he makes people laugh, in these time isn’t that what’s important. If you do not agree with it that is fine but don’t rip him apart because he “stole” jokes who doesn’t. I would guarantee you have told a joke that you have heard somewhere. If people do not retell jokes the world would never hear them.
If Miss Dugan was attempting to write an interesting, journalistic piece on the decline of the state of comedy, She missed entirely.
If her intent was to whine about how much she hates that “disgusting, fat-face” Dane Cook (like some juvenile would on her MySpace page) then she was spot-on.
I find it hard to believe that it was even published.
This is an opinion piece. The author had an opinion and expressed it. She did not miss anything.
This is in response to Keith:
Sure Dane Cook may be successful, but measuring his worth by how much money he makes and by how many seats he can sell is a dangerous benchmark. As the rapper Immortal Technique put it, “If you go platinum it’s got nothin’ to do with luck / it just means that a million people are stupid as f***.” In that same vein, Fox News is the most watched network in the U.S. – does this mean we should give it credit?
Dane Cook may be bringing smiles to the faces of thousands, but how exactly is enriching their lives? He is just setting a standard of mediocrity that if I may be so bold, holding people back from realizing what true comedy is. “Dulling the Mind’s of America’s Youth” – that’d be my headline for a Dane Cook piece.
If Miss Dugan was attempting to write an interesting, journalistic piece on the decline of the state of comedy, She missed entirely.
If her intent was to whine about how much she hates that “disgusting, fat-face” Dane Cook (like some juvenile would on her MySpace page) then she was spot-on.
I find it hard to believe that it was even published.
Dane Cook is anti-funny. No wit, no clever insights or observations, just a lot flailing around the stage. He is one annoying, talentless goofball.
Dane Cook is anti-funny. No wit, no clever insights or observations, just a lot flailing around the stage. He is one annoying, talentless goofball.
I like your column