Daniele Luttazzi plagiarizes!

To read the italian version of the text, click here.

Daniele Luttazzi is a very famous italian satirist (perhaps the most famous after Dario Fo). You can find more information about him on Wikipedia.

All plagiarized jokes are reported here. The article itself won't be updated with more plagiarized jokes. Eventually, I started finding plagiarized jokes by simply translating the best of Luttazzi's jokes into english and googling them. It's just sad.

First of all, I want to say that I had been (until now) a huge fan of Luttazzi and that I know every joke he ever said or wrote. I saw every show and read every book. And this is the reason why I'm writing this post.

INITIAL DOUBT

Once I wrote to Luttazzi to ask why the american comedian Emo Philips had in his repertoire some jokes in common with him (I paste them here):

People come up to me and say, "Emo, do people really come up to you?"

I ran three miles today... finally I said, "Lady, take your purse."

I always wanted a beautiful loving wife and she always wanted to be a citizen.

He answered me that starting from 1999 (after he hosted a show called Barracuda) he was working at HBO as "script doctor" and that he was giving some of his jokes to american comedians like Jay Leno. So, I dropped the whole thing (and this was a mistake, we'll see later why). Now, after a few years, I discovered together with a friend of mine (the one who linked me a joke by Bill Hicks identical to one by Luttazzi) jokes written by american comedians long time before '99. Let's take for example Hicks (who died of cancer in 1994). Here are some of his jokes which I found on wikiquote (it's not like I saw the whole shows or read the books). The identical parts to the italian jokes by Luttazi are in bold.

Not all drugs are good. Some … are great.

I actually did that act one night in the south. Then, after the show, these three rednecks came up to me. "Hey, buddy! We're Christians and we didn't like what you said." I said, "Then forgive me."

And by the way, that 3 month old kid in your belly is not a fucking human being, okay? It's a bunch of little congregated cells. You're not a human … till you're in my phone book.

I'm sorry if anyone here is Catholic. I'm not sorry if you are offended, I'm actually sorry – just the fact that you're Catholic. Gotta be one of the most ludicrous fucking beliefs ever. Like these vampire priests sink their twin fangs of guilt and sin into you as a child and suck your joy of life out of you the rest of your fucking existence.

Wouldn't you like to see a positive LSD story on the news? To hear what it's all about, perhaps? Wouldn't that be interesting? Just for once?
"Today, a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration … that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There's no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we're the imagination of ourselves. Here's Tom with the weather."

Keith Richards outlived Jim Fixx, the runner and health nut. The plot thickens. You remember Jim Fixx? This human cipher used to write books on jogging. Now, what do you fuckin’ write about jogging? ‘Right foot, left foot, faster, faster, oh hell, I dunno, go home, shower.’ Pretty much covers the jogging experience, I do believe. Then this doofus goes out and has a heart attack and dies.... while jogging. There is a God. ‘Right foot, left foot, hemorrhage.

"Today a young man on acid, thought he could fly, jumped off a building, what a tragedy." What a dick! If he thought he could fly, why didn't he take off from the ground?

This is it, folks. This is the idea which has kept me virtually unknown for the past 16 years. I have watched my crowds dwindle. I am going nowhere, and nowhere quick, but, those of you who have children, I am sorry to tell you this, but they are not special. Wait! I know some of you are going: "What, what?" Let me just clarify: I know you think they're special … ha ha ha! I'm aware of that. I'm just here to tell you that they're not! Ha ha ha ha! Sorry. Did you know that every time a guy comes, he comes two-hundred million sperm? One out of two-hundred million – that load, we're only talking about one load – connected: Gee, what are the fucking odds? Do you know what that means? I've wiped nations off of my chest with a grey gym sock. Entire civilizations have flaked and crusted in the hair around my navel! […] I've tossed universes in my underpants while napping. Boom! A Milkyway shoots into my jockeyshorts: "Unngh … what's for fucking breakfast?!"

What made me think that these jokes were plagiarized? The fact that they were written/said before '94 and at that time Luttazzi wasn't working with anyone in the US (that's what the biography says on Wikipedia). Moreover, some of the jokes in Luttazzi's version are out of context, like the one with phone book which in the english version fits in a precise and plausible context. So, Bill Hicks is the only one (apart from Emo Philips) who has jokes in common with Luttazzi, right? Nope, I found other comedians. For instance, George Carlin. Here are some jokes taken from Wikiquote (this means I just read a few):

(this is credited to be before '96 and in Luttazzi's version it changes a bit in the examples part)
Here's another question I have. How come when it's us, it's an abortion, and when it's a chicken, it's an omelette? Are we so much better than chickens all of a sudden? When did this happen, that we passed chickens in goodness. Name 6 ways we're better than chickens. See, nobody can do it! You know why? ‘Cause chickens are decent people. You don't see chickens hanging around in drug gangs, do you? No, you don't see a chicken strapping some guy into a chair and hooking up his nuts to a car battery, do you? When's the last chicken you heard about come home from work and beat the shit out of his hen, huh? Doesn't happen, 'cause chickens are decent people.

Religion easily has the best bullshit story of all time. Think about it. Religion has convinced people that there's an invisible man...living in the sky. Who watches everything you do every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a list of ten specific things he doesn't want you to do. And if you do any of these things, he will send you to a special place, of burning and fire and smoke and torture and anguish for you to live forever, and suffer, and burn, and scream, until the end of time. But he loves you. He loves you. He loves you and he needs money.

[The entire segment with the sun and the Joe Pesci praying (instead Luttazzi uses Monica Bellucci); Luttazzi puts togheter the sun worshipping joke and the Joe Pesci one]

If there is a god, may he strike this audience dead.

Another satirist before '99 which I found is Mort Sahl (born in 1927):

(Luttazzi's joke is between Berlusconi and Rutelli)
Reagan won because he ran against Jimmy Carter. If he ran unopposed he would have lost.

Then I found Jerry Seinfeld:

Dogs are the leaders of the planet. If you see two life forms, one of them's making a poop, the other one's carrying it for him, who would you assume is in charge?

It's amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper.

I believe that one could really do a deep research on this subject by watching shows of american satirists and comedians. The problem is that very little of their work reaches Italy. I don't consider myself totally ignorant in the matter of english comedy, on the contrary, but it's true that satirical shows are often less known in other countries. Until a year ago I didn't even know who Bill Hicks was, and I'm discovering his comedy only now. The matter would be really serious if Luttazzi plagiarized these other comedians. Also because in every show Luttazzi accuses other italian comedians like Grillo, Benigni, Bonolis (an italian entertainer) etc. who apparentely plagiarized one of his jokes. And on this front Luttazi has always been very, let's say, "aggressive"; he never tolerated plagiarism against him. So, I hope that there's an explanation for the material I posted here. And I repeat, I'm convinced that it's ok to modify jokes, art proceeds this way, a comedy technique can come in unlimited shapes, but these jokes are the exact transposition in italian of the english version. This joke by Lenny Bruce is very similar to one of Luttazzi's jokes:

If Jesus had been killed twenty years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses.

I believe that in this case the similarity is acceptable. Also the joke which was pretentiously used to get Decameron (a show hosted in 2007 by Luttazzi) off the air is very similar to a joke by Hicks. But that's really not plagiarism and has nothing to do with what I wrote in this post. Moreover, I avoided looking through wikiquotes of people like Jay Leno (since Luttazzi is one of his authors). I'm also not sure about Chris Rock, these two jokes come after 1999:

Everytime a man's being nice to you [women], he's offering you dick.

It's beautiful that abortion is legal in America. I love going to abortion rallies to pick up women, cause you know they're fuckin'. You ain't gonna find a bunch of virgins at the abortion rally, you might even see some clear heels! [referring to strippers]

In case what I wrote until now happens to be true, then I'd be very disappointed and I wouldn't go to one of Luttazzi's shows ever again, even if he has, after all, some great civil merits. To quote Luttazzi: "bypass the sub-products and get to the originals". Every possible explanation would be appreciated.

ADDITIONS

The first collections of jokes was only the tip of the iceberg. Taken from Wikipedia (it was linked to me by a person on IRC):

Santorum is a sexual neologism proposed by American humorist and sex-advice columnist Dan Savage in 2003 to "memorialize" then US Republican Senator Rick Santorum from Pennsylvania due to the controversy over his statements on homosexuality. Savage asked his readers to submit new definitions for the term; the winning definition was "that frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex."

Does it ring any bells? The so called "giulianone"!
Luttazzi renamed "Santorum" to "giulianone". Giuliano Ferrara is a pro-life, pro-war, pro-Berlusconi, pro-torture etc. italian journalist.

Getting surreal: someone on a forum told me that also the joke with the moth which flies straight was written by Carlin. I checked and in fact:

You know how you can tell when a moth farts? When he suddenly flies in a straight line.

This is incredible! For years Luttazzi literally complained for half an hour in every of his shows because once Paolo Bonolis (an italian entertainer) told this joke on "Striscia La Notizia" (a show Bonolis hosted), and he (Luttazzi) took it from Carlin in the first place? I think this could be defined as ultra-plagiarism. Apparently, there has been a controversy about this incident, because someone after years told the truth about this joke. Luttazzi answered that, apart from [sic] improving the joke, he inserted it into his monolgue for a sort of treasure hunt for his fans who should play finding these "quotations". I wonder how happy the unknowing american authors from which he took these jokes will be about this big treasure hunt. Will see...

In the meanwhile, another of Carlin's jokes plagiarized by Luttazzi:

(Luttazzi's version is about Berlusconi instead of "americans")
I don't believe there's any problem in this country, no matter how tough it is, that Americans, when they roll up their sleeves, can't completely ignore.

A friend of mine gave me piece of Hicks about drugs plagiarized by Luttazzi. Thus, adding another joke to the list:

Guy on acid... [quoted above]

Positive LSD story in the news [quoted above]

[The joke with Keith Richards' brain, which, when on drugs, makes the sound of "Satisfaction".] That's him on drugs? Give him some more! Let's see what else he pumps out!

Keith Richards outlived Jim Fixx... [quoted above]

This is, in my opinion, totally unacceptable: an entire piece of 5 minutes being plagiarized (and there are no doubts about this, since it's dated 1989)!

Another piece I found in which the jokes are very similar is the one by Carlin about femminism against war where he talks about the fact that men go to war only to demonstrate who has the biggest dick; and that all bullets and bombs have the shape of a penis etc. Ok, Luttazzi says that in his version that wars are only a way to say "my god has a bigger dick than your god [follows part about chauvinism and about bombs and bullets which have a phallic shape]". Thus, even if this can't be considered plagiarism, one can at least recognize the pattern. (note: even the one with "my god has a bigger dick than your god" is by Carlin!)

Another joke by Carlin which was linked to me (it became a hunt) was surely plagiarized: the video, I guess, is of the '70s:

Farts are shit without the mass.

I can remember this joke quite well in the context of "little known facts about farts" by Luttazzi.

P.S. A so called easter egg (or quotation) I found years ago is a poem by Cummings quoted as a joke: "The voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses". See? This is an easter egg; not writing jokes of other comedians in your own book with your name, with the result that everyone who doesn't know the original joke thinks that it belongs to you.

EPILOGUE: EMO PHILIPS

Since the doubt came back to me, I wrote to Emo Philips concerning the three jokes I quoted above (plus another one about a Van Gogh picture donated anonimously to a museum). In less than 12 hours I got Emo's answer:

the jokes referenced are all jokes that i wrote by myself, for
myself. i have not sold any of them to anyone.

the first , second and fourth jokes are from my album e=mo
squared, first released in 1985, and now on CD.

the third joke you mentioned (loving wife - citizen) is from my
CD "Emo", released in 2001.

all of the above jokes have also been performed on american
television programs.

So, Emo didn't buy nor sell these jokes from/to anybody! And three of the four jokes which I mentioned are dated 1985, so much for 1999! If things really are as they seem, then Luttazzi did not only plagiarize, but he would've lied years ago by telling me that it was him who gave those jokes to Emo! Let's see if I manage to contact Carlin as well... I also tried to contact Luttazi, because it's only fair, but I didn't receive any answer to my email. In the meanwhile, I found another joke by Emo dated 1983 which Luttazzi plagiarized (I saw this joke being told in a short video on Emo's homepage):

You know when you are in bed at night and your house starts making noises you don't hear during the daytime, like "Emo I'm going to kill you...". Well, I remember that song: [sings a song I don't know]. And I start whispering [makes sound of whisper]. And I feel a hand around my neck and a voice "thanks, I thought I'd never find you in the dark".

I'd like to state that I found a great amount of identical jokes thanks to Wikiquote and Youtube, it would be interesting to see how many jokes I'd find by watching an entire show of one of these american comedians. Let's see what happens next...

CHARGE

I don't know how other people will react. Some of them might tell me that I shouldn't have written anything, because Luttazzi fought for good causes. But I don't believe in this kind of reasoning: how one achieves things matters to me. And I neither believe that one can simply wash his hands of the whole thing only because the bad was done by "one of ours", not at all!
Surely, this matter will be used to attack Luttazzi even on other fronts. Obviously, I disagree (now and in the future) with those actions. What I blame Luttazzi for is this:

a) having plagiarized
b) having lied about the plagiarism
c) having camouflaged the plagiarism with a sort of treasure hunt
d) having criticized other people who apparentely had plagiarized one of his jokes
e) having done this even when the joke wasn't his own (see the joke by Carlin about the moth)

Moreover, by going through Wikiquote, I found this email by Luttazzi to the people who were handling his own Wikiquote page:

Hello. I'm Daniele Luttazzi. Someone of the Wikiquote authors asked me if I agreed with the quoting of some of my jokes. Ok, but only ten. More would mean taking advantage. Don't force me to call my lawyer. I personally chose the jokes for Wikiquote. They're in the correct verion: on the internet you find many modified version. If you want a confirmation, write me at info@danieleluttazzi.it. Bye and good work.

Only ten jokes because otherwise it would mean taking advantage? Calling your lawyer against boys who maybe quote 30 or 40 jokes as for every comedian on Wikiquote? And you, Daniele, how many jokes did you plagiarize putting your name on them? Lots more than ten! Thus, you took advantage! And without the authors' consent (no way those jokes would've been inserted in your books and your shows otherwise).

As ex-fan of Luttazzi I can't even explain the repulsive sensation I felt reading the material I collected. Probably, a majority of people will keep going at Luttazzi's shows in theatre and will think that, after all, this isn't that bad etc. I can only testify that many people like me stood up for Luttazzi on every occasion, against every injustice and are now hugely disappointed. To deliberately plagiarize art is, in my opinion, even worse than not paying taxes, since part of the earned money is being stolen from others. Moreover, I think money is the last problem in this matter. The main problem is putting one's name on other people's talent. Not even mentioning that Luttazzi implicitly (through email) lied to me about having plagiarized Emo and that in every show (or almost) he talked about him waking up every morning and writing poems (jokes), that plagiarism is the worst things among comedians, that Bonolis plagiarized the joke with the moth, that he makes up jokes just like that (easily, spontaneously) etc. Other people might say that, despite of everything, he has his own repertoire and, for that, he deserves credit. I can only answer that by quoting another ex-fan disappointed as much as myself: "even if 99% of his work belongs to him, fans like me and [says name] cannot care less, his credibility is zero!". I'm sorry of creating another mini-division in a country fragmented like Italy, but there are things I can't ignore, and anyway the matter would've, sooner or later, come to light, even without my (humble) contribution. I have no idea if this matter will have legal effects, but I believe it would be right to let anyone know who these jokes belong to.

One of the excuses (I say it in advance) used by Luttazzi could rely on the fact that many of the plagiarized jokes have been slightly modified. But this isn't a valid excuse! A joke to not be considered as being plagiarized has to change in its comic essence. You can use the same comic technique, but changing two or three words and then having the same comic conclusion is not acceptable. Otherwise, the transposition from one language to another alone would save from plagiarism, since it often forces a change of words and, since we're talking of different countries (and sometimes even different periods), a change of contexts. The right thing to do for Luttazzi, instead of looking for excuses (or attacking), would be to take responsability and to try to pay his debt (in one way or another). Anyway, it's not my duty or right to tell people how they should behave, I can only say that ex-fans like me would at least appreciate this kind of gesture.

Also, I'm offering an english version of this text, so that even comedians in the US like Emo Philips will know how things are and can take the measures which seem more appropriate to them. It would only be right if in future editions of Luttazzi's books will be written the name of the author (or inspirator, if we want to use an euphemis) of the original joke. I mean if those jokes won't be completely removed, I don't know if there could be these kind of implications.

I'd like to thank Emo Philips for all his help and I confess that I admire his work a lot. I hope that this post will contribute in making Emo's audience grow even more.

DANIELE LUTTAZZI ANSWERS

EMAIL EXCHANGE

A month has already passed since I sent my first email to Luttazzi (before I posted this article); and today, finally, he answered me. The post has already been read by many people, let's see if Luttazzi's answers clarify the matter. All emails have been reported entirely, I haven't changed a thing. Here's my first email which I sent when I was only in doubt and not certain about the whole thing:

Subject: Hicks, Carlin, Seinfeld, Philips, Sahl etc.

Text:

Dear Daniele,

I wanted to ask you why some of your jokes have been told by american comedians. I know that from 1999 you have worked for HBO (as wikipedia says), but at least Hicks died in 1994.

What follows is the 2-days mail exchange between me and Daniele Luttazzi.

Daniele Luttazzi:

Dear Tyuuen, I have been organizing for years for my fans (I explain that on my blog) a treasure hunt. It involves in discovering jokes and poetry by famous american authors which I insert here and there in my books/monologues. Those who discover the references win a book or a cd. The last two winners were Davide Prevarin ( the topic was Chris Rock) and Mauro Madeddu ( Bill Hicks ). With internet, the references is promptly discovered, but not always. The quote of a poetry by e.e.cummings ( inserted in Adenoidi in 1994) has only been discovered in 2001!

I have my fun. :-)

Ciao.

Daniele

Myself:

Yes and it was me who years ago discovered the Cummings quote.
I have found many jokes not only by Hicks, but by many others. Years ago I wrote you to ask you how come you had so many jokes in common with Emo Philips and you answered me that it was because since 1999 you work for HBO. You didn't mention anything about this treasure hunt. Moreover, Emo Philips didn't know anything about the fact that you took (or quoted) about ten of his jokes. I've found many “quoted” jokes (really not few) by many authors. Also, the joke about the fly (which was already known) was by Carlin. Why did you accuse Bonolis (and he may be pathetic) of plagiarizing you? He only told the joke about the fly, that would plagiarize Carlin (even if he discovered the “fly” joke during your monologue, in either case he would have plagiarized Carlin).
Also, if your remember, you said it yourself that Bonolis justified his plagiarism with the mere quotation excuse, what's wrong then? It doesn't matter that Bonolis is Bonolis, even if he is contemptible as a person or at least not a comedian. The matter is another one: to distinguish what is quotation and what plagiarism/copy. In my humble opinion, a quotation has one characteristic to which it is bound: the ability for the reader (or the listener) to guess that the text has been taken from another source, regardless if the reader knows the other source or not. When writing one would use italic fonts or quotation marks or both. When speaking, generally, one would mimic quotation marks with the fingers or the author is mentioned like by saying “like X used to say...”. Let's assume that in your case both methodologies were too explicit, considering the “treasure hunt” goal, even if, you should have maintained the main characteristic of a quotation by leaving anyone the ability to guess that it was such, for instance by changing the tone of your voice or by assuming a certain position or expression only during the “quotation”. Otherwise you do exactly like Bonolis did: to plagiarize. And here we come to the main characteristic of plagiarism: taking something from somebody to gain advantages, either personally, economically or for popularity reasons. And the result is exactly this one, since almost nobody knows those american comedians and their jokes.
Meaning that most people think that those jokes are yours. This for what concerns the “quotation”, obviously it's different when the quotation is a mere partial reference, maybe decontextualized, like in the case of Cummings' poetry, which was perfectly legitimate. In fact, because it was a very particular sentence and said in a particular way it could suggest to the listener/reader to do a little research out of curiosity or making somebody who knew that poet smile. But there wasn't a personal advantage in mentioning that sentence. To clarify, it wouldn't have resulted in the classical “string”, the drum sound typical of a joke, it wouldn't have “increased the score” to say in a brutally reductive way.

Daniele Luttazzi:

Dear Tyuuen, I excuse myself then if with my answer I made you misunderstand. My american correspondence is with authors of comedy tv shows. With them I exchange ideas and jokes. I've never said that I did it with Philips though, neither do I know what the americans do with my jokes, even though Jay Leno says every once in a while ( and this is a great pleasure, obviously ). When Benigni, the last month, resumed my Bindi/Bondi joke, to those who notified me about it I answered: -He might have found it deserving of his own geniality. -The art of comedy is the comedy of art: we are all midgets on the shoulders of giants.

The matter of Bonolis, though, is different and it didn't involve the paternity of the joke ( which is by Carlin ) but the fact that Bonolis told it in tv two days after having heard it from me in a theater, like he himself did admit. The funny paradox is that I used Carlin's joke as an example of generic jokes which tv doesn't allow and I closed saying: -The sad thing is that of the whole political monologue of this evening, this fly's fart joke will be the only joke which you are going to remember.- And here was the laugh I wanted, on a joke which make a satirical comment on the preferences of the public. End of proof: from the whole 2-hour monologue about Berlusconi, Bonolis took that joke!

The treasure hunt is useful for me for legal defense reasons: they close your show or they say that you are vulgar, you demonstrate that the examples referenced come from the antique and modern satirical tradition. An old trick by Lenny Bruce, then later one re-used by Hicks. If I'd admit the source in an explicit way, the whole strategy wouldn't work. ( Even Hicks takes topics and jokes from Bruce, just like Carlin ( the OMNIA opera by Carlin is practically a long variation on Bruce's monologue “SEMANTIC” ); Bruce re-did identically Joe Ancis; Woody Allen re-does Mort Sahl and Groucho Marx; Robin Williams is so full of quotations that many comedians do not perform when he's in the room, because they're sure that he will take their jokes in his way maybe to Letterman! I also was the first one in Italy to talk about Hicks and Carlin, in an interview on Radio2 at the time of Barracuda. And I quoted some jokes that then landed in the treasure hunt. )

Consider that in art it's always the HOW which makes the difference. A comedian accused publicly the great Eddie Foy because Foy told one of his jokes. Foy answered:-Yes, but I told it better - Meaning: in art originality has its value, but an equally important value has improvement.

The treasure hunt offers me exactly this: a scientific study on variation. It's not really the topic of a joke that makes peole laugh, but the technique. This is the reason why, when a journalist reproduces a joke by paraphrasing, the joke doesn't make you laugh, maybe smile. And here comes my study: I demonstrated on many rounds that, like the same sentence becomes a joke if you change the context or the how or the intention, so that a joke gets new effects and/or meaning by changing those elements, or by removing an adverb, or by shifting a comma, or by choosing a term over another. The possibilities are endless. If I can obtain an interesting mutation ( more laugher and/or different meaning ) with just a small change, then for me it's a great result. But I have to try it in front of an audience. You have noticed some aspects of these poor research of mine which have lasted already twenty years. I hope that I've been able to give you the general picture.

There's more: in my lesson about Woody Allen's comedy ( it's on the blog as podcast ) I tell about new development from my laboratory: Keaton's visual gag with the cow in “Go west” is, from the comical topology point of view, IDENTICAL to Allen's joke wit the clarinett in “Annie Hall”. Though apparently they are totally different. No research on Google could've make one discover that. There I explain why they are the same joke.

Have fun!

Daniele

Myself:

Dear Daniele,

assuming that I misunderstood the thing about Philips, either way, the treasure hunt topic wasn't metioned by you at the time (we're talking about some years ago) when I wasked you about Philips.
But ok, certainly I misunderstood.

I understand the sense of the joke about the fly, but I also remember well that you complained in the theater saying “now that Bonolis told the joke on tv I cannot tell it anymore, otherwise they'd tell me: “yeah but this joke has been said by Bonolis””. To avoid all this wouldn't it have been much easier to say: “this joke is neither mine or his, but Carlin's”. Problem solved.

Moreover, the goal behind the treasure hunt doesn't convince me entirely. You say that, if you revealed the source, the strategy wouldn't work. Why so? Wouldn't it be way more effective to say: “this joke was written by X or Y” before telling the joke? This way everybody would know that there are other people who told “strong” jokes in other countries where they don't get censored. Moreover, not all the jokes you “quoted” qualify for that goal. For instance, the joke:

"Today a young man on acid, thought he could fly, jumped off a building, what a tragedy." What a dick! If he thought he could fly, why didn't he take off from the ground?

Cannot be used for legal protection or things like that. So you'll tell me that this is a pearl for the fans or another thing like that.

But the main problem I was pointing out in the last email and to which you didn't answer was: a quotation shouldn't bring advantages of any kind (economical, for popularity etc.).

You wrote me that many comedians re-do other comedians. Since I don't know Bruce so well, I cannot answer you on him. But I know perfectly well Allen's and Marx's repertoire (movies, books, tv appearances etc.), and I don't know any joke in common between the two. Well, there is one in fact. The one about the club (“I would never join a club which accepts me as a member”). But then? It didn't occurr to me that Allen takes many jokes by Marx, even though the comedy style is the same. Neither could he, since everybody would notice: they are famous in the same country. About Robin Williams: everybody knows that he plagiarizes. But I don't consider him: he may be a comedian, but surely he's not an Author well known in the scene.

You also wrote me that in art improvement has a value. Now, assuming you told better (and I'm talking about the tone of your voice, since the text is identical) Emo Philips's jokes compared to him, but doesn't the paternity of a joke have a value as well? What stops me from taking many of your jokes which I like and insert them in my monologue and then if you complain, I answer: “yeah, but I told them better and I improved them”. Is it that we're both in Italy? Is it only that? Then you allow all foreign comedians to take your jokes, the important thing is that they vary them a bit (maybe by changing some names), insert them in another monologue and that they tell them better. There's no problem, I suppose. I guess other can as well take the time to change some comma or word, just because the transposition from a language to another imposes it per sé.

Variation is ok, in fact the joke about the crucified christ with an erection resembles a joke by Bruce. But that's ok, the tecnique can be re-used, but let's take the sequence of jokes:

------------------------------------
"Today a young man on acid, thought he could fly, jumped off a building, what a tragedy." What a dick! If he thought he could fly, why didn't he take off from the ground?

Wouldn't you like to see a positive LSD story on the news? To hear what it's all about, perhaps? Wouldn't that be interesting? Just for once?"Today, a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration . that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There's no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we're the imagination of ourselves. Here's Tom with the weather."

Keith Richards outlived Jim Fixx, the runner and health nut. The plot thickens. You remember Jim Fixx? This human cipher used to write books on jogging. Now, what do you fuckin' write about jogging? 'Right foot, left foot, faster, faster, oh hell, I dunno, go home, shower.' Pretty much covers the jogging experience, I do believe. Then this doofus goes out and has a heart attack and dies.... while jogging. There is a God.

[The joke with Keith Richards' brain, which, when on drugs, makes the sound of "Satisfaction".] That's him on drugs? Give him some more! Let's see what else he pumps out!
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Where's the improvement? It's a 5-minute sequence from a Bill Hicks show which you indetically re-used. Yeah, the joke about Fixx changes a bit because in Italy nobody know who Fixx was and so you need a bit of introduction “Jim Fixx, the inventor of jogging”, but as for the remaining, what changes? These are four jokes in a row, taken all four. The fact that you have mentioned Hicks and Carlin on Radio2 doesn't change much I believe. You never mentioned these names in theater and you never wrote on your book the paternity of the jokes. So, regarding the gain of popularity, in my opinion, there has been a gain! I don't know how many did follow your interview on Radio2, but from what I've seen very few people did know these “quotations”...

Now, if you telle that in your opinion it's all legitimate, then ok. I think we have different opinions on the matter.

Daniele Luttazzi:

Dear Tyuuen, if it helps as thought starting point between comedy passionates I attach you some examples of how authors of USA lateshow exchange jokes and readapt them to current events or to the style of the comedian. On June 19th, Craig Ferguson, says in his show:

Great day for Hillary Clinton. She choose the song for her campaign, a song by Celine Dion. Is it wise choosing a Celine Dion song? She’s a singer best known for doing a song based on a sinking ship.

The evening after, Jay Leno resumes the idea in his own monologue:

Hillary Clinton has picked "You and I” by Celine Dion as her campaign theme song. And in a related story, John McCain’s campaign song is also by Celine Dion — it’s the theme from "Titanic.”
The next example involves Jay Leno and Jon Stewart:

Apparently, Bush referred to the Pope as 'sir' rather than 'your holiness.' And also as 'stretch' and the ... 'Popeinator'" ---Jon Stewart

President Bush was in Rome ... and had a big gaffe at the Vatican. President Bush is in trouble for calling the Pope 'sir' instead of 'your holiness.' Hey, it could have been worse. I'm surprised he didn't call him the 'Popester'" ---Jay Leno

In the tradition of american vaudeville, the variation tecnique on the topic is defined as “ the old switcheroo ”. Three years ago, in my “Bollito misto” I said:

“Al Qaeda claimed the broadcasting of “Domenica in””.

On June 13th of this year Letterman presents again my joke, adapted to the news of the day:

"This just in: al Qaeda is claiming credit for the vague ending of 'The Sopranos.”

Did Letterman plagiarize me? No. He only executed a variation on the topic, by using a comic formula which every expert author knows.

I notice that we have different opinion. But if I thought of claiming paternity for the jokes by Hicks or Carlin or Philips or Seinfeld I would be crazy, since they have been released for years as videos and cds and books. Among fans the are very famous. This is why I'm confident that they will be identified as quotations. It would be like one accused Enrico Rava because in his solos he repeates phrasings by Miles Davis. The fan recognizes the eye blink.

Thanks for the exchange of ideas.

Good day.

D

Final Note

I'd like to thank Luttazzi for the well-mannered answer. I haven't sent any other email because in my opinion it wouldn't have been of much use. In fact, what appeared is a substantial difference of opinions. In this last email Luttazzi answered only partially to what I had asked him. The problem I pointed out in two emails was that a quotation shouldn't make the comedian gain popularity. The fact that Luttazzi writes that he doesn't claim the paternity of those jokes changes almost nothing. That the joke X isn't his own is something I know and he knows, but how many of the italian fans of Luttazzi are conscious that a joke is his or not? We're talking about a very small minority (not even the 0,1%) and even if one knows a joke by Hicks it's not implied that he also knows all those other comedians which Luttazzi “quoted”. The result is that the fan attributes those jokes to Luttazzi: even in his books there's no mentioning of the paternity of a joke. Luttazzi hasn't answered me on Allenx and Marx, but he wrote about Leno, Letterman and Ferguson, which I don't consider to be authors. They host a daily Late Night Show and everybody knows they have their jokes written by someone else. What Luttazzi thinks about Letterman who re-uses one of his jokes is a thing I don't really care about. Either way, at least for me, it's not the same thing of a Woody Allen who takes jokes from others (like Groucho Marx). Moreover, Luttazzi didn't answer me about the “taking his jokes”. If variation is legitimate at these levels then every french or german comedian is authorized to go fishing in Luttazzi's repertoire and put those jokes in their own books. However, I remember what Luttazzi said talking about plagiarism among comedians in theater about the paternity of a work of art like a poem (and a joke is “like a small poem”): “it would be like a poet who wanted to finish his poem with: - e m'illumino d'immenso [famous poem by Giuseppe Ungaretti, ndr]-. No you can't do it!”. What's the difference? In a month of research I have already found at least 40-50 (I haven't counted them) jokes which are identical (yeah right, a comma is different or a word, but the jokes are exactly those). It wasn't difficult, I found them easily. At this point, if these jokes (and the repository where I collect them will continue to grow from time to time) are really legitimate quotations or not, will be decided by the reader. I remain of the idea that it would be totally correct to give the author credit, at least in the books. I maintain the original title of the post: “Daniele Luttazzi Plagiarizes!”, but, if you don't agree, you can read it as “Daniele Luttazzi Quotes!”. About the fact that Luttazzi did lie in my first email, I might have misunderstood, but I remember very well that there was no trace of the “treasure hunt” in that email.