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Episode 904: Joke Theft

By Sarah Gonzalez,
Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi, Sarah Gonzalez
Published April 5, 2019 at 10:01 PM PDT
A screenshot of Jen Lewis' original famous image: Kanye kissing Kanye.
Jen Lewis
/
https://twitter.com/thisjenlewis
A screenshot of Jen Lewis' original famous image: Kanye kissing Kanye.

In 2015, Jen Lewis posted a photoshopped image to Twitter that would go insanely viral. In it, Kanye West is kissing a mirrored image of himself. The image is so popular it even ends up spray painted on a wall in Australia. Kanye, maybe inspired by the photo, writes a song about how much he loves himself.

But the thing is... Jen's original tweet didn't get much. What made it famous was that the Instagram account, f*ckjerry, reposted it. Without crediting her.

Passing off content without credit is the newest form of a problem that has long troubled the comedy community: Joke theft.

Today on the show, we trace the history of protecting jokes. Comedians and meme creators aren't relying on copyright law; they've created a whole informal system of sanctions to protect their material from thieves.

Music: "Slapped Cheeks," and "I Love Kanye," and "Playin' Games."

Find us: Twitter / Facebook / Instagram

Subscribe to our show onApple Podcasts, Pocket Casts and NPR One.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Regional Interests
Sarah Gonzalez
See stories by Sarah Gonzalez
Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi
Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi is a host and reporter for Planet Money, telling stories that creatively explore and explain the workings of the global economy. He's a sucker for a good supply chain mystery — from toilet paper to foster puppies to specialty pastas. He's drawn to tales of unintended consequences, like the time a well-intentioned chemistry professor unwittingly helped unleash a global market for synthetic drugs, or what happened when the U.S. Patent Office started granting patents on human genes. And he's always on the lookout for economic principles at work in unexpected places, like the tactics comedians use to protect their intellectual property (a.k.a. jokes).
See stories by Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi
Sarah Gonzalez
Sarah Gonzalez is a host and reporter with Planet Money, NPR's award-winning podcast that finds creative, entertaining ways to make sense of the big, complicated forces that move our economy. She joined the team in April 2018.