TVSquad

If Mad Men is any indication of what its like to work in the real advertising world, then the writing process alone must cause more migraines than swimming in radioactive sewage.

That's still no excuse for stealing material, if that is in fact the case with this British ad. UK comic Micky Flanagan claims an ad agency stole a joke from his act for a phone service commercial and is a stone's throw away from filing a lawsuit. Punchline Magazine posted videos of the joke and the ad. Is this just a coincidence or is the ad pulling a Carlos Mencia?

First, listen to Flanagan's joke...



And now, watch the ad, which is after the jump.

In his breakout role on NewsRadio fifteen years ago, Joe Rogan played Joe Garrelli, a maintenance man with deceptively deep springs of knowledge. In a sense, Rogan has been playing that role for his whole career, hosting Fear Factor and The Man Show, commentating for the UFC, while writing increasingly smart stand-up comedy. Rogan's new special, Talking Monkeys in Space (Spike TV, June 20 midnight), is his best work to date.

Rogan takes on the legalization of marijuana, Dr. Phil, and technology with brutal logic. His last television day gig, Game Show In Your Head, is over but he says he doesn't mind. He's still doing what he loves most - stand-up comedy and commentating for the UFC, and he's got a new Web series on Crackle.com, a sort of Inside the Actors Studio for stand-up comedians, he says will start within the next couple of months.

I spoke with him about all of that, how having a one-year old daughter has changed his perspective, how his personal philosophies have evolved, and the treatment of his frequent rival Carlos Mencia on a recent episode of South Park, in which Mencia was beheaded by Kanye West for stealing a joke he couldn't explain.

This story hits a little too close to home for me since I'm a native New Orleanian and have spent more time at Mardi Gras parades than most of the floats in the parade. So forgive my impertinence if things get a little too personal in this post.

The Krewe of Orpheus should be given the Nobel Peace Prize for pulling their invitation to Carlos Mencia to ride in this year's parade. Then it should be immediately stripped for not having the decency to not invite him in the first place.

Here's how it works. Three of the biggest Mardi Gras parades called "Super Krewes" invite big name celebrities to ride in their parades the weekend before Fat Tuesday. No, Fat Tuesday is not the nickname people have for your mother's birthday. It's the actual Mardi Gras day.

Comedy Central has renewed two of its shows, Mind of Mencia and Lil' Bush.

Carlos Mencia's show is actually the number one 10 PM cable show with men aged 18-24. Yeah, I know, that sounds like an awfully specific ratings number to brag about, but these people know what they're doing with all this stuff. This blog post is the number one rated blog post about Comedy Central that was posted in the afternoon of October 2, 2007 by a guy drinking a hot chai.

Here's an epilogue to my post about the tiff between Joe Rogan and Carlos Mencia that took place on stage at The Comedy Store a few days ago.

In a nutshell: Rogan and other comedians have been accusing Mencia of stealing material for some time, and the two men had a battle of words on stage with Rogan (and a couple other comedians) accusing Mencia of stealing material, and Mencia denying it.

On his Web site, Rogan wrote that he received a call from Comedy Store owner Mitzi Shore (mother of Pauly Shore), asking him to explain what had happened. Later, he received a call from the club's manager telling him he might want to take a break from the club because of the tension between him and Mencia. He also told Rogan they weren't happy about him putting the video of the fight on the internet. Bottom line: Rogan has been banned from The Comedy Store, and Mencia will continue to perform there.

Carlos Mencia is not the first comedian to be accused of stealing material from other comedians --Denis Leary was accused of stealing from the late Bill Hicks, Dane Cook has been accused of swiping material from Louis C.K.-- but if all allegations are true, Mencia may be the one with the most evidence stacked against him.

I often wonder if "stealing" isn't sometimes confused with comics sharing a similar worldview. I'm not a stand-up comedian, but even I've seen funny ideas that have popped into my head appear on television shows, or in The Onion, or any other number of places. It seems that if you've thought of something, there's a good chance someone else has also thought of it.

I'm not part of the zany world of stand up comedy, but Joe Rogan is, and he's vehemently convinced that the majority of Mencia's material is stolen, and if the video below is any indication, comedians George Lopez and Bobby Lee also agree. Check out the clip to see Rogan and Mencia engage in a battle of words on stage at the Comedy Store. VIDEO CONTAINS FOUL LANGUAGE.

UPDATE: The YouTube video has been removed, so check it out here instead.

[via Digg]