Comedians fear for their material

Comedians fear club chain Highlight is encouraging people to steal and distribute their jokes with its new Twitter competition.

The company has just launched a £5,000 hunt for Britain’s funniest gag – and freely admit they are not concerned about whether the entrants wrote the gags they are submitting.

But stand-ups who spend hours crafting material fear their jokes will become unusable if people spread them around the internet.

‘We’re not insisting that people create their own material,’ a spokesman for Highlight owners Intertain admitted.

The chain, which operates ten former Jongleurs venues, is trying to boost the number of Twitter followers by offering the £5,000 prize to the funniest gag that can be told within a limited number of characters.

Comedians and members of the public are being encouraged to tweet their gags with the hashtag #5kgag/ The one deemed the funniest by June 30 will win the prize – as long as the contributor is following @comedyhighlight.

In an article for Chortle today, comedian Tony Cowards said: ‘What worries me is that, potentially, the winner will earn £5,000 for merely repeating a joke that was written by someone else, a sum which would take even a top circuit comedian a long time to earn.

‘Not only that, but they will most likely make that particular joke unusable in a live environment as the assumption will be that the comic stole it from the competition! A situation that even Alanis Morrisette would realise is harshly ironic.

‘As a comic and a writer, my jokes are the tools of my trade. If they are taken away from me then my distinction from a bloke in a pub telling old barroom gags is seriously diminished.’

Despite his misgivings, Cowards has entered several of his own gag into the competition – saying it’s the only way for him to stamp his ownership on them.

The rules to the competition state that ‘Intertain bears no responsibility for issues surrounding copyright of any jokes or material entered into the competition.’

And a company spokesman told Chortle: ‘The concept of the 5k gag is to provide everyone with a little post-election light relief. We think that sharing jokes is a great way to do this.

‘In asking people to share their favourite joke, we’re not insisting that people create their own material. On a practical level, this would be impossible to police. We simply ask that entrants pass on something they’ve heard that’s funny.

‘We do understand the concerns of comedians in allowing entrants to submit jokes that they didn’t write, so if a comedian can prove that one of their own jokes has been entered by someone else, we will discount that joke from entry to the competition.

‘Comedians are, of course, welcome to take part and share their own material in an attempt to win the £5,000.’

Published: 25 May 2010