Should Carlos Mencia be charged with plagiarism?

[Angel Heart]

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[Larkinn]

Under what statutes? AFAIK plagarism is not a crime in the US.

 

[Gem]

Plagiarism is a crime - I believe it falls under theft of intellectual property. I can't copy Stephen King's "The Stand," word for word, call it "The Last Stand." and try to sell it to a publishing house. Wikipedia says its not the same thing as copyright infringement, but that like copyright infringement it is punishable in civil court.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagiarism#_note-2

I don't think, however, that most stand-up comedians copyright their work, which is where the trouble comes in for the Carlos Mencia issue. I had a roommate in college who was dating a stand-up comedian who talked a lot about people stealing other peoples material. He said that there was never really anything you could do about it - it was more of an honor thing. He did say that a lot of times, more famous guys would listen to the "up-and-comers" sets and then steal their stuff. Then, when the new guy went to a new club and started his routine someone would accuse him of stealing the more famous guy's material...which my friends boyfriend said was just the worst feeling in the world, because its almost impossible to prove who said it first.

It seems from the other material floating around about Mencia that he has decided to "play a part" in order to get famous. I suppose the question that those who find him funny have to ask is "Does it matter that the Carlos Mencia personality is entirely created and that his material is often borrowed heavily from, if not outright stolen from, other comedians." Having seen how frustrating and upsetting it is to a comedian...I have to say that I'm looking at Carlos Mencia in a different light.

 

[William Joyce]

I always thought he was pretty funny. Didn't know about this.

 

[hjmick]

I always thought he was pretty funny. Didn't know about this.

It's been going on for a couple of years now, but it doesn't seem to diminish his popularity. Denis Leary has been accused of the same thing.

I saw Carlos live in Hollywood a couple of years ago and he was damn funny, but I don't care for his Comedy Central show too much. His stand up stuff on HBO makes me laugh.

 

[Cynic-American]

when I found out about him stealing material and lying about his ethnicity, I stopped watching his show.
Can he be sued? Not likely.

 

[Shogun]

Dennis Leary stole his schtick from Bill Hicks but i dont know if he stole specific jokes. I wold like to see it if he did. Bill Hicks was the MAN.


and yes, Carlos sucks. He is trying to be for latinos what Dave Cheppele became for blacks. He can't even write his own jokes. Fuck him.

Im with Joe Rogan on this one.