In Sweden, no known joke theft cases have been brought to court, but in 2019 comedian Conan O'Brien settled in favor with a man who sued him for joke theft. "People all over the world are at the same joke all the time, especially when it comes to a current topic," O'Brien wrote of the Superbowl-related joke.
2018Twitter turned to accounts used to steal other users' jokes and shut down a handful of users with a total of millions of followers.
2016The SVT series The Juice Bar was accused of hijacking one of the American Louis CK's jokes about how people who say the "n-word" just plant racist speeches in the head of the listener.
2015Josh Ostrovsky, better known as his alter ego Fat Jew, was accused of twisting generously from other comedians and happy amateur jokes on social media and then publishing the joke under his own name to his millions of followers on Instagram.
What does the law say?Protecting a joke from theft is legally a little tricky. The joke is often based on an idea that cannot be protected by copyright. A wording or sentence written down can be protected and also the way it is conveyed. But trying to legally satisfy the fun of a stand up club is all the more difficult.
- I don't think there is any case in Sweden that has gone to court, says Sanna Wolk, professor of intellectual property and continues:
- Of course, the idea is never protected, but it is the artistic expression. If you take the Countess and the servant as an example, you cannot protect the joke that a valet becomes fuller and fuller, but how it is designed.
Sanna Wolk also says that a performance recorded to some extent can be protected by the artist's right.
- But as a stand-up comedian, I would say that it is quite limited.