Jonas Polsky

by Jonas Polsky

It was once said that “great minds think alike”, but I think someone had said it prior to that. As a comedian, or joke writer, you will find that people have already said, or will subsequently say jokes that you have thought of. There are an infinite number of possible jokes, but someone else’s mind will seize on the same angle, or punchline that you do.

Sometimes they will think of it an hour, or week after you do, or years before you were born. Civilization has yet to create a definitive “Joke Database” for reference, and until we can band together and do so, comedians are going to come up with jokes that overlap, or are identical.

I once thought of the knock knock joke “Who’s there?” “Doorbell repairman” and thought it was hysterical. I looked it up and found that not only had someone already thought of it, it was printed in several Knock Knock Joke books.

There are going to be obvious punchlines, and not-so-obvious punchlines, but it’s unlikely that anything you come up with hasn’t already been thought of, said, or used in a movie. I once wrote a joke changing the “stair” in “Stairmaster” to “stare.” A few weeks later Rob Delaney posted a joke using the same idea.

Last week I was watching an episode of “Seinfeld” and Jerry said the exact same Stairmaster joke, but he had beaten both Rob and I to the punch by about two decades.

Some comedians will censor themselves, even refuse premises, or subjects that are similar to something that has been said. This is incredibly limiting. Lots of stand up comedy has been recorded and created, and we should not paint ourselves into a corner as a result. At no point should we look at each other and decide everything’s been said and stop being funny.

It is a very big world out there, and if you’re using a common language, you’ll come up with the same puns and wordplay as many other people. Likewise, we all exist in the same reality, and have roughly the same experiences. If you meet a comedian from another dimension, you won’t get the references, but if you did you’d die laughing at the most original comedy you’ve ever heard.

You will sometimes come up with a joke first, other times last, and it doesn’t matter which. People that cry havoc at the smallest similarity in material do so typically because they can’t think of any jokes on their own.

On the internet specifically, we are “burning” through jokes at a rate exponentially faster than at any other time in history. We’re coming up with and disposing of material at a speed that would terrify a gag writer from twenty years ago.

Sometimes you may have an idea that feels like you’ve heard before. In that situation, use your best judgment. If you feel uncomfortable with material, don’t use it, it’s up to you. You can Google it, or ask a friend if they’ve heard it before, but you’re not a “bad” person for coming up with the same idea as someone else.

I was once performing stand up, and the comic ahead of me told a joke about online shopping that was almost identical to one of my own that I was about to perform for the first time. I would have looked like I was parroting his own joke back to him, so when I went onstage I told a different joke in its place. That was a judgment call of my own, but if I had chosen to I could have said it anyway.

If you look hard enough, you will find that virtually every joke, every angle, and every premise has already been done. The point of comedy is to entertain yourself, and make other people laugh. If there was only one person on the planet making jokes, originality would be easy, but you’re working alongside billions of other people who are trying to find laughs onstage, in the office, and on the internet.

This is by no means a license to steal. You should never pawn someone else’s joke off as your own, but know that finding a truly original idea is nearly impossible. Follow your own conscience, and if someone complains, decide what you want to do. If you think of a joke, it’s yours, no matter what has happened in the past.

Don’t be afraid to say something brilliant out of fear that it’s already been though of. Joke writing isn’t a matter of life or death, be creative, have fun, and say whatever you come up with.