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How far would you be willing to go to remain relevant in your field of work? Some would say by any means necessary, but others would remain ethical and work hard to achieve the success they crave. For Amy Schumer, a feminist comedian and star of Comedy Central’s Inside Amy Schumer quite a few would disagree. Schumer recently came under fire for allegedly stealing and re-branding other female comic’s jokes as her own. The accusations (which have supporting evidence that will follow) show Schumer and the victims in side by side comparison of the jokes. Among the victims are comedians:

Wendy Liebman

Kathleen Madigan

Tammy Pescatelli

All above stated that she stole their jokes via Twitter and the tirade continued from there. While Schumer attempted to deflect the criticism on things such as sexism, and jealousy from supporters of the comedians, no evidence has been presented to back her claims.

Inside Amy Schumer has, in fact, rebranded several jokes in one form or another from other Comedians, and successfully played them out. Patrice O’neal, whom Schumer used to open for before his passing in 2011 was one of these victims as well. Schumer stole his classical poltergeist joke, which in comparison, you can see where the allegations first stem:

O’Neal: “There’s ‘the Poltergeist.’ But you need your friend for this one. You’re f****** her from behind, and then you sneak out and he takes your place. And then you walk outside and wave at her through the window.”

Schumer: “The worst one I’ve ever heard is ‘the Houdini.’ It’s where the guy’s having sex with the girl from behind. Then, unbeknownst to her, his friend subs in for him. Guy 1 runs outside, knocks on the window, and waves to the girl. Which is just rape. That’s just rape. It’s not fair to Houdini.

Schumer denies that she has stolen any jokes at all. However, the public doesn´t buy into her “not guilty” statements.

Schumer flat-out denied any involvement in stealing O’Neal’s material publicly and to tabloids including TMZ. This is further fueled by these jokes:

Wendy Liebman:“Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I like it when the guy pays. For sex.”

Amy Schumer: “I am very old-school — I think the guy should always pay on the first date. For sex.”

Although the jokes are very similar it’s easy to see just how the rebranding was made to make it a new joke. Unfortunately, this carries over into Pescatelli’s accusation as well, in which her joke was misrepresented in Schumer’s movie Trainwreck:

Pescatelli: “Men, if we love you, we dress you for other women too. That’s why we dress you stupid.”

Schumer (to her sister, about her sister’s husband): “You dress him like that so no one else wants to have sex with him? That’s cool.”

Again, we can see where Schumer got the inspiration for her joke from. Concerning her talent vs. Just being a bully, Schumer asserts that the reason for this recent backlash is jealousy concerning her friendship with Jennifer Lawrence and having a successful show on Comedy Central. In addition to winning an Emma award, she’s a member of the Screenwriters Guild.

The last piece of evidence can’t be shown online since it no longer exists. It is a video that Schumer’s parent company Viacom pulled from youtube and several other media outlets citing that it violated DCMA acts. This is heavily debatable, as Schumer has stepped up to her critics with the temper of an adolescent 5-year-old. She’s publicly blasted her critics and even mocked a teenage film critic on social media, in a ham-fisted attempt at defending herself. More so, she also kept up the facade about not being a joke thief on several podcasts and interviews. This could be easily true as Schumer may or may not write all of her skits or jokes herself.

If Schumer is innocent or guilty, the true test of her ethics would be to come out and admit her wrong doing. However as we’ll continue to see as with people like Carlos Mencia, they’ll simply fade away after a few years of inactivity without continued success.

With that said, what´s your thoughts on this matter? Let us know what you think in the comment section down below!

Source:
Amy Schumer
Amy Schumer is a Joke Thief Reaction!
Vox Media

***Disclaimer***
This is a personal opinion of the writer, and it doesn’t necessarily represent the other writers (nor The Gaming Ground´s) opinions.