Revisiting the Dane Cook controversy

Published Sep 12 2006, 05:14 PM by Ryan Stewart

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Boston-area comic Dane Cook is one of the biggest stars in standup comedy today: his Retaliation is the best-selling comedy CD since Steve Martin's Wild and Crazy Guy, his HBO special Vicious Circle is on all the time, he sold out the TD Banknorth Garden, and he's hosting this season's premiere of Saturday Night Live in a few weeks. All in all, a good time to be Dane Cook.




Boston-area comic Louis C. K. has long divided his time between doing his standup and writing for such shows as SNL and Late Night with Conan O'Brien. He also wrote and directed the cinematic masterpiece known as Pootie Tang. Currently, he can also be seen on HBO, in his sitcom Lucky Louie. All in all, a good time to be Louis C. K.

So with both comics enjoying some visibility (to varying degrees, obviously) on the same premium channel, now would seem like a good time to revisit the controversy that initially surfaced about a year ago. We'll let Dane Cook's wiki page explain:

After the release of his immensely successful CD / DVD Retaliation, many fans of comedy took note of three bits on Cook's CD. On June 10, 1999, comedian Louis CK performed stand-up on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, one of the bits being about naming kids and wanting to name his kid with one letter repeated many times. On CK's debut CD, Louis CK: Live in Houston, which was released in 2000, CK had a bit called "Itchy Asshole". CK has also performed a routine on both his CD, Late Night, and other television programs called "Guy on a Bike", which was a routine about witnessing someone struck by a car and wondering how quickly to warn someone before the accident. In 2005, Dane Cook performed and released three similar routines on Retaliation. CK commented on the similarities, noting what he considered clear examples of cribbing material, but said that he did not intend to act on these findings. For his part, Cook has yet to respond.

We know what you're thinking: "Isn't Wikipedia usually bullshit? Remember the elephants thing?"

Fine, Mr. Skeptic/Dane Cook Fanboy, we'll go one better, and provide the audio evidence, as found on some blog called Redban.com:

LISTEN: Dane Cook possibly ripping off Louis C. K.'s material (mp3)

(Louis's versions go first, followed by Dane's, in case you don't recognize either voice.)

And what's most astonishing to us: how nearly the same exact joke can sound hilarious coming out of one guy and flat coming out of another. (Guess which one!)

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3 Comments

• bah said:

  dude, none of those bits were all that original. they were amusing. I'm no Cook fan at all, but *I* told all three of those jokes 10 years ago among friends... because they're... what? common occurences that most find humor in? nah, couldn't be that.
  September 15, 2006 11:18 PM

• MM said:

  Louis CK has chunks of guys like Dane Cook in his stool.
  September 21, 2006 5:55 PM

• keekee said:

  are you implying that because dane cook yelled louis ck's jokes and said them in a way people don't actually speak that he somehow made them funnier? (and mic'd the shit out of the audience)
  January 19, 2007 10:35 PM

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