Modified On March 24, 2005
Where to begin? From a recent Wired article:
Karaoke is soooooo 1990s. For those who’d rather make people laugh at their punch lines than cringe at their high notes, the new wave in participatory entertainment is Joke-e-oke.
First of all, this is appalling. Secondly, we must correct the author– “For those who’d rather make people laugh at their punch lines…??! We don’t think it’s a technicality to point out that these punchlines they speak of are not those of the Joke-E-Oke-er, they are the property of the writer, the original comic!
The premise behind Joke-e-oke is that, at some level, everyone wants to be a comedian. It’s a form of entertainment software that allows people, momentarily, to realize this ambition while emulating the classic comedy routines of their favorite comedians.
Did he say emulating? I believe he did. We like to call it “stealing” or “ripping off.”
The idea for Joke-e-oke is simple. It’s basically karaoke with stand-up comedy material. Many dream of the chance to be a comedian with killer material in front of a laughing crowd. With Joke-e-oke, people are able to live out their comedy fantasy of being their favorite comedian onstage, choosing from a list of stand-up comedy icons to perform. A built in laugh track is added, timed perfectly to accent punch lines.
Pathetic.
If that doesn’t angry up the blood, try this:
“I was impressed that a lot of the cool art hipsters at the Rx, people who wouldn’t dare go to normal comedy clubs, got up and did a comic’s act,” said local comedian Mike Spiegelman, who did a mean version of a classic Jerry Seinfeld routine about airline food. “It was fun to see people interpret the material and get caught up in the joking. They got laughs by delivering the jokes, mimicking the comic, or by looking lost and screwing up. A lot were charmed by it.”
Who are the bigger assholes here? The faux peformers or the douchebags (excuse me, the “cool hipsters”) who cooked up this abomination in the first place? Throughout the entire article, no mention is made of royalties, rights or that kind of tiny technicality. The article does mention, in passing that the creeps who cooked up this whole mess, Angry Waiter 4am, “has not yet made a business out of selling the program but is looking into licensing it for distribution.” Stay tuned. This can only get worse. (Thanks to Ken Marx for the tip!)
(Editors note: We commented on this wretched phenomenon way back on Dec. 7 of 2004. In that posting, we said that we would call the venue and complain, but we never followed up. We apologize!)