Modified On December 18, 2007
An AP story written by Eric Carvin asks the question, “With talk shows returning to late night without their writers, is it time to dust off your favorite gags and submit them to the networks? In a word, no”
Amateur jokesters might wonder if this means the window is opening– if just a crack– for their 15 seconds of fame.
NBC’s Web site makes it abundantly clear: You might as well keep your jokes to yourself.
The article wonders why, then solicits the expert opinion of Gordon Firemark, “an entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles,” who says “it’s all about avoiding lawsuits.”
“Someone submits their joke to Jay Leno’s people and two weeks later– or two years later– Jay does a joke that’s a variation, or maybe it’s exactly the same joke,” Firemark said, offering an example. “Maybe they did see the material that was submitted, and they should have contacted the person. But as often as not, the joke wasn’t really that original to start with.”
“The problem is that, because they made that submission, now the company has had access to that material,” the lawyer said. “And that’s the first threshold step in making a claim for copyright infringement.”
This is, of course, total nonsense.
A far as we know, the talk shows have always solicited (and used and paid for) jokes submitted by non-staff, non-union writers. (We’ve submitted jokes in the past to Fox’s Comic Strip Live, Tonight and Politically Incorrect. And we had invites from a head writer or two to submit. And the process was always the same: The jokes are submitted via fax (at least they were in the past… it is quite possible they’re submitted by email now), and each and every writer is asked to sign a waiver before submitting his first joke, if he is to be accepted as a faxer. The waiver explains exactly how the process works and spells out the terms of payment. (In the past, it was $50 per joke. It probably still is.) Many a faxer has evetnually graduated to staffer via this route. If anyone else knows any different, we’re all ears.
It is perplexing to see this. Are they trying to keep the backdoor faxing method of joke submission a secret? Is it no longer used?