1235: Copywrong

[DWarrior]

Myq's math on fast food is wrong. He gives a high estimate of 50 million people employed in fast food, but that's only in McDonald's. How about all the other chains? BK, Wendy's, etc etc etc.

There are 2,008,360 Fast Food employees in US alone right now, and we're in a recession. The annual employee turnover averages 120% per year. So that's about 2.4 million people per year employed in US alone. And we're in a recession now, so it was likely higher before, but whatever.

Let's estimate that half those employees are kids. This may seem high, but actually is likely a low estimate. There seem to be more old people working in fast food, but they stick around for a while, while the kids have a much higher turnover rate. So I'm going to say 1.2 million kids employed, but it's probably higher.

According to the 2010 census, The 15-19 demographic in US consists of 22 million people, so about 4.4 million in each age group. Estimating 1.2 million fast food employees 15-19, that's roughly 240,000 in each age group.

So, of 4.4 million 15 year olds, they have 5 years where they have the highest chance of being employed in fast food (since they're going to live from 15 to 19) and in their own age demographic, 240,000 of them will be employed at any particular time.

Let's say there's an annual overlap of about 40,000 employees, so that means over the course of the next 5 years, the new 15-year-olds will have 800,000 people that will have worked in fast food. That's about 18%.

It's probably higher because 20-somethings add a significant number, plus adults add a little, plus the employment statistics are taken during the great recession, etc. ~25% isn't that crazy. And that's my essay on fast food employment statistics in the US population.

[doctorsleep]

Wow, who are these 2 people voting yes on the pole, he absolutely is a joke thief

(and this is coming from a guy who doesn't really think that Denis Leary stole from Bill Hicks, so I'm not the kind of guy to cry wolf on something like this)

I have yet to see a 100% poll on katg, I remember we were close one week (can't remember what it was) people should not purposefully mess with the shows scientific method.

Myq is always great, I love the The final destination movies, all 3 of them, even the thrid one where the DVD actually lets you make choices while the movie is playing and you get to try and choose who lives and dies.

[Gold Experience]

I voted as if the poll is "Do you dislike Dane Cook?"

[Blonde_Amazon]

The Marc Maron 2 part podcast with Carlos Mencia is fascinating. I've gotten friends of mine to listen to it. It is impossible for anyone to think that Mencia is a nice guy or talented comic after listening to it. Marc Maron's podcast is awesome.

And yay, Myq Kaplan on the show again. Whenever I hear him say the opening prayer, I grin because I know I'm going to laugh a lot during the podcast. Myq is easily one of my favorite guests ever.

[JSZilla]

Originally Posted by Blonde_Amazon

The Marc Maron 2 part podcast with Carlos Mencia is fascinating. I've gotten friends of mine to listen to it. It is impossible for anyone to think that Mencia is a nice guy or talented comic after listening to it. Marc Maron's podcast is awesome.

And yay, Myq Kaplan on the show again. Whenever I hear him say the opening prayer, I grin because I know I'm going to laugh a lot during the podcast. Myq is easily one of my favorite guests ever.

Quoted for truth. I was just going to bring up Maron. He's been able to sway me on the joke thievery. I was about as hardcore about it as Keith is or more. Stock jokes and life similarities I can allow, so MAYBE Carlos and Dane, hell even being one of those frantic comedians Robin Williams is; maybe these guys didn't necessarily steal an amount of the accused stolen material on purpose or at all.

But I said an amount..Because some of it is SO clearly plagiarized it's seriously fucking verbatim. Carlos is full of so much shit it's ridiculous. Blond Amazon, I'm sure you know this. So I'm inclined to say that Dane is no exception he fucking acts like this just in. He stole?!?! Keith has a good saying for that one.

[Junkenstein]

Originally Posted by doctorsleep

(and this is coming from a guy who doesn't really think that Denis Leary stole from Bill Hicks, so I'm not the kind of guy to cry wolf on something like this)

How in hell can you justify the shit you just wrote?

Denis Leary STOLE from Bill Hicks.

It's a fact, there's no argument, no dispute. End of story.

[Lantern_o]

"Is Dane Cook A Joke Thief?"

Based solely on those three clips at the end I'd have to say no. Anyone could come up with those jokes, there pretty common gags that lots of people make.

[myq]

Originally Posted by Jo_Culprit

Myq Kaplan is like an antidepressant

Thanks! You are too!

Originally Posted by -John-

I missed the first half of the live show so now I have the podcast downloaded and I'm listening to the discussion about Dane cook being a joke thief. He stole from more people than just Louise c.k, I don't remember all the names but there a few bits on his c.d taken from demetri martain

Dane did a joke on SNL that was similar to one on Demetri's CD, about a shoe store employee offering a size too small, and I think both of them made a joke about that being acceptable because their foot just had the toes removed, or something. It wasn't the same wording but it was the same concept and I noticed it and thought it was weird, but honestly, it's certainly conceivable that two people could have that same shoe store experience and draw the same comedic consequences from it. I'm not saying I know for sure, just that it seems feasible. Same as two people having an itchy asshole and wanting to complain about it, or wanting to name their kids totally weird and different things.

Now you might say, three or four coincidences seems like more than a coincidence. But when someone has such a large body of work (at least 5 or or 6 CDs/double CDs/specials/etc.), we're talking a couple minutes of overlap out of many many hours. (And I know my math on the show was not as thorough as possible, but don't worry, I cover that below.)

Sincerely, I'm strongly anti-thief. But I'm also very aware, as someone who writes a lot, that when you come up with a lot of material, you hear a lot of "hey, someone else already did that," and if people immediately jump to the conclusion of thievery, that can be damaging to people who are just prolific and creative.

So, without knowing what Dane saw and intended, I honestly think it's not possible to be positive or even close to it that he's a thief. As opposed to someone like Carlos who really doesn't even seem to hide it. Or Robin Williams, who graciously admitted (on Maron's podcast) how his style used to have him basically spewing out all kinds of ideas rapid-fire, including some that he did not initiate, and took responsibility for in a pretty classy way I think.

Originally Posted by doctorsleep

Myq is always great, I love the The final destination movies, all 3 of them, even the third one where the DVD actually lets you make choices while the movie is playing and you get to try and choose who lives and dies.

Thanks! And good news! There's FOUR of them. Did you not see The Final Destination 3D? With the racing accident? It's like spikes come out of the screen into YOUR head. Pretty exciting. Not like a real spike through the head, which is sadder.

Originally Posted by Blonde_Amazon

And yay, Myq Kaplan on the show again. Whenever I hear him say the opening prayer, I grin because I know I'm going to laugh a lot during the podcast. Myq is easily one of my favorite guests ever.

God bless you, my child. Or someone else's child. I thank thee.

Much appreciated!

Originally Posted by DWarrior

Myq's math on fast food is wrong. He gives a high estimate of 50 million people employed in fast food, but that's only in McDonald's. How about all the other chains? BK, Wendy's, etc etc etc.

You are correct, and I will address this in full boring mathematical fashion below. Please check my work!

Originally Posted by Keith

After the show it hit me: Myq was going off of the number of people McDonald's specifically hires, not all fast food places. Also, you can't go by 100% being the whole world. We of course mean 100% of the civilized, sensible world.

Also I don't call it McDonald's. I call it MyqDonald's. (copyright Myq Kaplan)

Here's the thing about that math...
Keep reading at your peril (of boring math talk, but also zombies somewhere in there, so good luck)!

Yes, we were only talking DickDonald's and that was wrong of me to do, BUT they are the largest fast food provider in the world, no? They're everywhere, considerably more than any other fast food chain.

And we said they had 1.5 million people (in the WORLD, is what they said, and probably the majority of that in America) working for them NOW, but that likely wasn't the case 50 years ago, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt and averaged it all out to a million a year for the past 50 years. (PLUS, some of those people have died by now, so they shouldn't be counted as people who have worked there, because the dead PROBABLY aren't answering polls. Or shouldn't be. Unless the meat turned them into zombies. Then okay.)

And if there is indeed 120% turnover, then okay, I'll add another 10 million (graciously, because the initial 50 million was still a pretty high estimate), so that's 60 million McDonald's employees in history. And I submit that the majority of fast food workers ARE McDonald's employees (because if there's 2 million such fast food employees in America, and 1.5 million McDonald's employees in the WORLD...), so how many people work at BK, Wendy's, Arby's, Subway, etc.? Even if it's double or triple the number of McD's workers total... even if it QUADRUPLE (which I doubt it is, because most of those places are considerably smaller operations than McD's is worldwide), that puts the total at 300 million. Which is only 5 percent of the world's population.

Math wrong again?


By the way, how do I go about copyrighting this "copyright Myq Kaplan" thing?


Thanks again everyone! Copyright whoever came up with "thanks"! (The native Americans, before they took back their thanks via Indian giving?)
Or does someone else have to do it, because usually it's not me saying it?

[Junkenstein]

"Based solely on those three clips at the end I'd have to say no. Anyone could come up with those jokes, there pretty common gags that lots of people make. "


Unbelievable. I think he finally won. Dane Cook won. Like Leary. No point fighting Joke theft. People deny it in the end.

Cook will resonate as a wrongly accuse genius, Mencia will be a great comic with an outstanding tv show and we'll all be enjoying Nick Madson 10th HBO special.

yeah jokes are jokes, who cares if two people say the exact same one?

It's like music. The notes are all the same, right?

[myq]

Originally Posted by Junkenstein

Unbelievable. I think he finally won. Dane Cook won. Like Leary. No point fighting Joke theft. People deny it in the end.

Cook will resonate as a wrongly accuse genius, Mencia will be a great comic with an outstanding tv show and we'll all be enjoying Nick Madson 10th HBO special.

yeah jokes are jokes, who cares if two people say the exact same one?

It's like music. The notes are all the same, right?

Here's why I think you are wrong, person I normally agree with.

Number one, who's Nick Madson? Sincerely never heard of him.
Number two, Mencia is clearly a thief and everyone knows and believes it and even your joking attitude recognizes that that is unlikely to change.
Number three, Cook will always be tainted by these accusations, rightly or wrongly, and while he may be considered a genius by a few, likely he will go the way of Dice Clay (considered a genius by a Keith), continuing to work and be himself, an original character that the world cared a lot about once and a little about the rest of the time.

Number four, main point: saying something similar to that which someone else says is not necessarily thievery. That's my point. Which I believe you understand. As a comedy fan, you MUST know that parallel thinking and joke creation occurs. I know that you know. I've seen it happen. I've experienced it happening.

Sometimes, does it occur as a result of someone subconsciously absorbing the work of another comedian, forgetting about it, and then writing a similar joke much later that they believe to be original? Quite likely. Is that as bad as taking something outright and consciously? No. Is something like one of those at play here with Dane Cook? Possibly, and if so, I'd say more likely the former.

It's about the psychology of the person. Listening to Maron's interviews and hearing stories about Carlos, he seems to be a sociopath who takes the work of others with no remorse. Listening to interviews with Dane and hearing stories about him, I don't get anything like that from him.

That's all. I don't think the future of comedy integrity is based in accusing every person who says something similar to another of being a thief. There's a LOT of comedy history, especially now with the internet and as many CDs and clips and videos that there are now--NO ONE can see everything that there is, and the odds that two people come up with a similar idea (what with there being more people and more ideas) keeps increasing, so I think it's worth erring on the side of giving people the benefit of the doubt, until they prove that they don't deserve it.