Conan Obrien

Conan O’Brien Settles Suit With Joke Writer Who Claimed Theft

Conan O’Brien Settles Suit With Joke Writer Who Claimed Theft

, ,

May 9, 2019 1:25PM PT

One of the most closely watched legal cases in the comedy world will not be going to trial.

Attorneys for Conan O’Brien, TBS and joke writer Robert Alexander Kaseberg announced on Thursday that they have settled a dispute over allegations of joke theft.

Kaseberg filed suit back in 2015, alleging that O’Brien had stolen five of his jokes for his opening monologue. The case was set to go to trial on May 28, and O’Brien was expected to testify, along with writers on the show, Turner Broadcasting executives and an expert on probability theory.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Kaseberg, 60, has written jokes for late-night shows off and on for decades. He has a blog and a Twitter account, and alleged that O’Brien’s writers stole his jokes in late 2014 and early 2015.

Among the jokes he posted online: “Tom Brady said he wants to give his MVP truck to the man who won the game for the Patriots. So enjoy that truck, Pete Carroll.”

Related

Kaseberg accused O’Brien, Conaco and TBS of copyright infringement, claiming that his jokes were lifted verbatim for O’Brien’s monologue. O’Brien and his attorneys denied the allegations.

Had the case gone to trial, prominent comedians may have been called to testify, including Elayne Boosler and Patton Oswalt. Andy Richter was also on the list of potential witnesses.

Conan O’Brien: Why I Decided to Settle a Lawsuit Over Alleged Joke Stealing

Conan O’Brien: Why I Decided to Settle a Lawsuit Over Alleged Joke Stealing

, ,

“Conan” host Conan O’Brien was sued in July 2015 by Robert Alexander Kaseberg, who accused O’Brien and others on the TBS show of stealing five jokes from Kaseberg’s Twitter account and blog. Here, O’Brien explains why he reached a settlement in the case, which had been expected to go to trial in federal court in San Diego this month.

I begin by warning you that the following is not as important as the Mueller Report, Global Warming or the death toll this week on “Game of Thrones.” But I do need to get this off my chest.

Four years ago, my writers and I were sued by a man in San Diego who claimed that we stole five jokes from his blog and Twitter account. I will tell you what we told him, and what we subsequently swore under oath in a deposition: we had never heard of him or his blog or Twitter account, and we did not steal any of his jokes. Short of murder, stealing material is the worst thing any comic can be accused of, and I have devoted 34 years in show business striving for originality. Had I, for one second, thought that any of my writers took material from someone else I would have fired that writer immediately, personally apologized, and made financial reparations. But, I knew that we were in the right.

Related

How did I know? I knew because different people around the world come up with the same joke all the time, especially when the joke is topical. I was made aware of this 24 years ago, when, on the same night, David Letterman, Jay Leno, and I all told an identical “Dan Quayle is dumb” joke: “Dan Quayle announced today that he will not be running for President in ’96. However, he did not rule out running in ’97.” Back then, no one sued anyone because each of us knew that topical comedy often follows a pattern — it’s an occupational hazard. You try hard to avoid it, but sometimes, comedians inadvertently step on each other’s feet.

Now fast forward 20 years and add something called The Internet. On a chilly winter night, I delivered a joke about Tom Brady re-gifting his Super Bowl MVP truck to opposing coach Pete Carroll (trust me, Pete Carroll gags were hilarious back in 2015). What my writers and I didn’t know is that, at the same time, that joke was being written by literally 34 other people on Twitter, and one of those people decided he had been robbed. He then claimed we had stolen four other jokes, though we had proof that one of them was written prior to his posts. But none of that mattered, we were hit with a lawsuit. And not to brag, but a Federal Lawsuit. I had finally made it to the big-time. Part of me was bemused, but a larger part of me was genuinely pissed.

The wheels of justice grind slowly — really slowly — and years started to pass. During this time, we asked our writers’ assistant to monitor our accuser’s tweets to avoid any other accidental overlap, and she discovered 15 examples where he tweeted similar jokes AFTER we had written them for my program. And this is the guy who is suing us?? Did we counter-sue? No, we did not, because I knew he had not “stolen” from us, just as we had never stolen from him.

The fact of the matter is that with over 321 million monthly users on Twitter, and seemingly 60% of them budding comedy writers, the creation of the same jokes based on the day’s news is reaching staggering numbers. Two years ago one of our writers came up with a joke referencing Kendall Jenner’s ill-fated Pepsi commercial, and so did 111 Twitter users. This “parallel creation” of jokes is now so commonplace that Caroline Moss of CNBC and Melissa Radzimiski of the Huffington Post have given it a name: “tweet-saming.” And, by the way, the person who sued me also tweeted the same Pepsi joke, but only after our show and 24 other tweeters beat him to it.

So why am I telling you all of this? Because I believe that the vast majority of people writing comedy are honorable, and they don’t want to steal anyone’s material because there is no joy, and ultimately no profit, in doing so.  However, when you add the internet and an easily triggered legal system, the potential for endless time-wasting lawsuits over who was the first to tweet that William Barr looks like a toad with a gluten allergy becomes very real.

This saga ended with the gentleman in San Diego and I deciding to resolve our dispute amicably. I stand by every word I have written here, but I decided to forgo a potentially farcical and expensive jury trial in federal court over five jokes that don’t even make sense anymore. Four years and countless legal bills have been plenty.

What’s important to me, today, is defending the integrity and honesty of my writers. They are remarkably hard working and decent people, and this episode has been upsetting for them, and for myself. As I wrote several years ago, “No legacy is so rich as honesty.” Of course, William Shakespeare is now claiming he tweeted that in 1603, but that dick can talk to my lawyers.

Conan, Colbert, Fallon Collude in Late-Night Response to Trump

Conan, Colbert, Fallon Collude in Late-Night Response to Trump

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

They were fierce rivals – until President Trump turned them into allies.

Three of late-night’s most durable hosts took part in a rare collaboration after President Donald Trump hurled a few verbal zingers at the wee-hours crowd at a rally Monday night in South Carolina. Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon and Conan O’Brien joined together in a sketch that — in what may be a first — was slated to serve as the “cold open” to both Tuesday night’s broadcast of “The Late Show” on CBS and”The Tonight Show” on NBC. O’Brien’s “Conan,” broadcast on TBS, is on hiatus this week.

In the bit, Colbert is spotted typing up a monologue at his computer, only to be interrupted by a video call from Fallon. “Hey, lowlife,” says Fallon. “Hey, lost soul,” replies Colbert. Both comics were referring to some of the epithets Trump used to insult them as well as their ABC rival, Jimmy Kimmel.

After the pair hash out all the different names Trump used, they decide to call O’Brien. They find him shaving, and surprised to learn Trump inhabits the Oval Office. He urges them to be civil Fallon and Colbert decide to go out to lunch at the Red Hen, the Virginia restaurant that recently asked White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to leave.

Related

The sketch shows just how much late-night has changed since Trump became President in 2017. Many of the hosts – Colbert, Kimmel, Samantha Bee, Trevor Noah – have found ratings and audience growth by poking fun at Trump in blunt terms. In some cases, their antics have spilled out on to social media or sparked backlash, such as a recent advertiser boycott of Bee’s program on TBS.

Fallon has not embraced political humor as tightly, but in recent days, even he has railed against Trump. The President recently used Twitter to tell the NBC host to “be a man” after he appeared to complain in a recent Hollywood Reporter podcast that his decision to have Trump on as a guest during his campaign has offended some viewers. “As you may have heard, last night, the President of the United States went after me on Twitter,” Fallon said during his monologue Monday night. “So Melania, if you’re watching, I don’t think your anti-bullying campaign is working.”

Colbert may have had a hand in getting the idea rolling among the trio. “Colbert reached out to me this morning,” O’Brien told Variety via email. “I have since had my number changed.”

Representatives for “Late Show” and “Tonight” declined to add further details about how the sketch came together.

Such collaboration among TV’s sundry wee-hours programs is rare. Johnny Carson never teamed up with Aresenio Hall or Pat Sajak. His successors, Jay Leno and David Letterman, viewed each other skeptically, rather than with warmth. In 2010, however, the pair surprised the world by holding forth during a promo in CBS’ broadcast of Super Bowl XLIV with Oprah Winfrey. Letterman and Leno feuded for years after Letterman decamped from NBC to host a rival to “Tonight” on CBS once the Peacock chose Leno to take over for Carson on the late-night mainstay.

The current generation of late-night hosts is different. TV has many more of them and the hosts appear to adhere to an unwritten rule that calls for civility.

James Corden has appeared as a guest on Seth Meyers’ NBC program, for instance, even though the two compete in the same time slot. Samantha Bee and Robin Thede have appeared on Colbert’s “Late Show” and Colbert in turn has been a guest on Kimmel’s ABC program. When Fallon kicked off his “Tonight” run in 2014, Colbert made an appearance in the debut show. When Colbert launched “Late Show” on CBS in 2015, Fallon was there to return the favor.