British Comedy Guide

Pinched ideas? Page 3

I also invented Go Ogle, but with 2 spaces for individuality & dramatic effect.

As for the script, its unlikely the idea is original enough to outright claim theft, but if it similar to your humour & style, take heart from knowing you are on the right track, then hire me to kill all the plagiarists involved. (Innocent bystanders are not covered by my Insurance, sadly)

Quote: chipolata @ June 29 2011, 11:23 PM BST

Are there many successful plagarism cases? I can only really think of Harlan Ellison suing James Cameron for ripping off one of his Outer Limit scripts to make The Terminator.

Quite a few in music. My Sweet Lord, for example. And Men at Work got done by the writer of the kookaburra song. Verve as well .

Only writing ones I can think of are Jeffrey Archer related.

Quote: Tony Cowards @ June 29 2011, 11:11 PM BST

Both myself and fellow stand up, James Cook, independently wrote jokes about using Google to search for porn and that it should be called "go ogle" so I don't think it's a particularly unique observation to have made in all honesty.

I agree & I do apologize Tony (And to the OP)
I was making a bit of an injoke alluding to Griffs mention of this very oft thought of wordplay.

Quote: Badge @ June 29 2011, 11:16 PM BST

I also have go ogle in my notebook from a few years ago and I think Griff did too before he went anti-matter.

I'll just try to find a link to Griffs original post.

Quote: Badge @ June 29 2011, 11:34 PM BST

Quite a few in music. My Sweet Lord, for example. And Men at Work got done by the writer of the kookaburra song. Verve as well .

Only writing ones I can think of are Jeffrey Archer related.

I think the first two were accidental but the Verve just stole it.

Quote: Chappers @ June 29 2011, 11:46 PM BST

I think the first two were accidental but the Verve just stole it.

You might think so but the courts didn't.

Quote: Badge @ June 29 2011, 11:34 PM BST

And Men at Work got done by the writer of the kookaburra song.

Sort of. The Kookaburra song was written for the Girl Guides in 1934 by one Marion Sinclair (1895-1988). A company called Larrikin Music bought the rights to the song in 1990 and subsequently claimed that a bit of the flute riff in Men at Work's 1979 hit Down Under was plagiarized from the old tune. When a court found Men at Work guilty of plagiarism, there was a massive public backlash against Larrikin Music, which was seen as acting purely out of greed.

Quote: Kenneth @ June 30 2011, 12:41 AM BST

Sort of. The Kookaburra song was written for the Girl Guides in 1934 by one Marion Sinclair (1895-1988). A company called Larrikin Music bought the rights to the song in 1990 and subsequently claimed that a bit of the flute riff in Men at Work's 1979 hit Down Under was plagiarized from the old tune. When a court found Men at Work guilty of plagiarism, there was a massive public backlash against Larrikin Music, which was seen as acting purely out of greed.

The courts found in favbour of Larrikin though didn't they? Arseholes though they are*.

*I'm using the "fair comment" defence.

Quote: Badge @ June 30 2011, 12:45 AM BST

The courts found in favbour of Larrikin though didn't they?

Aye, but didn't give them the 60% of backdated royalties they were after, only 5%, which is still a substantial amount.

Is plagiarism an occupational hazard, or is it possible to 'get your work out there' without at some point being plagiarised?

I can't think of many ideas in comedy that are so amazing it would be worth pinching them. The great shows are built around the writing and acting, not some earth-shattering conceit.

You're making way too much of this, gythaogg - the only similarity between your pitch and the Sky One pitch is that they're both set in supermarkets (besides the tenuous Victoria Wood connection). As other posters have pointed out already, a supermarket isn't a novel location to set a sitcom in the first place, so grasping at that straw is a little nutty. Wait until it shows up on TV, I'm betting your scripts are nowhere to be seen.

Quote: Kenneth @ June 30 2011, 12:41 AM BST

Sort of. The Kookaburra song was written for the Girl Guides in 1934 by one Marion Sinclair (1895-1988). A company called Larrikin Music bought the rights to the song in 1990 and subsequently claimed that a bit of the flute riff in Men at Work's 1979 hit Down Under was plagiarized from the old tune. When a court found Men at Work guilty of plagiarism, there was a massive public backlash against Larrikin Music, which was seen as acting purely out of greed.

But they were larrikins!

I made the very funny joke 'go ogle' to someone once and they told me to go f**k myself.

Frank
Butcher
. Exactly as a butcher should be: fat, bald, and ruddy. Vegetarian, however.

Hold on a minute. Frank Butcher? Hasn't that been done on another show? :)

Quote: Mikey Jackson @ June 30 2011, 9:43 AM BST

Hold on a minute. Frank Butcher? Hasn't that been done on another show? :)

Yeah, he's clearly giving us the runaround now.

Quote: Badge @ June 29 2011, 11:34 PM BST

Quite a few in music. My Sweet Lord, for example. And Men at Work got done by the writer of the kookaburra song. Verve as well .

Only writing ones I can think of are Jeffrey Archer related.

Yeah. To me, all Oasis music sounds rather similar to that of a 60s combo. I can't put my finger on which one though.

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