Ginger-haired comedian and TV show host Conan O'Brien along with his production company Conaco and Turner Broadcasting System are being slammed with a lawsuit claiming that the TV host lifted jokes he used on the show from someone else's Twitter account and blog.
Comedy writer Robert "Alex" Kaseberg filed a complaint against Conan, which states that the late night host allegedly broke copyright laws pertaining to jokes he posted online between the months of January and June 2015.
Kaseberg is requiring around $600,000 in actual and legal damages incurred for the copyright infringement allegedly made by Conan, but a representative for Conaco released the statement: "We at Conaco firmly believe there is no merit to this lawsuit."
Kaseberg claims that he noticed there were obvious similarities between the jokes he posted online and the jokes that Conan made on the show close to the day Kaseberg published his puns.
Kaseberg said he posted this tweet:
Tom Brady is going to give his MVP truck to the guy who won the game for the Patriots. So enjoy that truck, Pete Carroll.
— Alex Kaseberg (@AlexKaseberg) February 3, 2015
Then he noticed that O'Brien made a similar reference during a monologue on his show. O'Brien reportedly made this joke: "Tom Brady says he wants to give the truck he was given—as the Super Bowl MVP they gave him a truck—he wants to give it to the guy who won the Super Bowl for the Patriots. I think that's very nice, yeah! I think that's nice, I do! Yeah, so Brady's giving his truck to Seahawk's coach Pete Carroll." Kaseberg then posted another reference on his Twitter page, this time about the Washington Monument:
Washington Monument is ten inches shorter than previously thought. You know the winter has been rough when a monument suffers from shrinkage — Alex Kaseberg (@AlexKaseberg) February 17, 2015
Kaseberg again heard a similar joke on the show a day later, prompting him to contact Mike Sweeney, the show's head writer. Kaseberg said that his main purpose in calling was to clarify if his jokes were, in fact, being used and that perhaps he should be officially contributing to the show. Sweeney informed Kaseberg that Late Night with Conan O'Brien writers did not steal any of his jokes.
"Mike Sweeney implied I had heard jokes on TV and wrongly assumed they were mine. Like I was some crazy man whose thoughts were being stolen by a TV show," Kaseberg wrote on his blog.
When Kaseberg posted yet another pun online:
Three streets named Bruce Jenner might have to change names. And one could go from a Cul-de-Sac to a Cul-de-Sackless.
— Alex Kaseberg (@AlexKaseberg) June 9, 2015
Kaseberg heard Conan drop a joke on his show that same day, saying: "Some cities that have streets named after Bruce Jenner are trying to change the streets' names to Caitlyn Jenner. Yeah. And if you live on Bruce Jenner Cul-de-Sac, it will now be called Cul-de-No-Sack." This convinced Kaseberg that legal action had to be taken. Fellow comedian Andy Richter took to Twitter to defend Conan by posting the following:
OH NO WE'VE BEEN FOUND OUT!! Conan O'Brien Targeted in Lawsuit Claiming He Lifted Jokes from Twitter https://t.co/0uOcqQIMnK — Andy Richter (@AndyRichter) July 27, 2015
There's no possible way more than one person could have concurrently had these same species-elevating insights! THESE TAKES ARE TOO HOT!
— Andy Richter (@AndyRichter) July 27, 2015
Full details of the lawsuit can be found on Scribd.
Be sure to follow T-Lounge on Twitter and visit our Facebook page.
