I have been following the ordeal with Joe Rogan and Carlos “Don’t Call Me Ned” Mencia recently and am finding it very difficult to side with Mencia (Holness) given the facts: 1. Rogan has laid out actual evidence that his jokes are not original, 2. Mencia has no clear retort to the damning evidence other than denying it, and 3. I have hated Mencia’s show long before this was even an issue.

While the dispute between the two has a long history it came to a head recently on the 10th of February at The Comedy Store where Rogan was on stage performing. I just read this morning about how the altercation began, with Rogan making a comment about Menstealia on stage and Mencia rushing up in his defense (though a defense based in “pah-lease”s isn’t really all that solid). Evidence is then presented, and backed up by comedian Ari Shaffir amongst others, damning Mencia’s dispute that he wrote a joke which Ari performed during a time when he opened for Mencia (again, amongst other jokes and situations).

Situations such as those with Bobby Lee and George Lopez are then examined, further harming Mencia’s non-argument. The video of all of this can be seen over at Rogan’s MySpace here.

But that’s not the end of it, Rogan didn’t simply call Mencia out on some seriously shady stuff and go home content knowing that the comedy world might be a little better place because of it. In the week following the on-stage argument Rogan was dropped by his agent and told that he could no longer perform at The Comedy Store. Wait, wait, wait. Joe Rogan stood his ground when confronted by Mencia during his own performance at The Comedy Store, presented evidence that clearly identified some of Mencia’s jokes as plagiarized material and he is the one being punished in the situation? Clearly something messed up is going on here.

Now more material is being presented upsetting the claim that Mencia’s material is original. In a live segment from San Diego’s The Mikey Show from June 2006 Mencia talked about The Stereotype Olympics skit that he had written on his show…only after the segment it was revealed that the idea was far from original and had been pitched by a couple of radio DJs a year earlier. That audio can be heard here.

In a follow up call, after Mencia had been called out, he defends himself by saying that the bit was pitched to him by a few guys and wasn’t his idea in the first place. Again, audio here.

Getting back to the mention earlier about the industry backlash towards Rogan, however, there is some seriously questionable strong arm tactics being put into place so as to silence his voice. Again, Byron Crawford, made comment today that “I can’t help but be reminded of the incident last year in which it was revealed that Dane Cook ‘borrowed”‘material from a Louis CK album, and then Lucky Louie was canceled all of a sudden.” I had previously heard the car crash bit, amongst others in question, and listening to a comparison of the two it becomes apparent that there is obviously something completely not kosher going on. That audio can be heard here.But Dead Frog recently came up with some audio that suggests Steve Martin to have originally written a bit that Cook was to have stolen from Louis CK.  As Joe Rogan has mentioned, plagiarizing in comedy is taken far less serious and for the most part is overlooked in comparison to similar situations in different media and entertainment facets.
While I think it’s completely underhanded to short change Rogan for standing up for his case a little research proves this to be a wider problem than reported. I have a set of friends who have let me know multiple times that they are huge fans of Mencia’s stand-up DVD that they have recently seen. They love his “dee dee dee” bit and think he’s generally funny. The first time they talked about him I wanted to set them straight but I figured “what’s the use.” They probably won’t care if some of Mencia’s jokes aren’t his and I think that this is fairly indicative of a casual comedy fan’s stance. It’s far easier and profitable for The Comedy Store to book Mencia and capitalize on his Comedy Central exposure than it is to address the situation and figure out whether or not it’s ethically right to promote stolen material. It’s just my hope that you take the time to listen and watch the evidence and that Rogan isn’t hurt further for standing up for something that is right.

Oh, and Bobby Lee’s so totally not feeling this.
Joe Rogan Further Details Mencia’s History