Take My Joke, Please
28 April 2009 at 9:26 am Peter G. Klein 3 comments
| Peter Klein |
Like other boring professors, I try to liven up my lectures and after-dinner speeches with a few jokes. Naturally, this effort is plagued by radical uncertainty. And of course I steal the jokes. Indeed, I maintain a computer file of one-liners and funny stories — none original — for possible future use. Then again, as Fabio notes, many stand-up comedians are known as prodigious copiers. Milton Berle once said another comedian made him laugh so hard, “I nearly dropped my pencil.”
Good thing I’m not a professional comedian. According to this paper by Dotan Oliar and Christopher Jon Sprigman, the community of stand-up comedians is characterized by strong social norms that take the place of formal rules in enforcing “ownership” of jokes. A complex system of norms has emerged over the last half-century that “regulates issues such as authorship, ownership, transfer of rights, exceptions to informal ownership claims and the imposition of sanctions on norms violators. Under the norms system, the level of investment in original material has increased substantially.” Presumably the community of professional comedians satisfies the Ellickson requirements of being a small, well-defined, close-knit group. Lucky for me I’m not in it. (HT: orgtheory commentator Johann.)
Entry filed under: - Klein -, Institutions, Law and Economics.
Organizations and Markets 
1.
Per Bylund | 28 April 2009 at 10:03 am
If the emergent institutions and norms aren’t enough, then maybe they can use an army of lawyers to protect their punch lines. After all, it seems language is trademarkable nowadays:
http://zenhabits.net/2009/04/feel-the-fear-and-do-it-anyway-or-the-privatization-of-the-english-language/
2. Le “stand-up” et ses normes « Rationalité Limitée | 29 April 2009 at 7:14 am
[…] “stand-up” et ses normes Via O&M, une intéressante étude sur les normes sociales qui régissent la propriété intellectuelle au […]
3.
spostrel | 29 April 2009 at 7:35 pm
I heard an interview with singer Joni Mitchell where she claimed she started writing and performing original work because traditional folk songs were “owned” in each town by particular incumbent performers.