Comedian Weighs In on Consequences of Joke Stealing Amid James Corden Drama

If a writer at The Late Late Show intentionally gave James Corden Ricky Gervais' joke, he'd be fired and "blackballed" according to comedian Jeffrey L. Gurian.

They appear to have buried the hatchet now, but the internet reacted with fury when Corden performed a classic Gervais joke during the monologue on The Late Late Show. Corden apologized for "inadvertently" using it, but some online have suggested he was "trolled" by one or more staff writers who may have intentionally given him the joke.

Comedy writer and host of Comedy Matters TV, Gurian has been involved in a number of writing rooms in the past. He has spent more than a decade writing jokes at the New York Friars Club Roasts, where comedians partake in roast humor, in which a guest of honor is subjected to jokes at their expense, for the amusement of the event's wider audience.

He's also written original jokes for the likes of Rodney Dangerfield, Joan Rivers, Phil Hartman, Robin Williams, Gilbert Gottfried and many more.

Gurian suggested taking another comedian's jokes is never worth it.

"Joke plagiarism is not common, because you quickly become known and hated," Gurian told Newsweek.

"They say that great minds think alike, so it's entirely possible that you can have jokes that are similar, but when they use an exact phrase as they did, in this case 'the town square,' talking about the same topic, in this case Twitter, that originally came from a Gervais Netflix special called Humanity that aired in 2018, and that many comedy writers probably listened to, it's too exact not to have been copied.

"The real problem is that Gervais' version was written in a funny way and Corden's version was not! If you're going to steal a joke at least make it as funny as the original!"

Gurian, who has experienced having a joke stolen by another comedian, suggests everyone in the writers' room would know the culprit straight away.

"If a Late Show writer actually intentionally trolled Corden by doing something like that, he knows he will be found out and fired immediately and probably black balled because everyone on the team will know who submitted each joke," Gurian told Newsweek. "Comedy writers are very protective of their jokes because joke writing is a true art form, and it's very hard to write a good joke."

Gurian explained how one night he "became enraged" when he watched a comedian on stage recite a bit, "almost word for word" that he had previously performed on television.

"Because it was such a special bit for me, I confronted him in a rage, and he denied having heard it before, even though I know he watched the TV show I did it on. I told him to never do the joke again, and I don't believe he ever did. I even sent him the link to the TV spot to prove it and he never acknowledged it," Gurian recalled.

"When I was coming up, there used to be an unwritten rule in comedy that when a more seasoned comedian tells a younger comedian that he's doing a joke of his, the younger comedian automatically apologizes, says it was an accident and never does the joke again. It seems not to be the case anymore."

A day after Corden performed Gervais' jokes on The Late Late Show, Corden publicly acknowledged the incident. Gervais retweeted the statement, which implied the two were fine.

Gervais, Corden and The Late Late Show have been contacted by Newsweek for comment.