What’s the proper protocol in terms of writing a joke into
your script? I frequently hear jokes in movies that I’ve heard from friends
before the movie
came out. Is it public domain and it needs no clearance or should it still
be researched just in case it has roots from a standup comic’s copyrighted
routine?
–Anup
Stand-up comics write their material, and written material is subject to copyright.
But at a certain point, some jokes circulate out in the popular culture enough
that I would argue they’re essentially public domain. But then again, I’m not
a jury, so don’t take my advice as gospel.
If you can’t find a source for a joke, and you’ve heard it enough times and
enough different ways that you feel it’s graduated to cultural meme status,
you can probably get away with putting it in your script. Then the only question
becomes, if you’ve heard it so many times, is it still original enough to be
worthy of your script? Nothing is less funny than a joke that’s been played
out.