Nov. 06--Conan O'Brien said he and his team didn't steal jokes posted online by a Winnetka-raised comedy writer, who sued the late-night comedian in July for copyright infringement.
O'Brien said his jokes are "independently created" and the jokes by Alex Kaseberg are "not sufficiently original to entitle (them) to copyright protection," according to paperwork filed this week in a California court. O'Brien asked for the complaint to be dismissed and for Kaseberg, 57, to pay for the costs of the suit and attorneys fees.
Kaseberg's attorney Jayson Lorenzo did not immediately return Tribune requests for comment.
Kaseberg sued O'Brien, "Conan" network TBS, Time Warner, "Conan" executive producer Jeff Ross and head writer Mike Sweeney seeking at least $600,000 plus attorney fees. Kaseberg, who now lives in California, claimed O'Brien used four of his jokes or variations of them in monologues after Kaseberg posted them on his blog and on Twitter earlier this year.
Kaseberg, a longtime comedy contributor to TV and print publications, said he posted this joke on his blog on Jan. 14: "A Delta flight this week took off from Cleveland to New York with just two passengers. And they fought over control of the armrest the entire flight."
On the show's Team Coco website, this quote is attributed to O'Brien on Jan. 14: "On Monday, a Delta flight from Cleveland to New York took off with just 2 passengers. Yet somehow, they spent the whole flight fighting over the armrest."
In his suit, Kaseberg said O'Brien used his riffs on New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's Super Bowl win, Caitlyn Jenner's transition and the Washington Monument suffering from "shrinkage" because of the cold winter. He said in the suit that he sought copyright registration for the jokes.
Social media plagiarism was recently in the news after comedian Josh Ostrovsky, also known as "The Fat Jew," was accused of stealing jokes posted on Twitter and Instagram.
