Comments on: Guy's American Kitchen: Honky-Tonky Double Barrel Meat Loaded Blast

By: james r

james r — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 18:46:00 +0000

So it was artistic integrity that prevented him from crediting the artists? :)

The rights issue occurs far upstream of any practical issues that the plagiarist was facing.

["My new limited folio edition of Cory's new novel had no good place to put his name on the cover."]

But also: crediting, as with most published parodies that I can think of, can be done easily, tastefully, without ruining the immersion for the .000001% of people who went there not seeking a known parody. Just run a small byline across the bottom: “Thanks to the hilarious work of, etc …”

By: C W

C W — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 16:44:00 +0000

“it would have been very easy to give credit ”

It would have destroyed the immersion of it all. Nobody’s monetizing this, and if a person googles, I’m sure they’ll come across the brilliant original tweets and throw all that money that was never going to go to this project on the original writers.

By: james r

james r — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 15:44:00 +0000

This is to ignore the basic value of a lyric. If he had not relied on the work of others, would he still have had a product worth posting? Not likely. He implicitly chose their work over his own; he decided for us that those tweeters were better at this than he.*

I’m surprised there is any kind of debate on this at all.

Credit the capitalist, and ignore the artist?

*It also appears that he was posting the completed menu for another person who was the original compiler/plagiarist, shifting this entire debate to that person. I think, still, that this was lovingly done. Crediting would have been easy, though, and should be done immediately.

By: OtherMichael

OtherMichael — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 13:49:00 +0000

“They may have created it, but so what?
We monetized it!”

By: IronEdithKidd

IronEdithKidd — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 13:45:00 +0000

That was linked here a while ago. A scathing review couldn’t happen to a more deserving target.

By: pjcamp

pjcamp — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 02:27:00 +0000

Back to the topic, I would be falling down on the job if I did not point out that Guy’s American Kitchen was the topic of the most epic restaurant review smackdown ever published:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/dining/reviews/restaurant-review-guys-american-kitchen-bar-in-times-square.html?_r=0

“Did panic grip your soul as you stared into the whirling hypno wheel of the menu, where adjectives and nouns spin in a crazy vortex? When you saw the burger described as “Guy’s Pat LaFrieda custom blend, all-natural Creekstone Farm Black Angus beef patty, LTOP (lettuce, tomato, onion + pickle), SMC (super-melty-cheese) and a slathering of Donkey Sauce on garlic-buttered brioche,” did your mind touch the void for a minute? “

By: yrogerg

yrogerg — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 01:43:00 +0000

Honestly, I’m going to come to the defense of this poor schmuck. Did he rip off jokes from tweeters? Yes. Should he have been aware that the Internet hivemined would catch wise sooner or later? Absolutely. Am I comfortable calling it plagarism or likening it to the Glee/JoCo thing? Not really. Here’s why:

First, this form of plagarism, in comedy, and stand-up comedy in particular, has a somewhat storied history. Obviously there are some more egregious examples like Carlos Mencia, but also even fairly lauded comics like Chris Rock have been known to lift material from lesser-known comedians (his “guns don’t kill people, bullets do” routine as one example). Anecdotally, I could probably further cite a half-dozen or so times where the writers of the Daily Show have lifted jokes from the posts and comments sections of a few political comedy blogs I religiously follow, as well.

Which leads to my second point, actually: the other reason I’m uncomfortable with the word plagarism in this case is that, while most of the jokes are drawn from other people, there *is* synthesis here. A number of the jokes are improved as presented. A couple are actually diminished by the treatment. But he did, in fact, add something to the originals.

In summary, do the original wits deserve some recognition for the jokes here? Yeah, sure. But this guy did improve the presentation, and improved several of the jokes, and also had the forethought to check if the obvious domain for Guy’s restaurant was unparked. So in conclusion: meh.

By: stabitha

stabitha — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 23:14:00 +0000

I’m deeply upset that the Prufrocktober contains nothing that was measured out with coffee spoons. #nerds

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 23:02:00 +0000

Occasionally, some theme restaurant would open in San Francisco with that kind of menu. And then close. You could serve the same food as long as you called it sun-warmed baby arugula floating on a cloud of bee balm-absinthe aioli.

By: wygit

wygit — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 22:52:00 +0000

Jonathan Coulton used the phrase “ripped off” in a tweet.
You obviously stole that, you thief, you.

By: timquinn

timquinn — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 21:55:00 +0000

Here is some mighty rich gumbo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2ZMOKLsiuY

By: Jen Onymous

Jen Onymous — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 20:44:00 +0000

This would be even better if it was used as a kicking-off point for a Milk and Cheese comic. I would LOVE to see the dairy duo rampage through Fieri’s place.

By: james r

james r — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 20:39:00 +0000

Even though I didn’t get the sense that the plagiarism was truly malicious, it would have been very easy to give credit even without having asked permission beforehand. Since nothing prevented that, and despite the many enhancements and wonderful presentation, this is an obvious foul.

By: txb23

txb23 — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 20:15:00 +0000

Yes, a lot of text was borrowed. But whoever put the fake menu together took some raw ideas from Twitter and improved virtually all of them, then fashioned them into a plausible-looking menu and added a number of additional, presumably original jokes that hold their own with the “stolen” gags. No harm, no foul.

By: wysinwyg

wysinwyg — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 19:45:00 +0000

If those people had compiled their tweets into a plausible-looking but hilarious menu more people would probably link to them. As it is, this is way funnier.

By: Pokemon Otis

Pokemon Otis — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 19:31:00 +0000

The sad thing is that this could have been legitimately great if he had given proper credit to the Twitter users.

By: blueelm

blueelm — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 19:31:00 +0000

So strange. This seems like a typical restaurant in Dallas.

By: gluther

gluther — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 19:29:00 +0000

Reminds me of Patton Oswalt’s Steak/Black Angus “gauntlet of angry food” bit.

By: Alex Helmut-Barnacle Goldman

Alex Helmut-Barnacle Goldman — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 19:15:00 +0000

All the jokes on this menu were stolen from tweeters w/o attribution. See the following:

http://i.imgur.com/ZQ0IVbU.png
http://gawker.com/5985609/why-we-cant-have-nice-things-that-hilarious-fake-guy-fieri-menu-is-just-a-bunch-of-stolen-twitter-jokes
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2013/02/guy-fieri-fake-menu-stolen/62338/

By: Kelly Amsbry

Kelly Amsbry — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 18:58:00 +0000

Reading this aloud to my kids last night made me laugh so hard I cried. Don’t care who he stole it from it was comic genius.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 18:57:00 +0000

Several good laughs deserve at least one more:

http://gags.strewthcomic.com/2010/01/06/guy-fieri-6874c5e4-d2009887/

By: peoplelikefrank

peoplelikefrank — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 18:48:00 +0000

It’s not entirely plagarized! Just the funny bits. :p

By: Matt Wagner

Matt Wagner — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 18:40:00 +0000

Most of these jokes were ripped off from other people on twitter without their consent: http://i.imgur.com/ZQ0IVbU.png

By: C W

C W — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 18:36:00 +0000

For the people who really wish they had more fake-chipotle HFCS drizzle on their Applebee’s chik’n globule crispitos.

And from glancing at the Fieri fan response to the NYT review of his new restaurant, there’s seriously a market for this crap.

By: Dlo Burns

Dlo Burns — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 18:36:00 +0000

I should probably pass this on

http://nedroidcomics.tumblr.com/post/43078937407/hi-im-guy-fieri

“Hi I’m Guy Fieri. I just filled your stockings with gravy. Ho ho ho”