An open letter to Fuse:
On January 21st, 2013, I tweeted the above joke about Beyonce and Kelly Clarkson doing a duet. It’s a silly joke, mostly based on the premise that if you say the word “Beyonce” enough times, it becomes funny.
Today, you tweeted me to let me know my tweet would “be featured” on your show, “The Trending 10”. I was pretty stoked! As I watched your program, I saw you screencapture tweets from other celebrities and news outlets and show them as full-page graphics.
When it came time for my joke to appear on your show, your anchor said something to the effect of, “and as a fan of Kelly’s put it:” and then proceeded to read my joke on air, without ever mentioning my name, or the name of my twitter account.
THAT SUCKS, FUSE. THAT’S A SHITTY THING TO DO.
Fuse, I’m not a money making stand up comedian. I’m not anyone famous. I wasn’t expecting anything more than a few spam followers (AT THE MOST!) from having my tweet appear on your network, but I didn’t get any of that.
I don’t write for you, so I don’t understand why you are allowed to take my jokes and use them to generate laughs or even general amusement on your show for no cost whatsoever. I don’t want money, Fuse, I just want the intellectual property. It’s not okay to steal other people’s jokes, no matter how innocent your intention, to promote your own shows and your own brand. I was not HONORED to just have my words read “by someone on the TV”, and neither should anybody else.
Here’s some literature about joke stealing for your producers and hosts to consider.
Here’s the APA and the MLA guides for properly citing tweets.
Here’s an awesome post from Daniel Kibblesmith on how shitty it feels to have a corporation steal your joke.
Please take this into consideration the next time you share social media content on your programs.
Sincerely,
Annie / AnnieLKozak
