Only So Many Jokes in the Universe

So as we've told you. Charlie took my laugh-out-loud comedy script, punched it up, sent it back to me, I punched it up more, then he sent it to a really awesome dude he met in a chat room.

This is a story about one of those punches.

Charlie took a scene that was funny, and added something even funnier to it. I then took his funnier bit, and made it even more hilarious. In that format, that bit in that scene was included in the script that went off to that creepy Internet stalker.

About a week late,r I'm sitting at home late one night and watching the Adam Sandler film Click on DVD. I had never seen Click before, my wife never saw it. I don't know anyone who saw it. But it was supposed to be funny, and it was available at the library (which means FREE!).

And there's a scene in Click that is QUITE similar to the hilarious scene I referred to above.

So what do you do? The scene is not exact. The punchline on the particular joke is different (and they drag the bit on way too long). But the set-up is nearly identical. The subject of the joke is identical. The humor behind the joke is identical.

So, like, it's been done.

Do we now have to take that joke out of our script? I say no. Lots of movies share jokes. Give yourself a few minutes and you'll come up with examples off the top of your head. (I'd do the work for you, but I'm lazy.) There are only so many jokes in the world. I think they did a study and the exact number is somewhere around 837. That someone else thought of the same joke we came up with only means we're on to something. Right?

Right?