Right, can't copyright a joke. And Emo Philips, instead of your name, the credit reads "old joke"

I was reminded again, that jokes "get no respect."

They get stolen. They get mis-credited.

Or both.

An article by Patrick Doyle in ROLLING STONE covered the doings of Willie Nelson.

It ended with this: "...Nelson told his daughter Paula an old joke about how he wants to go out. "I kinda like the story that said, 'When I die, I wanna go like my granddad did,' he says. "Passed out in his sleep. Not like the other screaming passengers in the car."

A good 'un, huh?

Not THAT old of a joke. Not of Jerry Clower vintage. Or Will Rogers.

That's an Emo Philips line.

Funny (not so much), if Willie Nelson quoted a few lines of a SONG, it would involve PERMISSION and CREDIT. And ROLLING STONE would have an asterisk noting that the precious lines were owned by a certain publishing company.

When Don Adams stole, almost verbatim, jokes from Jackie Mason's act, there wasn't much Jackie could do about it. He told me, "It didn't hurt me. They're buying our personalities, not jokes." Still, there should be ways for the people who create humor to get the same respect as those who create lyric lines.