Conan Sued! Accused of Stealing Twitter Jokes

conan obrien

The Hollywood Reporter uncovered a complaint filed against Conan and numerous writers, producers and others yet to be named..

A San Diego man is alleging that Conan O’Brien stole his jokes about several topics including Caitlyn Jenner, the Washington Monument, Delta Airlines, and Tom Brady, and he’s filed a suit seeking damages for copyright infringement. The suit names Conan O’Brien, his production company Conaco, Turner Broadcasting, Time Warner, executive producer Jeff Ross, head writer Mike Sweeney and 50 other unnamed defendants as infringers.

For each of the jokes, the complainant, Robert Kaseberg alleges that he wrote the jokes either on twitter or in a blog and he claims they were all incorporated into a monologue on Conan later that night or the following day.

The jokes at issue, and listed in the complaint are a joke written in January about Delta:

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.

A joke written in February about the Super Bowl:

Tom Brady said he wants to give his MVP truck to the man who won the game for the Patriots.  So enjoy that truck Pete Carroll.

A joke written later in February about the weather in Washington D.C.:

The Washington Monument is ten inches shorter than previously thought.  You know the winter has been cold when a monument suffers from shrinkage.

And this Caitlyn Jenner joke:

Three streets named Bruce Jenner might have to change names.  And one could go from a Cul de Sac to a Cul de Sackless.

He is seeking damages of at least $750,000.  Conan’s production company, Conaco flat out denies that the suit has any merit.  Copyright infringement via Twitter has become a hot topic this week, with Twitter announcing that they are going to start cracking down on copyright infringement and are removing infringing tweets.

The Hollywood Reporter found some of the monologue jokes at issue on teamcoco.com.

(image via teamcoco.com)

(via The Hollywood Reporter).