Amy Schumer Responds To Accusations She Steals Jokes

With phenomenal success, comes detractors. Amy Schumer has had to make a statement in response to accusations she stole jokes for her show and Trainwreck after a group of female comedians implied on Twitter that she stole material from them.?Tammy Pescatelli, Wendy Liebman and Kathleen Madigan started the tweeting storm earlier this week. First Liebman tweeted, but later deleted,?“Between Amy Schumer doing 1 of my best jokes on her HBO special and this meme of my joke, I’m done with social media.” Chuck Martin entered the fray, suggesting Liebman talk to?Kathleen Madigan about similar instances.?

Then?Tammy Pescatelli compared Amy Schumer to Cosby and said it was ironic that Amy called herself a feminist when she stole jokes from other women. It was very heated, and?Liebman and Madigan later deleted their contributions to the conversation. Amy Schumer’reached out to both women to stress she did not steal their jokes. Liebman clarified the controversy with a follow-up tweet:

I never said @amyschumer stole my joke.I just said it was the same.It’s possible we both wrote it.I just wanted you to know I wrote it 1st.

? Wendy Liebman (@WendyLiebman) January 20, 2016

Amy meanwhile decided to address the comments in an interview with radio presenter Jim Norton, “I’m literally going to take a polygraph test and put it on my show this season, and I promise whatever the results are – I won’t let them cut.” Schumer also said she had never seen?Tammy Pescatelli, “Like, I didn’t happen to catch her 2006 Comedy Central special and like, sit on that bit til I got a movie. Like, I sat on that bit for nine years and then was like, ‘Here’s my chance to steal that famous Tammy P. bit’. I think Tammy’s trying to get something going – I think she doesn’t have much going on, that’s just my guess. I opened for her on the road in 2007. I think it’s just hard to see someone doing well. I think Tammy pictured a different life for herself and a different outcome.”

While joke stealing does happen, Amy wanted to make it clear she doesn’t work like that.

On my life, I have never and would never steal a joke.

? Amy Schumer (@amyschumer) January 20, 2016

In a later statement, she said that these accusations are a by-product of fame, but that she wasn’t going to ignore them and let the professional hate simmer: “People build people up and then like to rip them down when they experience some success. I think people get upset by success.?I don’t even take it personally. I will not be another one of those comics who gets accused of stealing jokes. That will not be part of my name. I will not take this lying down.”

Via The Daily Mail