Dane Cook's stand-up is overrated and not funny

In response to the list put out by Comedy Central, you state "First, it is quite early in Dane Cook's career. When Lenny Bruce's career began, he was not well liked by the vast majority of experienced comedians." Dane Cook has been doing stand-up since 1990. It is now the year 2008. That means he has been doing stand-up for 18 years. And in 1995 he began performing stand-up every night to make a name for himself. It may be that Lenny Bruce was not admired by other comedians initially, but I don't think it took over 18 years for others to accept him. Nevertheless, there are other factors that make Dane Cook someone that is not funny. Namely, stealing other people's jokes which shows his inability to write jokes for himself. Anyone that can be considered funny in the world of stand-up comedy should be able to write his or her own jokes. On Dane Cook's album Retaliation, there was a huge controversy concerning some of the material. Many fans of Louis C.K. (a funny comedian that I've had the pleasure of seeing perform live) were outraged that Dane Cook stole not one, but THREE jokes from Louis C.K.'s album Live In Houston. Louis C.K. acknowledged that the jokes were originally his, but never sued Dane Cook for it. But the plagiarism does not end there. On September 30, 2006 Dane Cook appeared on Saturday Night Live. The jokes he told during his set were not his own. They were actually written by Demetri Martin. Demetri Martin has some fairly clever stand-up (although I think he draws his act out a bit too much). Martin's album entitled These Are Jokes was released on September 26, 2006. Perhaps Dane Cook figured that the jokes were so new that no one would catch on. But albums, copyrights, and release dates cannot be altered. There is no doubt that Dane Cook stole from Demetri Martin as well. His new joke about the flute player in the war is actually also an old joke that I've heard before. I believe in its original form it was about the drummer boy, and Cook tweeked it a bit so that the joke revolves around the flute player. I wish I could remember who it was originally. I believe it was the comedian Joseph Evans Brown, but I haven't been able to confirm it. Regardless, the main point is that a comedian that has to steal material in order to make others laugh is not considered funny. You mention his album being on Billboard's top 100 list and the fact that it was performed at Madison Square Garden which is a large arena. I am not debating that people buy his albums and that people go to his shows. In fact, if they didn't my argument would be entitled "Dane Cook's stand-up is not funny." But I acknowledge that he does have a large following and that his albums sell. It is because of his widespread popularity that I also consider him to be overrated. And I am not the only one who feels this way. Here is a link to an article from Rolling Stone magazine by Rob Sheffield: http://www.rollingstone.com... I have seen other comedians that have the same type of actions and excitement that Dane Cook has, but they were funny while Dane is not. One example of an excited energetic FUNNY comedian is Lewis Black. Now I've thought long and hard about what the problem is with Dane Cook's act, and I think I've figured it out. With other comedians the actions and the punchlines are in sync. With Dane Cook this is not the case. His actions are moving along at 100 miles per hour while his punchlines come at the rate of 20 miles per hour. (Yes, I know that you cannot actually measure the speed of actions and jokes in this manner. But intelligent people should be able to get the gist of what I'm saying). This discrepancy causes the jokes to be unfunny. In conclusion, the sale of albums and large amount of people that purchase tickets for Dane Cook's shows is the main reason why he is, in fact, overrated. A comedian that is forced to use other people's jokes and pan them off as his own is not funny. It is an admission, if not to others then at the very least to himself, that he is incapable of writing his own material. And someone without this ability can never be considered funny.