“A lot of people used stuff that I make… it’s kind of like we’re all on ecstasy at a giant rave”. Comedians don’t exclusively lament that he’s doing what they consider stealing; they hate that he is making a career out of it while the original authors of the joke get nothing.
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The backlash grew so loud that Comedy Central have responded, telling EW that they are not working with Ostrovsky, and actually haven’t been for some time. The backlash has been extremely prevalent in the past few days, as it was revealed that Ostrovsky has been signed to talent agency CAA last thursday.
Writer Maura Quint wrote out a detailed Facebook and Twitter post, which Oswalt subsequently shared with his 2.3 million followers, compelling people to stop following The Fat Jew on social media, calling him a leech and a virus. He was also planning to publish his first book, “Money Pizza Respect“, this year. The article includes screen captures as proof from where the jokes originate. But people still aren’t having it.
A man named Kevin Kelly assembled a Storify post featuring fifty jokes Ostrovsky has posted without attribution alongside their sources, while comedians such as Michael Ian Black and Paul Scheer have spoken out against Ostrovsky on Twitter. In the age of social media, it has become easier than ever to share your material, and, as a result, it is even easier to take said material and call it your own.
After all of this started, Comedy Central decided to make things clear about the deal it had with Ostrovsky, and it turns out this deal for a pilot that was dropped long before all of this CAA slamming, according to Entertainment Weekly. Comedy Central is now not tied to Ostrovsky in any way.
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“Ostrovsky had a script deal with the network, but it failed to move forward to the pilot stage “several months ago”.
