Amy Schumer Clears The Air Amid Whispers She Ripped Off An Oscars Joke
People are accusing Amy Schumer of being a joke thief — again.
In the past, the comedian has been on the receiving end of ridicule for allegedly stealing jokes from either fellow comics or the internet. In 2016, veteran comedian Tammy Pescatelli accused the "Trainwreck" star of passing others' material as her own. "What has always been amazing to me is that she purports to be a feminist and yet only steals from other female comedians," Pescatelli said in a now-deleted tweet, per Vox. "If we call her on it we are 'jealous' or career shamed. Be successful. WE want you to do well, just do it [with] your own material. BTW she blocked me." Schumer responded at the time in another since-deleted tweet, saying per Us Weekly (via Yahoo! News), "On my life, I have never and would never steal a joke." Other comedians like Wendy Liebman and Kathleen Madigan also made similar accusations.
The controversy surrounding Schumer's alleged joke stealing has since died down, but it happened once more after the 2022 Oscars when fans noticed that she had delivered a joke similar to a post that had gone viral on Twitter.
Amy Schumer says she's funny enough so as not steal jokes
At the 2022 Oscars, Amy Schumer made a joke regarding Leonardo DiCaprio: "He has done so much to fight climate change and leave behind a cleaner, greener planet for his girlfriends." But fans were quick to take notice, arguing that it was lifted straight from a tweet that went viral in December 2021, per E! News.
Schumer was quick to deny the allegations, saying that she would never do such a thing. "I would like to say, I haven't personally been on Twitter," she said on "Watch What Happens Live!" on April 6, per Variety. "I've had my assistant do it, just so I can remain alive and not kill myself. And also, that joke was written by Suli McCullough. But I thank you guys, always, for making sure that I don't start thievery."
The comedian even went the extra mile to prove that she's no joke thief, going on Vanity Fair's polygraph test segment. "Coming up with new material is difficult, have you ever stolen a joke?" she was asked, to which she responded with a resounding "no." The machine didn't react, indicating that she was indeed truthful. She talked about it on the talk show, too. "I just got to do a lie-detector test on Vanity Fair and they asked me, thank God, 'Have you ever stolen a joke?' and I said no, and it was 'that's true,'" she said. "So, everybody just chill. It's crazy. I'm funny enough, I don't need to steal s**t."