Hack Joke Made Manifest

There's been a minor comedy world brouhaha between Joe Rogan and Carlos Mencia over Mencia's propensity to steal jokes. In particular, Mencia appeared to have stolen a joke from Ari Shaffir about the building of the border fence with Mexico, with the punchline "The President wants to build a fence on the border. Who's going to build it?" Hundreds of people have done that joke, but Mencia lifted it with the exact same language.

As I've said 200,000 times before, satire is dead.

Two executives at a company that once helped build a fence to keep illegal immigrants from crossing the Mexican border were sentenced Wednesday to six months of home confinement for hiring undocumented workers.

Mel Kay, founder, chairman and president of Golden State Fence Co., and manager Michael McLaughlin had pleaded guilty in federal court to knowingly hiring illegal aliens. U.S. District Judge Barry Ted Moskowitz ordered each to serve 1,040 hours of community service and spend three years on probation.

Kay, 64, was fined $200,000 as part of a plea agreement, and McLaughlin, 42, agreed to pay $100,000.

Federal prosecutors took the rare step of seeking prison time after the men acknowledged hiring at least 10 illegal immigrants in 2004 and 2005. The charges carried a maximum possible penalty of five years in prison.

However, prosecutors were unable to find a previous case in which an employer had been sent to jail for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.

You simply can't make a joke anymore without it becoming reality. It's driving me out of the comedy business, I tells ya.

(by the way, here's some more on Mencia, who's a complete liar and a thief. And more. His stock response to this is "I think Joe Rogan's in love with me because he's so interested in me." I wish the White House used this tactic. "I think these Senators who want to stop the war in Iraq are GAY! Why are they so interested in me and my war?")