I saw Tim Hammer's set on Wednesday, and a lot of his jokes seemed familiar. Maybe I saw him years ago and forgot about it, but that "Raisins aren't what they used to be" line in particular - did he write that? Or was he 'retelling' other people's jokes?

Reymont, I had the same thought! It seemed familiar to me too. I think I must've seen him around town at some point, maybe when his set wasn't as polished so it didn't make as much of an impression, or something.

That sounds like a Mitch Hedberg line.

You sound like a Mitch Hedberg line

GOOD LORD.

For the record:

I do not think Tim Hammer stole that joke. I agreed with Reymont that it sounded familiar. I then suggested a possible reason for why it sounded familiar to me. A reason unrelated to anyone stealing anyone's joke.

it's called Philadelphia

R O T F L M M F A O!

All of Mitch Hedberg's jokes are printed online and endlessly repeated. Tim is not stealing Hedberg jokes. (Hedberg did not invent deadpan one-liners or absurdity either.)

You could Google it you know. I did. No Hedberg. I did find the line in an online chat by the Firesign Theater from 2004. I doubt Tim has ever heard of them, but he'll probably want to retire the joke. Parallel invention is not uncommon in comedy.

http://www.firesigntheater.com/chat/logs/f…