When comedians attack: Ant vs. Joe Rogan

Not too long ago, Joe Rogan got himself plenty of attention for accusing Carlos Mencia of stealing material. And now Rogan has thrown a similar claim at out comedian Ant. On his MySpace blog, Ant responds with an accusation of homophobia:

Honestly, I think because Joe just can't come right out and call me a FAGGOT, he has found another way to gaybash. Rogan, I'm on to you. Now I can't wait to hear him proclaim, "ANT's using the homophobic card? How come a straight guy can't talk about a gay guy and blah blah blah." You fill in the rest. A spade is a spade and I call 'em like I see 'em.

Now what I've seen of Rogan's comedy has me believing he has his issues with gay people, but I'm not sure if I'd blame his accusation on homophobia. Lately, Rogan's gotten the most attention for his accusations of plagiarism and I think he's seeking publicity more than anything else.

It took a big of Google-fu, to find the actual accusation, but you can see Rogan on the Opie & Anthony Show (warning: the clip is full of NSFW language). While Rogan throws around general accusations of plagiarism, the only joke Rogan names goes like this:

"My brother Frank hates gays. He says, 'We should take all you gays and stick you on an island', "I said they have, we call it Manhattan."

Rogan claims Ant stole it from a 2000 movie, Boiler Room, though Ant claims he's been making the joke since 1994 (courtesy of Ant's MySpace blog):

STEVE: You know what they should do with you guys? They should put all of you on a f***ing island somewhere.

GAY MAN: Yeah, guess what

STEVE: What?!

GAY MAN: You're on it!

Rogan also accuses Ant of stealing that same joke from Jim David:

I was standing in Manhattan, a man came up and said, "they ought to take all these homos and put them on an island." I said, "Merry Christmas, Bozo, you're on it."

Unless Rogan can name some more "stolen" material, I'm a bit underwhelmed by the accusation. Does it take much insight to note that Manhattan is an island with a lot of gay people? The jokes are all very similar, but they're not strikingly original either. I can easily buy the idea of each one being conceived in isolation. But shouldn't Rogan also be accusing either David or Boiler Room of theft? At this point, if Rogan is going to make the accusation again he needs to find some solid examples.