RATwo passengers fight over the armrest
Conan O'Brien , compared with Robert "Alex" Kaseberg
A Delta flight took off with only two passengers, and they still fought over the armrest.
“Yesterday, a Delta flight from Cleveland to New York took off with just 2 passengers. Yet somehow, they spent the whole flight fighting over the armrest.”
Conan (TBS) monologue, 2015quote source ↗find on YouTube ↗
“A Delta flight this week took off from Cleveland to New York with just two passengers. And they fought over control of the armrest the entire flight.”
Blog, 2015quote source ↗find on YouTube ↗
Practically identical joke, yet court records show Conan's writer submitted it hours before Kaseberg posted, so it was likely written twice independently.
- Premise 40/40
- Structure 28/30
- Punchline 25/30
- Premise40/40Both take the same story, a two-passenger Delta flight from Cleveland to New York, to the armrest fight.
- Structure28/30Same two beats in the same order: the near-empty flight, then the absurd armrest fight.
- Punchline25/30Both end on fighting over the armrest the whole flight; Conan adds yet somehow.
Setup
A Delta flight from Cleveland to New York took off with two passengers.
Setup
A Delta flight from Cleveland to New York left with two passengers.
Turn
Yet somehow, with all that empty space, conflict still breaks out.
Turn
And despite the empty plane, they still clash.
Punchline
They spent the whole flight fighting over the armrest.
Punchline
They fought over control of the armrest the entire flight.
In the words themselves
45% of the meaningful words are shared · longest identical run: “from cleveland to new york”. Shared words are highlighted in the quotes above.
Scores and beats are our editorial reading of the public record, not a ruling.
Context
When and where
On Jan 14, 2015, Conan writer Comers submitted his joke at about 11:33 a.m. Kaseberg posted his at 4:14 p.m. the same day, and O'Brien performed a version that night. The court dismissed this joke from the case.
What followed
Despite near-identical wording, the judge threw this joke out of the case in 2017 after finding one of O'Brien's writers had pitched a similar joke before Kaseberg's post appeared. It is the clearest example of how a topical joke can be written twice independently.
Receipts
Photos via Wikimedia Commons: Conan O'Brien by Montclair Film, CC BY 4.0