Old-fashioned: the guy should pay
Amy Schumer , compared with Wendy Liebman
The comic says she's traditional about men paying, then twists it into paying for sex.
“I am a good person, I swear to you. Like, I'm very old-school. I think the guy should pay on the first date ... for sex”
Live at the Apollo (HBO), 2015quote source ↗find on YouTube ↗
“I'm old fashioned. On a date I like it when the man pays. For sex.”
Stand-up act (1990s)quote source ↗find on YouTube ↗
Line for line the same joke, old-fashioned values flipped into paying for sex; Liebman later called it parallel thinking.
- Premise 38/40
- Structure 27/30
- Punchline 28/30
- Premise38/40Same idea: a woman claims old-fashioned values about men paying, then reveals it's for sex.
- Structure27/30Identical shape: old-fashioned claim, the man pays on a date, pause, then for sex.
- Punchline28/30Both quotes end on the same two words after a pause; Schumer adds only a good-person preamble.
Setup
She swears she is a good person, very old-school.
Setup
She says she is old-fashioned.
Turn
The guy should pay on the first date.
Turn
On a date she likes the man to pay.
Punchline
The payment is for sex.
Punchline
The payment is for sex.
In the words themselves
20% of the meaningful words are shared · longest identical run: “for sex”. 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
Liebman's joke dates to the 1990s. Schumer's line is from her 2015 HBO special Live at the Apollo.
What followed
Liebman tweeted in January 2016 that Schumer did one of her best jokes on her HBO special, then deleted it. Schumer said the joke had the same punchline but she had never seen Liebman's '90s act, and Liebman later put it down to parallel thinking.
Receipts
Photos via Wikimedia Commons: Amy Schumer by Mario Santor, CC BY-SA 3.0; Wendy Liebman by 'slgckgc', CC BY 2.0