Court to sitcom writers: dirty jokes are actionable

[freepatriot32]

Amaani Lyle was fired four months into her job for Warner Brothers as a writers' assistant on "Friends" because she couldn't type fast enough to record the writers' dictation accurately. She sued for sexual harassment because the comedy writers would regularly make jokes about women and sex in the process of writing a sitcom about the sexual adventures of six thirty-somethings.

A California appeals court has decided that a jury should resolve whether the jokes made by the comedy writers were appropriate for writing a sitcom or whether they created an actionable "hostile working environment for women." Summary judgment was affirmed with respect to the dismissal of her lawsuit against NBC, because NBC did not have the right to hire or fire writers' assistants on the television show, but the court reversed the award of attorneys' fees.

Lyle v. Warner Bros. Television Prod. opinion).

[T'wit]

Agree. The great comedians (Bob Hope for one) usually used joke writers, plural, and they'd brainstorm to do jokes.

[latina4dubya]

comedy writers would regularly make jokes

this reminds of the Dick Van Dyke Show... Dick, Sally and that other little guy would throw out jokes and different ideas for the Alan Brady Show... gosh, that looked like a fun job...

[latina4dubya]

of course, i meant Rob, Sally and Buddy...

[Alouette]

She is a TYPIST; if she can't type fast enough to get down their "stream of consciousness" remarks, she HAS to be replaced.

Computer programs that do this kind of thing have been around for years.

[Howlin]

But somebody has to type it in.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

The great sports writer, Red Smith, said writing was easy. You just sit at the typewriter and open a vein. 8~)