Amy Schumer: ‘I would never steal a joke,’ will take polygraph test to prove it

Amy Schumer had responded to allegations by three comedians that she had stolen their jokes, a major accusation in standup comedy.

“On my life, I have never and would never steal a joke,” Schumer, 34, tweeted of the contretemps that began over the weekend. She also appeared on Sirius XM’s “The Jim Norton Advice Show” Wednesday pledging “to take a polygraph test and put it on my show this season,” referring to Comedy Central’s “Inside Amy Schumer.”

The accusations appear to have started with a since-removed amateur video comparing Schumer performances with those by other comics including Wendy Liebman, Kathleen Madigan and Tammy Pescatelli. Liebman then complained, in a since-deleted tweet, about “Amy Schumer doing 1 of my best jokes on her HBO special.”

This led to a series of since-deleted tweets by Pescatelli, who wrote, “What has always been amazing to me is that she purports to be a feminist and yet only steals from other female comedians. If we call her on it we are ‘jealous’ or career shamed. Be successful. WE want you to do well, just do it with your own material.”

Liebman eventually backtracked, tweeting, “I never said Amy Schumer stole my joke. I just said it was the same. It’s possible we both wrote it. I just wanted you to know I wrote it 1st.”

“Both Kathleen and Wendy believe me,” the Rockville Centre-raised Schumer told Norton. “They know me and they don’t believe that I would do that.”

Pescatelli went on Norton’s show Thursday and apologized for “going too far,” but insisted that, “When I said it, I felt justified.”

SEE PHOTOSAmy Schumer photos

“Listen, I own it. I said it. I went too deep. I’m not trying to pass that off,” the comic, 45, said, adding, “It went too far and . . . for that I’m super apologetic.” Saying that “parallel thinking” can be responsible for different comedians devising the same joke, she explained she was being loyal to friends who initially felt Schumer had stolen material. “I probably should have just stayed out of it and kept my mouth shut. I shouldn’t have accused somebody,” she said.