The Truth About Daniel Tosh And Rob Dyrdek's Feud
Daniel Tosh and Rob Dyrdek have their similarities. They enjoy laughing at, and making fans laugh, at other people's pain via internet video clips. Before Tosh's Tosh.0 and Dyrdek's Ridiculousness, fans had to scour the abyss of YouTube if they wanted to find videos of people doing stupid stuff and getting hurt, or just generally making fools of themselves. Thank goodness that MTV and Comedy Central air shows that took all the hard work out of enjoying other people's tragedies.
The shows were similar and had a cross-over fan base, though most fans clearly have their favorite of the two. Unfortunately, problems can arise when two shows seem similar. We've seen it everywhere in show business, from musicians to the feud between the Oxyclean guy and the ShamWow guy. Tosh and Dyrdek aren't immune.
Here's the thing: Tosh.0 aired its first episode on Comedy Central in June of 2009. Ridiculousness didn't come out on MTV until two years later, and that's where it starts. Tosh believes Dyrdek ripped his show off to create Ridiculousness. It's easy to see why. Both shows rely heavily on videos from the internet to give the hosts material to fuel jokes. Of course, Tosh.0 has skits and extra bits that go far beyond laughing at YouTube tragedies, and clip comedy shows aren't exactly new to the business. Tosh was upset anyway and, reports Nicki Swift, tweeted, "congrats @robdyrdek. new show looks very funny & familiar."
Tosh claims Ridiculousness ripped off Tosh.0
Dyrdek fired back: "[Thank] you so much @danieltosh!! Maybe later this week you, @BobSaget, and @Tom_Bergeron can come down to my factory and play." Ouch. With that Twitter exchange, the feud between Daniel Tosh and Rob Dyrdek had officially begun, and it got much worse.
Tosh might think that Dyrdek ripped off his show idea when creating Ridiculousness, but Dyrdek says his show was around on paper before Tosh.0 came out. In an interview with Larry King, posted on YouTube, Dyrdek outright says he didn't copy Tosh.0 but he did, in fact, copy a different show. According to Dyrdek, Ridiculousness was actually copying America's Funniest Home Videos but, like, for a good reason. Both Ridiculousness and Fantasy Factor were written for and sold to America's Funniest Home Videos global syndication business before Tosh.0 hit the air. Dyrdek opted to make Fantasy Factory first, leaving his clip comedy show for a later time. Well, before Ridiculousness came out, Tosh had already gotten his show on the air, which made Dyrdek's new show look like a total rip off. Even Dyrdek admits he can see where Tosh was coming from over the whole thing.
There are some key differences between the two shows though, and Tosh seems to have come from a fairly egotistical perspective regarding the issue. He should've known better than to think his clip show was something entirely new. Ridiculousness, for one, takes a much less scripted approach to analyzing the videos.
Dyrdek says that's not how it happened
Tosh.0 also has more of a sketch comedy vibe than Dyrdek's show. Plus, Ridiculousness features several people making comical analysis of internet clips, whereas Tosh.0 relies on Tosh alone to do the mocking. Regardless, the feud got out of hand.
As TMZ reported, the pinnacle of the Tosh-Dyrdek feud came after Tosh did a sketch featuring "Daniel's Childish Dream Factory for Young Boys Only." The sketch includes Tosh being called out on ripping off Fantasy Factory, and claiming it's his own original idea that he had years before Fantasy Factory but he was "too busy with other projects to see it through." Sound familiar?
That was definitely an "oh snap!" jab at Dyrdek, but not the worst. Tosh goes on to imply that Dyrdek enjoys "hanging out with shirtless boys." As you might imagine, Dyrdek wasn't happy with the sketch. Grantland reports that he used a series of tweets to convey his feelings: "I am not a comedian or an actor so unfortunately for @danieltosh we are going to have to settle this the old fashioned way." Of course, Dyrdek's friends say the Ridiculousness host doesn't actually want to beat up Daniel Tosh. Probably. Tosh responded to Dyrdek's allegedly joking tweets with one of his own: "fair enough but if you have to beat me up, can we film it and put it on my show so people will actually watch it?"