Aunt Betty's says sorry for using dead man's joke

The joke by Mitch Hedberg was used on Aunt Betty's packaging without attribution. Photo / Facebook

New Zealand pudding brand Aunt Betty's has apologised for using a joke from a dead American comedian without attribution.

Aunt Betty's, owned by Hansells Food Group, said it will remove the quote by the late US comedian Mitch Hedberg from its packaging.

"Rice is great if you're hungry and you want to eat 2,000 of something," Aunt Betty's packaging said.

The line is nearly identical to a joke by Hedberg, who died accidentially in 2005 after taking drugs.

Hedberg, a hit on The Late Show With David Letterman, was once was dubbed ``the next Seinfeld'' by Time magazine.

But TV-series fame eluded him because his unique style of mumbled one-liners didn't lend itself to the sitcom format.

Aunt Betty's use of Heberg's joke was revealed after Kiwi comic Brad Zimmerman pointed it out on Twitter.

Just a casual bit of blatant plagiarism from #AuntBetty. I wonder if #MitchHedberg would approve of this #JokeThief pic.twitter.com/uR1OvMpztx

— Brad (@bradleyzimmer) July 30, 2016

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Aunty Betty's, in a post on its Facebook page, has since apologised:

"It has come to light that we made a big mistake on some recent packaging & unknowingly used a quote from a well-known & loved comedian. This lovely joke, we now know, was from the late Mitch Hedberg and we thank him for this. We intend to remove this from the packaging going forward and we apologise for any offence caused."

It has come to light that we made a big mistake on some recent packaging & unknowingly used a quote from a well-known &...

Posted by Aunt Betty's on Sunday, 31 July 2016

Born in St Paul, Minnesota, Hedberg rose through the ranks at Minneapolis' Acme Comedy Co and caught his big break through a Comedy Central special.

He had a role in the film Almost Famous - smoking fake pot with Peter Frampton - and appeared on Fox's hit series That '70s Show.