00:05Welcome to WatchMojo… and today, we're counting down our picks for the most notable
00:10times when an artist made a parody track that got them into legal trouble.
00:187.
00:19Like a Boss – The Lonely Island This was one of the earliest songs dropped
00:24by this comedy troupe, initially released in 2008.
00:33It's a parody of a track with the same name by Slim Thug, released three years prior.
00:43In 2011, two producers who worked on the beat claimed they weren't paid for their work.
00:49Initially, a deal allegedly gave one of the producers, Alaric Banks,
00:5250% ownership of the tune.
00:54The corporation, Universal Music Group, supposedly only let him own 25% of it,
00:59but he wasn't paid a penny for it anyway.
01:01It wasn't the only track they said Sandberg took from them.
01:04He also used their song Shy Ronnie, which was even awarded an Emmy.
01:12So, the pair filed a lawsuit.
01:14Then, about a year later, Sandberg left SNL entirely.
01:17The result isn't publicly known, so we may never learn what came of it.
01:22In recent interviews, Sandberg stated he left SNL because of the intense schedule,
01:26so his legal issues probably weren't the dominant factor in the decision.
01:31I'm the boss.
01:326.
01:33This Land – Jib-Jab
01:35This is one of the earliest examples of a political parody song uploaded to YouTube.
01:40This land is your land, this land is my land.
01:44It was originally released in 2004 on the Jib-Jab website.
01:47It became wildly famous in the 2000s, at least by internet standards.
01:53Supposedly, it's even been watched in outer space and Antarctica.
01:57The comical track was a parody of This Land is Your Land by Woody Guthrie.
02:00From California to the New York Island
02:05Being sung by caricatures of George W. Bush and John Kerry.
02:09I'm an intellectual, you're a stupid dumbass.
02:13After blowing up almost instantly, a music publisher called Ludlow Music Inc.
02:18threatened to sue Jib-Jab as they said they owned the original tune.
02:22In the end, Jib-Jab did the suing, wanting to ensure their work was considered fair use.
02:27They came out on top, with it turning out that This Land is Your Land has been in the
02:32public domain since 1973, as Ludlow didn't renew their ownership of the track.
02:38This land belongs to you and me.
02:455.
02:47When Sunny Sniffs Glue – Rick Dees
02:50Rick Dees is a well-known American DJ who has been active since the 70s.
02:59He's known for his comedic tracks, like his most famous tune, Disco Duck.
03:04His most controversial might be this parody of When Sunny Gets Blue by Marvin Fisher.
03:09Then the rain begins to fall.
03:14At first, Dees asked Fisher if he could make a spoof version, but Fisher refused.
03:20That didn't stop Dees, who sampled it and turned it into a 30-second track.
03:29In response, Fisher claimed it was copyright infringement, and a legal battle began.
03:35The conclusion was that Dees' track was fair use, and it has since become a historic example cited in
03:41a ton of future cases.
03:42It wasn't the end of his legal battles, though.
03:45In 1991, a court case made him pay $10 million in damages, but it wasn't related to any of his
03:51parodies.
03:52Instead, it was on account of his siphoning profits from a show.
03:574.
03:58My Poops – Getting Loopy Off My Poopy
04:01Poopsie Slime Surprise
04:03One of the hottest tracks of 2005 was My Humps by the acclaimed Black Eyed Peas.
04:16Years later, the group got into legal trouble with the toy brand MGA Entertainment.
04:20This was on account of a Poopsie Slime surprise toy commercial parodying My Humps.
04:29These toys can sell for between $100 and $300, making them a fairly lucrative product,
04:35which is a fairly high price for unicorns that excrete sparkly slime.
04:39This group's music publisher, BMG Rights Management, believed they were owed $10 million in damages,
04:45so they filed a lawsuit to claim it.
04:47According to BMG, they owned 75% of the commercial's theme,
04:51with them stating the vocals sounded very similar to Fergie from the original track.
04:57I felt like the Black Eyed Peas had a pretty strong case,
05:00but listening to them argue it is kind of silly.
05:02A settlement was reached in October 2023, but the details are not public information,
05:07so we may never know who won this case or whether they agreed it was a parody.
05:163. Family Guy's When You Wish Upon a Star Parody – Peter Griffin
05:21Family Guy is rarely afraid to shy away from edgy humor, which has been the case since its original
05:28airing in 1999. One of their series, Three Controversies, related to the episode,
05:33When You Wish Upon a Weinstein.
05:35Listen, thanks for letting me use the phone.
05:37Thanks for Spaceballs.
05:39It was criticized for being anti-Semitic, which meant Fox refused to air it at first.
05:44It included one track, which was a parody of When You Wish Upon a Star, performed by Peter Griffin.
05:54The original track is the property of the Bourne Company, which filed a sizable lawsuit against
05:59Fox in 2007. They were understandably offended by their song being twisted into something offensive.
06:11Eventually, in 2009, Family Guy won the case, with the judge ruling that it was fair use and
06:17they weren't forced to pay a penny. Bourne Company probably wasn't too happy with the results,
06:21as they didn't publicly reveal their opinions on it.
06:302. More Trash From Mad Number 4
06:34Mad Magazine
06:36Decades before YouTube, parody songs would be published in magazines.
06:40Excuse me, is this Mad Magazine?
06:43No, it's Mademoiselle. We're buying our sign on the installment plan.
06:48They wouldn't be properly composed tracks. It would be a handful of
06:51lyrics you could sing to specific melodies. This is what Mad Magazine chose to do in 1961,
06:57when they published a songbook that included a selection of 57 parody lyrics. 25 of them,
07:03the focus of lawsuits, with Irving Berlin as the plaintiff, whose song,
07:08A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody, was parodied. A whopping $1 per copy of the songbook was requested,
07:23which came to $25 million in total. After inflation, that's over $250 million in today's money.
07:30Mad's publishers won the case, with the court deciding they counted as fair use. It's easily
07:36one of the most historically significant cases in parody law, paving the way for future cases.
07:41After the ruling in 1964, Mad decided to double down and published tons more parody songbooks over
07:47the rest of the 60s. 1. Pretty Woman
07:512 Live Crew An arguably more historically significant copyright case was first argued in 1993,
07:58then concluded in 1994. The topic was whether 2 Live Crew's parody of Oh Pretty Woman was fair use,
08:09since the hip-hop group had commercialized their parody. The original song was released by Roy Orbison in
08:151964. Before making a spoof version, the group asked for a license to use the track, but when it
08:24was refused, they decided to go ahead and make it anyway. The case ruled in 2 Live Crew's favor,
08:35unanimously determining that Pretty Woman was covered by fair use. This was the first time an American
08:40court decided that commercial parodies can use copyrighted material without getting permission
08:45prior. The legacy of this case can still be felt today. For instance, Weird Al famously requests
08:50permission for all of his parodies, despite him not being legally required to do it at all.
08:58Were there any other high-profile parody lawsuits we didn't mention today? Let us know in the comments below.
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