When You Wish lawsuit

Post by **EricJ** » October 5th, 2007, 3:37 pm

Variety indicates that the music publishing house Bourne Co. is suing Fox Broadcasting due to the Family Guy song parody I Need a Jew, set to the tune of When You Wish Upon A Star. Bourne believes that Fox has harmed the classic Pinocchio song’s reputation by associating it with a “vile and anti-Semitic message.”

(Is anyone else right now practically quoting Cartman's dialogue from the "Family Guy"/Mohammed South Park episode word for word?:
"Dude, let's go to Fox and have this episode pulled! It's our only chance to finally get this show off the air!" )

Post by **Daniel** » October 6th, 2007, 3:17 am

I probably would be, had I seen that episode... Must watch it soon!

Yeah, silly lawsuit. I don't really think "I need a Jew" is vile or has a anti-semitic message. I LOVE that song. Before FG was resurrected, I considered "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein" the series finale.

Post by **EricJ** » October 6th, 2007, 4:10 am

Daniel wrote:I probably would be, had I seen that episode... Must watch it soon!

It's a must-watch episode (or at least, the first part of the two-parter is, haven't seen the second):

The SP episode was supposed to parody the Mohammed-cartoon headlines, but decided to take a poke at FG's bewilderingly random, robotic and basically pointless shock-gags and pop-culture refs that don't seem to be in the episodes for any reason at all--
Won't spoil it (and I don't know what mystery of comedy makes "Funny attempts to deliberately create unfunny jokes" gags funnier) but SP's dead-on parody imitation of lame/random FG jokes had me on the floor:
("Hey, fool!--Want some Mr. T.....tea?")

That, and the (slightly allegorical) scene where Kyle asks Cartman, "But I thought you'd like Family Guy, because your senses of humor are so similar!"
"DUDE!...If you ever compare my sense of humor to Family Guy's again, I will kill you where you stand! >_< "

Post by **ShyViolet** » October 6th, 2007, 4:14 am

It's a must-watch episode (or at least, the first part of the two-parter is, haven't seen the second):

The SP episode was supposed to parody the Mohammed-cartoon headlines, but decided to take a poke at FG's bewilderingly random, robotic and basically pointless shock-gags and pop-culture refs that don't seem to be in the episodes for any reason at all--
Won't spoil it (and I don't know what mystery of comedy makes "Funny attempts to deliberately create unfunny jokes" gags funnier) but SP's parody imitation of lame/random FG jokes had me on the floor:
("Hey, fool!--Want some Mr. T.....tea?")

Well said Eric!

I have parts 1 and 2 on my computer. (itunes) Worth it!

Eric and Dan, you both need to see it!!

Yeah, silly lawsuit. I don't really think "I need a Jew" is vile or has a anti-semitic message. I LOVE that song. Before FG was resurrected, I considered "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein" the series finale.

Yeah, as a Jew, it doesn't bother me either. (although I wasn't crazy about it at one point....now I just shrug it off and say: "Well, it's Family Guy." They rip on everyone and everything.)

However, I do think South Park does the whole "Jew" thing (Kyle/Cartman etc....) about 100,000 times better than Family Guy could ever do.

That, and the (slightly allegorical) scene where Kyle asks Cartman, "But I thought you'd like Family Guy, because your senses of humor are so similar!"
"DUDE!...If you ever compare my sense of humor to Family Guy's again, I will kill you where you stand! >_< "

I think it was more than slightly!

Matt and Trey have both said in interviews how much they hate Family Guy and that to have fans comparing them is like "a kick in the balls."

In part 2 the whole allegorical nature of the story and how it relates to South Park as a series becomes more apparent.

***********************************

One thing I don't get though: Why isn't Disney suing Family Guy?

Post by **Ben** » October 6th, 2007, 9:01 am

Because Disney does not own the rights to the song. The Bourne Company owns the rights to the songs from Pinocchio because Disney did not set up the Wonderland Music Company until much later.

Disney owns the rights to the recordings of the songs, but Bourne owns the words and music.

Post by **ShyViolet** » October 9th, 2007, 3:51 am

Ah, gotcha. That makes sense.

Post by **Dacey** » October 11th, 2007, 8:40 pm

This just goes to show how STUPID the people who make "Family Guy" really are. Unless, of course, they actually wanted the controversy for publicity's sake.

Post by **Daniel** » October 13th, 2007, 5:48 am

How? Family Guy is and always has been a show that pokes fun of everybody. (Pop culture, etc.)

Post by **Dacey** » October 13th, 2007, 1:55 pm

Yes, but they didn't know where to draw the line here.

Post by **EricJ** » October 13th, 2007, 2:06 pm

Daniel wrote:How? Family Guy is and always has been a show that pokes fun of everybody. (Pop culture, etc.)

That's the problem: SP and (although to a much lesser degree these days) Simpsons choose their targets--
Granted, both series wimp out and have their characters make pompous "Can't we all just get along?" speeches before the end credits, but whether it's Simpsons "Homer questions the Bible, Part XXVIII", or South Park's "Tom Cruise won't come out of the closet!" you always know where the writers stand.
SP may throw potty-mouthed dialogue and cartoon gore at us, but the funniest part of the scripts is that they tactlessly un-PC blurt out what we were already thinking about the headlines--Although not so much with Simpsons, which tries to be "2 Hip 4 Opinions", and tries to satirize both sides just in case...Basically, the cartoon demonstration of , "The man with 'no loyalties' is the man with no opinions."

FG, OTOH, is the "easy" part of Tom Lehrer's "Irreverence is easy, Wit is hard." (And if you don't know who Tom Lehrer is, uh, he wrote songs for the Electric Company.

)
The humor is Attention-Deficit Disorder, and seems to be popular with the Attention-Deficit Aged HS/college audience, that doesn't ask why the characters are suddenly invoking an 80's series, shock-gag or cartoon reference, it's just "funny" at this micro-moment, now bring on the next.

...Which, again, made SP's parody of FG's baffling stream-of-consciousness desperation that much funnier:
(Captain Kirk at door)
"Captain?"
"I'll be the Captain, you be Tenille."
"o/`Love will keep us together...'"

Post by **eddievalient** » November 6th, 2007, 12:31 am

Check this out:

Funny stuff.

Post by **Ben** » November 6th, 2007, 9:46 am

A little long, but it made some funny points. Why is it always referred to as "The" Family Guy...I thought it was just Family Guy?

Post by **Daniel** » November 6th, 2007, 3:13 pm

It is, everyone seems to think it was just a goof up. Only on Fox!