Brownmark Sues South Park Over "What What (In the Butt)" Parody

[Scott Bullock]

Brownmark Sues South Park Over "What What (In the Butt)" Parody

Viacom and Comedy Central are being sued by Brownmark Films over South Park's parody of the viral YouTube hit, "What What (In the Butt)".

On Friday, Brownmark Films filed a copyright infringement suit in U.S. District Court against Viacom and Comedy Central, the producers of South Park, over the character Butters performing the song "What What (In the Butt)" during the 2007 episode "Canada On Strike!".

The South Park rendition of the video, which some would argue helped the original Samwell version reach the viral heights it did, is pose-for-pose, thrust-for-thrust a near-perfect animated adaptation of the internet video. Because of this, Brownmark claims that the infringement is "willful, intentional, and purposeful, in disregard of and indifferent to the rights of Brownmark." They want a permanent injunction and statutory damages.

The case will likely come down to whether the South Park video is considered a parody, and therefor protected, or infringement.

This comes after an embarrassing incident last month, when South Park was accused of lifting material from CollegeHumor with regards to several Inception jokes used in the episode "Insheeption", which the creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, quickly apologized for.

If you care to see the weirdest pair of clips this side of an X-rating, you can find the original Samwell video here [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbGkxcY7YFU].

Source: The Hollywood Reporter via IGN

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[Dogstile]

Its south park. When is anything they do not a parody? They killed Justin bieber for christ sake

 

[SnipErlite]

Really? Wow. People sue over the silliest things these days. I think it'll end up being cleared under being a parody though.

 

[Tipsy Giant]

You'd think that dude wanted that video to sink into history never to be mentioned again, I guess this is what you shall be known as forever, the What What In My Asshole Guy

 

[runedeadthA]

I'm sure this is a serious claim and blah-de-blah, But unfortunately I cannot take anything called "Brownmark" seriously.

Also: People Sue to much these days -_-

 

[Krafty_Krocodile]

the funny thing is that nobody would of known about the song unless of the south park episode :3

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

As far as I can tell, this is in one hell of a grey area right now. On one hand, their version of "What what in (the butt) doesn't poke fun oft he original itself, and can be counted as non-parody. On the other hand, later in the episode, they say "Hey look, it's the what what in my asshole kid!" which MIGHT spin it as parody...

I have no clue where this will go

 

[Jumwa]

2007 episode? Wtf took them so long?


Btw Butters >>> Most things

Nobody cares about his old video anymore so now he has to try and get attention (and money) by milking it in another way?

 

[SomeBritishDude]

Umm...Bit late hu?

Anyway, this won't exactly bother these guys, they set money asside each series for when people sue.

 

[Irridium]

They're idiots. On Tosh.0 Samwell said he was asked by the creators of South Park for his song. If his general excitement during the show was anything to go by, I'm pretty sure he said yes.

 

[Dorian6]

according to Samwell, they got his permission to do the parody.

Did they not go through the proper channels?

 

[thublihnk]

BrownMark is clearly just trying to stir up more press now that the craze over the clip has died down. Anyway, there's no doubt the South Park episode will be deemed parody.

 

[JamesBr]

It`s only 3 years after the fact. Considering the average life on an internet meme, does anyone except the paintiff even care? Even then, the entire episode made parodies of a ton of memes, why would this be any different? Even shot for shot, it's clearly a parody in the context of the episode.

 

[Avaholic03]

Sounds like someone is having money troubles. That happened in 2007. Isn't there some statute of limitations on how long you can wait to sue someone?

 

[LordXel]

Who sues South Park? Some person on youtube who made a famous music video? Oh. ...... Never heard of him.

 

[Cain_Zeros]

Can they do that? Is that song/video actually copyrighted, or are they just thinking, "Hey! You parodied our thing we put on YouTube! Copyright infringement!"?

 

[w-Jinksy]

isn't this covered under some sort of act where you can parody copyrighted material, i mean thats how internet reviewers can do their reviews.

 

[Fumbleumble]

Quite right too... if the vid belonged to these guys then they have every right to sue.

The industry itself got these laws put in place, now they'll just have to accept that they can no longer get away with just taking stuff the way they used to.

It's their fault, serves them right, let them stew.

 

[Jamash]

Considering that South Park in the past have used Johnnie Cochran and the Chewbacca Defence, I doubt a mere Youtube video company will stand a chance in court.