Family Guy Decision Emphasizes Right to Parody Copyrighted Works

A case decided earlier this month emphasized that parody frequently qualifies as a permissible use of a copyrighted work – even if some people find the parody tasteless and objectionable.

Family Guy Wishes Upon a Star

"When You Wish Upon a Star" is a song written by Ned Washington and Leigh Harline for the 1940 Disney movie Pinocchio. It won the Academy Award for best original song.

Family Guy is an animated television sitcom that centers on a dysfunctional family living in the fictional town of Quahog, Rhode Island. The show used a re-worked, parodied version of “When You Wish Upon a Star” in a November 2003 episode entitled "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein". The music publishing company for “Wish Upon a Star” sued Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., Fox Broadcasting and the Cartoon Network for copyright infringement. A New York federal judge ruled the use to be a parody and dismissed the lawsuit.

Carol Burnett’s Challenge Against the Family Guy

The Wish Upon a Star rights holders didn’t learn from a similar case with a similar result involving Carol Burnett. Carol Burnett was upset when an episode of the Family Guy used her cleaning woman character and the theme song from the Carol Burnett Show. The Family Guy episode includes a scene in a porn shop in which an animated figure resembling the Carol Burnett-cleaning woman works as a janitor. A California federal court dismissed Burnett’s lawsuit finding that the Family Guy episode parodies Carol Burnett.

In making his ruling the judge did offer Ms. Burnet some words of comfort:

The Court fully appreciates how distasteful and offensive the [Family Guy] segment is to Ms. Burnett. . . . To some extent this dispute is indicative of just how far the “new media” has come from the “old media.” The old media harkens back to days when crude jokes and insensitive, often mean spirited, program[m]ing was perhaps found in live night club performances but was not present on television. In the new media, any self imposed restraint essentially has been eliminated. Public figures, such as Ms. Burnett, are frequent targets of parodies and crude innuendo. As Ms. Burnett well knows, it takes far more creative talent to create a character such as the “Charwoman” than to use such characters in a crude parody. Perhaps Ms. Burnett can take some solace in that fact.

However, the law, as it must in an open society, provides broad protection for the [Family Guy episode]. Therefore, the Court grants [Family Guy’s] . . . motion to dismiss [Carol Burnett]'s complaint