"South Park" Sued for Their Parody of Viral YouTube "Butt" Clip
NEW YORK (CBS) "South Park" is being accused of stealing content again - this time for infringing on the copyright of a popular YouTube video.
Brownmark Films is suing the producers of the Comedy Central animated hit for allegedly ripping material from their hit video, "What What (In the Butt)," according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The original video, which was based on a song by Samwell, has garnered well over 33 million views since it was posted in February 2007.
"South Park" aired their taking of the video in the 2008 episode "Canada on Strike," which featured the character Butters as Samwell.
The production company filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Wisconsin Friday, claiming that the violation is "willful, intentional, and purposeful, in disregard of and indifferent to the rights of Brownmark," THR reports. They are seeking a permanent injunction and statutory damages.
Although some may say that the two clips share numerous similarities, others will argue that the original video's viral status was solidified due to the "South Park" promotion.
Last month, the show's creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone apologized to the comedy website CollegeHumor for lifting considerable chunks of dialogue from their "Inception" parody.
"It's just because we do the show in six days, and we're stupid and we just threw it together," Stone said at the time in a telephone interview with the New York Times. "But in the end, there are some lines that we had to call and apologize for."