Carol Burnett Launches Stupid Lawsuit Against Family Guy

Maybe Carol Burnett has a bad attorney, or maybe she cannot remember all the parodies of others she and Tim Conway and other cast members of her long running TV show were involved in, but she has launched an absurd lawsuit against the cartoon show FAMILY GUY contending copywrite infringement for some 2006 parody of her they did. Good luck.

Since the landmark lawsuit was lost by Jerry Falwell against Hustler magazine for a scathing outhouse parody, the U.S. Supreme Court awarded a far higher level of constitutional protection to parody and satire that is virtually untouchable by those who feel targeted. Carol Burnett's attorney should have known this.

Comedy, satire and parody are all important forms of editoral free speech. The satire or parody is simply used as a vehicle to transmit an opinion about a subject or person. This is given such a high level of free speech protection for this reason.

Why someone like Burnett, a very gifted comic who often made fun of others in parody or satire for laughs has not grown to accept the importance of satire and parody and respect in others is a very good question. With all of her jokes at the expense of others, at some point she should have expected to be the butt of some joke sometime. It goes with the territory.