Circle of Life: Comedian sued for $27 million for mocking ‘The Lion King’ on podcast
Lebohang Morake, the Grammy-winning composer behind The Lion King, is suing a comedian for $27 million for alleged reputational damage.
Morake, who performs under the stage name Lebo M, has launched legal proceedings against Zimbabwean comic Learnmore Jonasi and accused him of misrepresenting the ‘Circle of Life’ chant from the film in his stand-up routine, as well as on podcasts.
He alleges that Jonasi ridiculed “the chant’s cultural significance with exaggerated imitations”, which led to the lawsuit, which Morake lodged in Los Angeles, where he resides, earlier this month.
According to Disney’s official translation, the opening line in Zulu and Xhosa, “Nants’ingonyama bagithi Baba,” means “All hail the king, we all bow in the presence of the king.”
Meanwhile, Morake states that the next line, “Hay! baba, sizongqoba,” translates to “Through you we will emerge victoriously.”
However, during an episode of the One54 podcast in February, Jonasi claimed to translate the lines and stated that it meant, “Look, there’s a lion. Oh my god.”
While Morake’s lawyers conceded that “ingonyama”, in a literal sense, does translate to lion, they state it was used in ‘Circle of Life’ as a “royal metaphor” and to imply kingship.
The lawsuit claims that Jonasi shouldn’t be protected by the First Amendment because he allegedly presented it “as authoritative fact, not comedy”.
Jonasi has been vocal on Instagram in response to the lawsuit, even sharing a video of him being served legal papers while on stage at a recent performance.
In a video, posted this week to his 500,000 followers, Jonasi shared, “I am officially being sued for telling a joke,” before sharing a clip from the podcast and explaining, “That’s why I’m being sued for $27 million, and to make matters worse, I got served the lawsuit while I was performing on-stage.”
He added, “Right now, I’m looking for a lawyer, man. I need a very good lawyer. If you know anybody out here that is willing to help me, please, please reach out to me.”
The comic added, “I can’t believe I’m getting sued for telling a joke. What kind of stupid world do we live in? This world is stupid.”
Jonasi has indeed now set up a GoFundMe to cover his legal costs, which has already raised more than $10,000 to help in his case against Morake. He is aiming to raise $20,000.
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