The folks over at Sesame Street are completely outraged over the movie THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS and its use of the tagline “No sesame. All street.” In fact, they were so angry when the trailer dropped recently that they took STX Productions to court over the use of the tagline. However, they will have to walk back home empty-handed after a judge ruled in favor of the raunchy, R-rated puppet comedy.
According to the Associated Press, U.S. District Judge Vernon Broderick ruled in favor of STX and said HAPPYTIME could continue to use the tagline, determining it did not commit any sort of copyright infringement. As well, Broderick said there was no evidence to the Sesame Workshop’s claim that the tagline could cause confusion among audiences over Sesame Street’s involvement in the movie.
The lawsuit has since been dismissed, and STX, through their puppet attorney Fred, Esq., has put out a statement saying:
We fluffing love Sesame Street and we’re obviously very pleased that the ruling reinforced what STX’s intention was from the very beginning — to honor the heritage of The Jim Henson Company’s previous award-winning creations while drawing a clear distinction between any Muppets or Sesame Street characters and the new world Brian Henson and team created. We believe we accomplished that with the very straightforward NO SESAME, ALL STREET tagline.
This all began last week when the Sesame Workshop filed a lawsuit against STX, claiming that the tagline “deliberately confuses consumers into mistakenly believing that Sesame is associated with, has allowed, or has even endorsed or produced the movie and tarnishes Sesame’s brand.” STX responded by sending out Fred, with their statement saying they were confident in their legal position.
I'm glad we can now put this whole thing behind us and get back to what really matters: Suiting up, and finding out who the hell is killing all these puppets.
THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS is in theaters August 17.
** Fun fact: Word out of the courtroom is that Fred won STX the case by putting a glove on his hand, failing to make it fit, then proclaiming that if it did not fit, then they must acquit.