The Most Frivolous Music Lawsuit Of The Year

It looks like Lebohang Morake, the South African musician known as Lebo M, does not have a sense of humor. Earlier this year the singer of the Zulu chant that opens Elton John’s The Lion King song “Circle Of Life" sued comedian Learnmore Jonasi for an innocuous viral joke about the song. The case was dismissed on Friday (July 10) after Morake agreed to drop it, but the comic is demanding that he repay his legal bills.

The judge noted on Friday that Jonasi could seek such penalties, which are supposed to prevent lawsuits that restrict free speech. "From the outset, we maintained that the lawsuit was frivolous and constituted an attempt to infringe upon our client's First Amendment rights," Jonasi's attorney Bryan Sullivan told Billboard . "As a result of this baseless litigation, the plaintiff walks away with nothing."

In the viral video, Jonasi joked that "Nants'ingonyama bagithi Baba", which translates to "All hail the king, we all bow in the presence of the king", actually means "Look, there's a lion. Oh my god." It earned over four million likes on Instagram . Morake sought $27 million in damages for defamation and other alleged wrongdoing, saying Jonasi's bit was a "fabricated, trivializing distortion, meant as a sick joke for unlawful self-profit and destruction of the imaginative and artistic work of Lebo M."

When Jonasi's attorneys tried to get the case thrown in May, Morake filed an updated version with accusations of federal trademark violations. Last week, he agreed to dismiss the case, though the request was made "without prejudice," so it's possible for him to refile the lawsuit in the future. Morake shared a statement saying that the reports of him suffering a legal defeat are inaccurate and that the settlement was mutual. Don't put it in the newspaper that Lebo M lost.

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