Stephen Colbert, who for his Comedy Central show created a caricature of “The O’Reilly Factor”’s Bill O’Reilly, is being sued by a talk-show host from floundering radio network Air America.
In an apparent appeal to the Trekkies in his audience, the smirking satirist let loose with a joke in which he compared GOP presidential hopefuls to Klingons because of comments made at a debate in which the candidates said that it was more honorable to win the war than the presidency.
Colbert’s “Star Trek” wisecrack was unleashed on Sept. 11, and the co-host of the “Young Turks” radio show, Cenk Uygur, is alleging in a lawsuit that Colbert stole the joke from a show of his that aired on Sept. 7.
“Look, he's messing with my livelihood,” Uyger said via his show’s Web site.
“That's how I put food on my kids' table. If I had kids, that’s definitely where I would put the food. Plus, my girlfriend won’t have sex with me anymore because she says I’ve lost my sense of humor. I told her I didn’t lose it, it was stolen. I looked it up, they have a legal word for it: It’s called loss of consortium. That means no more hanky-panky, and it costs big time in lawsuit world.”
For his supposed hanky-panky shortfall and hijacked humor injuries Uyger is seeking $65 million in damages. Apparently, he used a recent lawsuit over a pair of pants that were lost by a Washington, D.C. dry cleaners and prompted a local judge to sue for multi-millions.
The radio host plaintiff revealed how he calculated the hefty amount. “If a pair of lost pants is worth $65 million, then my jokes are worth a h*** of a lot more.”
Rumor has it that Colbert is thinking about countersuing for $130 million because the joke bombed.
Tarantino Throws an F-Bomb Tantrum
Meanwhile Quentin Tarantino, a video store clerk-turned-filmmaker who has coarsened the culture with his twisted cinema, has ticked off the wrong group of people.
When asked if he would direct an episode of “Heroes,” Tarantino told The U.K. Sun, “They were trying to get me to do one [“Heroes” episode]. I haven't even seen the f***ing show.”
Again displaying his f-word affection, he took another derogatory dig at the hugely successful NBC series, saying, “What the f*** is Heroes?”
Fans shouldn’t be too hard on Tarantino. After all, he was just trying to prove he’s got just as much ignorance of the small screen as he does of the big one.
James Hirsen is a media analyst, Trinity Law School professor, and teacher of mass media law at Biola University.
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