BMG Rights Management, the label behind The Black Eyed Peas‘ second-stage career explosion and owner of much of the group’s publishing, is suing MGA Entertainment, the company behind the Bratz dolls, over a parody of “My Humps,” which MGA used to promote a line of pooping unicorn toys.
I’ll give you a second.
The toys, Poopsie Slime Surprise, spewed sparkling slime and in an animated promotional video released last year, the unicorns performed a version of “My Humps” in which the lyrics were revised to reference, well, poop. Here’s an example: “Whatchu gonna do with all that poop? All that poop?”
BMG claims that MGA didn’t get permission to use “My Humps,” ignoring multiple cease-and-desist orders. Also, there’s an argument that the lead unicorn resembles Fergie — which… okay. BMG wants $10 million for “My Poops,” as it owns 75% of the composition copyright of the original “My Humps” according to Reuters.
Of course, all of this is pretty hilarious because “My Humps” sounds like a parody of a Black Eyed Peas song itself and was a big part of the reason the general public turned on the band in the mid-2000s (at least, if stand-up comics count; the song did go double platinum, so someone must have liked it). Also there’s this:
It’s also pretty funny because this sort of thing has been pretty well decided by no less an authority than the Supreme Court. I wrote about it here. If Roy Orbison couldn’t stop 2 Live Crew, I doubt the Court — especially as currently constituted — is going to want to hear a case about pooping unicorns.