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Spitting Image Trolls StudioCanal Over Paddington Bear Lawsuit

Spitting Image: The Rest Is Bulls**t responded to the lawsuit filed against their parody of Paddington Bear by doubling down.

Early this week, it was reported that Spitting Image was getting sued by StudioCanal over their depiction of Paddington Bear in their new weekly puppet sketch show, The Rest is B***hit. StudioCanal and Paddington creator Michael Bond's estate had filed a High Court complaint against Avalon, citing copyright and design right concerns. Instead of backing down or issuing any apology, Spitting Image is doubling down and trolling the lawsuit. Gleefully. Unapologetically. They even posted a new episode on Friday where their parody version of Paddington shows up in the middle of the show smelling bad and late because he was consulting with his lawyer, Dirty Sanchez, and got busy dissolving a body in acid.

Parody Prince Harry and Parody Paddigton proceeded to troll the recent BBC Panorama exposé of embedded racism and brutality in the London police force, because of course they would. This is Spitting Image, after all. Parody Paddington roasted "Studio C Anal" and wiped his bum with the legal filing, declaring, "Your writ, my shit." A parody version of Taylor Swift helped open the show, and the real Tay-Tay hasn't threatened to sue. Yet.

The co-creators of the YouTube series, Al Murray and Matt Forde, told The Radio Times they were "baffled" by the lawsuit. 'If we were going to expect anything, it would be a hard stare from Paddington," Murray joked.

"It's the oldest thing in comedy," said Murray. "We're not saying we've done anything particularly original. Paddington is normally presented as this very 'goody-two-shoes' character, and we've flipped him over. It's a very Spitting Image thing to do – to take someone and say 'Hey, maybe they're the opposite.'"

This is the first time the new internet-based Spitting Image has made the headlines for offending someone enough to file a lawsuit against it. It seems the claimants were unaware of the Streisand Effect, which appears to have kicked in, with even more attention to the modest YouTube show, which fewer viewers are aware of than the original hit 1980s and 1990s version of the Spitting Image that aired on UK television. The show's viewing figures on YouTube have hit nearly 12 million views and are reaching millions more across other streaming platforms across the world, which is a broader reach than the original UK TV version.

"I mean, they've fallen into a bear trap of their own making," said Forde. "We're getting tons more views as a result of the lawsuit's publicity, so more people are watching this depiction of Paddington that they don't want anyone to see."

Is it potentially a case of miscommunication involving the 'British sense of humour'?

"I mean taking the piss is a great British value, as is having a sense of humour about ourselves," says Murray. "But there obviously has been a drift towards people who want to shut other people's jokes up – and it's weird, it seems like an attack on comedy really."

"In my experience, people find you funny taking the p**s out of things, until you take the p**s out of something they like. Then they don't find you funny anymore."

But the creators were really surprised that the call for legal action came from fellow creatives.

"I would imagine that the people at StudioCanal who've come to this are the sorts of people who not long ago were pretty outraged by Jimmy Kimmel being pulled off air," explains Murray. "If they're sensitive, creative people, that's probably how they felt about it."

"But they're trying to do that to our absurdist, ridiculous Paddington, and that leaves me scratching my head."

"We are literally talking about a fictional bear and a puppet show!" said Murray.

"It's terrifying that pressure can come from all sorts of different places," said Forde. "I think the risk is that these kinds of authoritarian instincts exist on left and right. They exist in governments; they exist in corporations. We're living in an era where politicians can get you taken off the air, and the consequences of that – and it's not just comedy – will close people in all sorts of other industries down.

"People need to be careful about thinking. 'Well, I never liked Jimmy Kimmel anyway, so I'm fine with it' because eventually, they will get round to you, and they will shut you up. Comedy is an easy first target because people don't like being laughed at, but it's not comedy that they have an issue with. It's the freedom of speech."

The current Spitting Image and The Rest is Bullshit are available now on YouTube.

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