Great circle of litigation sees Lion King composer sue comedian over translation joke

The appearance went viral, which is how it caught the attention of Lebo M (stage name of musician Lebohang Morake, a long-time associate of Lion King composer Hans Zimmer), who began a pretty heated back-and-forth with Jonasi, first in private, and then on social media. That culminated in an incident in which Jonasi was served papers while literally on stage, joking at the time that, “I just got served, I’m now American!” Per The Guardian, the subsequent lawsuit claims that the viral nature of the mistranslation joke means it somehow caused Morake more than $20 million in damages to royalties and his relationship with Disney; he’s also seeking $7 million in punitive damages, to boot.

Jonasi has responded to the lawsuit by, well, posting more videos, as well as selling merchandise pretty clearly designed to raise money for a possible legal battle. (Prodding Morake a little more is presumably a welcome side benefit.) Disney itself hasn’t issued a public comment on the lawsuit. (Because why in God’s name would it willingly wade into this?) But public videos from both Morake and Jonasi have made it clear that there’s some genuine ill-feeling underpinning the seeming absurdity of the suit.