A comedian is currently being sued for $27 million for jokingly mistranslating the lyrics to The Lion King‘s “Circle Of Life,” The Guardian reports. Specifically, Zimbabwe-born comedian Learnmore Jonasi has revealed that he’s been hit with a lawsuit on behalf of Lebo M, the South African producer and composer who wrote and performed the Zulu chant that begins the iconic song. Lebo M is reportedly not happy that Jonasi appeared on a recent episode of the One54 podcast to make a joke that’s also appeared in his stand-up act, in which he mistranslates the lyrics to the chant as “Look, there’s a lion. Oh my god.” (Not being experts in Zulu ourselves, we will note that Jonasi has not been alone, in the past, in giving the chant that pretty pedestrian read—as opposed to the official Disney translation’s more majestic “All hail the king, we all bow in the presence of the king.” The lawsuit accuses Jonasi of intentionally misrepresenting “an African vocal proclamation grounded in South African tradition”.)
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.
