NSW South Park Style Animation

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MayaRefugee

Member
12 July 2019
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Hi Guys,

Just after some advice on the making of a South Park style animation.

If I made a cartoon where the characters are impressions of Australian celebrities and their travails are based on what has been reported of said celebrities in the media what legal implications would I be facing.

I basically want to do what South Park does and provide an alternate explanation of what was going on when certain things in that celebrities life happened and or show humorous things I propose the celebrity does when the camera isn't rolling.

For example, say the ghost of bad advice visited a celebrity and gave them bad advice then they went and did something that mirrors what the celebrity did in real life could I be sued. The similarities would be enough that you could identify the celebrity by what they did in the cartoon because it mirrors what the media said they did in real life but I would be providing a humorous point of view on why they did it and how they did it, is something like this grounds for a defamation case?

As another example, if I had my impressions of celebrities do things that people would look down upon and are unlikely things that celebrity does in real life is that grounds for a legal case?

I've read that South Park gets away with this kind of stuff because of the First Amendment but not having that in Australia leads me to ask this question.

Would a notice at the start saying this is all pure speculation make it legal?
 

Rod

Lawyer
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27 May 2014
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You probably should get real legal advice.

While truth and fair comment is a defence, satirical humour can be considered defamatory.

You'd want to ensure you had a good insurance policy ;)