Court Orders Composer to Pay Comedian's Legal Fees
A United States federal court has ruled that South African composer Lebohang "Lebo M" Morake must pay Zimbabwean comedian Learnmore Jonasi US$39,560 in statutory attorneys' fees, following a legal dispute over a joke about The Lion King's "Circle of Life" chant.
The ruling, issued Friday, Aug. 28 by Judge Josephine Staton, came after Jonasi successfully established himself as the prevailing party under California's anti-SLAPP law. The decision followed Morake's move to abandon his original claims against the comedian.
"Defendant succeeded in his objective and prevailed on his anti-SLAPP motion," the judge wrote. "He is therefore entitled to attorneys' fees and costs."
The Dispute Over a Viral Joke
The legal battle stemmed from comments Jonasi made during a February podcast appearance on One54 Africa. Jonasi, born Learnmore Mwanyenyeka, jokingly offered his own translation of the opening chant "Nants' ingonyama bagithi Baba" from the song "Circle of Life." Instead of the traditional interpretation associated with the Zulu praise chant, Jonasi humorously rendered it as "Look, there's a lion. Oh my God."
The clip went viral, earning 116K likes on the podcast's Instagram and pulling in 337K views of the full episode on YouTube.
Morake, who wrote and performed the chant element of the song, launched a multimillion-dollar lawsuit in California, alleging defamation and misrepresentation. The suit, filed in March, demanded US$27 million in damages and accused Jonasi of other wrongdoing, calling the bit a "fabricated, trivializing distortion, meant as a sick joke for unlawful self-profit."
Anti-SLAPP Defense and Dropped Claims
Jonasi's attorneys moved to end the lawsuit, arguing that it "targets core First Amendment protections" by trying to "punish" a comedian simply because he had been offended by a joke. They argued the case was frivolous from the start and aimed at infringing on Jonasi's First Amendment rights.
Rather than fight those arguments, Morake eventually opted to simply drop the case. Jonasi's attorneys then sought reimbursement for the money the comedian had spent defending the case.
The Fee Award
In granting that request, Judge Staton awarded Jonasi US$39,560, representing more than 50 hours spent by his two attorneys who handled the case. The court calculated Jonasi's reasonable attorneys' fees at that amount but declined his request for an upward multiplier that would have increased the award.
Jonasi reportedly paid only about US$5,350 out of pocket for his legal representation, with his lawyers substantially discounting their fees while defending the comedian's First Amendment free-speech rights.
In its ruling on attorneys' fees, the court made clear that it was not determining which translation of the Zulu phrase was linguistically or culturally correct. Instead, the court's decision focused on whether Jonasi qualified as the prevailing party for purposes of California's anti-SLAPP law after Morake withdrew his claims.