Jesus the Jew: T-shirt parody under attack!
Published by michael December 17th, 2004 in law
I happened upon this attractive blog today: Orthodox Anarchist via a link on Boingboing referencing an exchange of legal letters. It’s easy to loathe the zeal with which business sometimes persecutes criticism, especially when the perspective they represent is narrow-minded and humorless. Dan “Mobius” Sieradski (author of Jewschool.com and Orthodoxanarchist.com) writes,
The item in question was specifically a t-shirt which parodied TeenageMillionaire’s “Jesus Is My Homeboy” shirt, by adding the traditional Jewish garb of a yarmulke (skullcap) and payot (sidelocks) to their Jesus caricature, and altering the text to say, “Jesus was a kike”.
Each response is knowledgeably & powerfully worded, making the potential plantiff’s position appear even more absurd than it does by default. Definately worth a quick read. The Unitied States is such a sue-happy country it’s rather pathetic.
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I posted a comment for Dan Mobius, to the effect that he should make a t-shirt that says “Jesus is my nigga.” It wouldn’t violate the plaintiff’s TM or copyright issues. It would provoke a similar reaction by using confrontational language. And it would stimulate the same kind of modern denial of Jesus’ roots–his blackness rather than his Jewishness. It’s actually, come to think of it, a neat link between black resistance and Jewish resistance. There has long been an alliance between the two minorities, particularly during the sixties in the States, and it’s compelling to understand that solidarity as originating in Jesus’ complex identity.