The world is now one Rick and Morty viral video poorer than it once was. Remember that popular video where everyone’s favorite grandpa-grandson duo recreated a 100% real courtroom screaming match? This week it vanished from YouTube. And of course it’s all a gigantic corporation’s fault.
Turner Broadcasting is responsible for pulling the video, titled “The State of Georgia vs. Denver Fenton Allen.” The story goes back to 2016, when an inmate, name of Denver Allen, was accused of killing another prisoner. His attempt to petition to fire his public defender and represent himself very quickly devolved into a vulgar and absurd tête-à-tête, the transcript of which went viral.
It went viral again when Rick and Morty creator Justin Roiland later recorded his own version of the argument in the voices of his beloved characters — weak-yet-annoyed Morty as the judge, carelessly crude Rick as Allen. Roiland uploaded a video version with rough sketches of his characters in character. This version still lives online:
What doesn’t live online is the next video, which took the story viral a third time: Independent animator Tiarawhy went and painstakingly animated the entire exchange, which runs some 10 minutes, in the Rick and Morty style. (It’s a popular thing for animators to do their own Rick and Morty animations: Just look at that anime Rick and Morty video.)
It’s this video that no longer lives on YouTube. Turner is the parent company of Adult Swim, which airs Rick and Morty, and they blocked the video on copyright grounds. Tiarawhy has released a video explaining what happened, saying they appealed on grounds of fair use, which was then rejected.
Good news is Tiarawhy is hard at work on their own animated show. They also, as learned by The Daily Dot, have been popping up on Reddit channels, which are predictably nonplussed about the removal of top shelf Rick and Morty content, urging them to not attack Turner, whom they don’t blame.
“Please don’t attack Turner over this, in the end it is their IP and show and they have creative control,” Tiarawhy posted. “The videos are blocked but I do not have any strikes. Sorry if it comes off anything but that.”
Again, you can still watch Roiland’s version of the video, which is still funny, though not quite as gut-busting as Tiarawhy’s make-over. Incidentally, Denver Allen was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
(Via The Daily Dot)
