# Proof That Jerry Falwell Has No Sense of Humor **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 6, 2002, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-that-jerry-falwell-has-no-sense-of-humor/102127 "2002-04-06T03:28:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-that-jerry-falwell-has-no-sense-of-humor/102127/1 "2002-04-06T03:28:42Z")
According to an article in [USA Today](http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/2002/04/05/falwell.htm), Jerry’s suing the folks behind [www.jerryfalwell.com](http://www.jerryfalwell.com) because he thinks that > [@](#): > > a Web site that spoofs his views on the Bible and his fund-raising methods violates a trademark of his name. Fuck you, Jerry. You lost your suit against Hustler and you’ll lose this one. ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-that-jerry-falwell-has-no-sense-of-humor/102127/2 "2002-04-06T03:39:11Z")
Care to feed my laziness and tell me a little about the Hustler case? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-that-jerry-falwell-has-no-sense-of-humor/102127/3 "2002-04-06T03:41:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by erislover \* > \*\*Care to feed my laziness and tell me a little about the Hustler case? \*\* Rent _The People vs Larry Flynt_. Basically, Hustler published a cartoon in which Falwell had sex with his mother. He sued. The Supreme Court (yes, that one) ruled that the cartoon was a parody. ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-that-jerry-falwell-has-no-sense-of-humor/102127/4 "2002-04-06T03:46:09Z")
Hmm, yeah, I don’t remember that part… but still, this is a little different. They might not be able to pull this one off. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-that-jerry-falwell-has-no-sense-of-humor/102127/5 "2002-04-06T03:46:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by erislover \* > \*\*Care to feed my laziness and tell me a little about the Hustler case? \*\* Hustler ran a cartoon of Falwell getting his “sex education” from his grandmother back behind an outhouse. 😃 Some how Falwell got wind of the cartoon (Perhaps while doing a little, uh, “research” ;)? ) and sued Hustler over it. Went all the way to the Supreme Court who told Jerry to go fuck himself that since he was a public figure and the cartoon was obviously satire, there was a whole lotta nothing he could do about it. Who says the Supreme Court can’t get it right once in a while? And on “preview” I see that **Mr. Blue Sky** has beaten me to the punch, but my answers funnier! ---
**Author:** ![Cap\_n\_Crude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Cap\_n\_Crude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cap_n_Crude)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-that-jerry-falwell-has-no-sense-of-humor/102127/6 "2002-04-06T03:51:33Z")
For whatever it’s worth, it wasn’t a cartoon. It was a mock advertisement for Campari, feigning an interview with Falwell. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-that-jerry-falwell-has-no-sense-of-humor/102127/7 "2002-04-06T04:24:41Z")
You have two words to many in the thread title. In other words: Jerry Falwell = Proof that Jerry Falwell has no sense. ---
**Author:** ![Atreyu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@Atreyu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atreyu)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-that-jerry-falwell-has-no-sense-of-humor/102127/8 "2002-04-06T04:37:51Z")
We needed proof? ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-that-jerry-falwell-has-no-sense-of-humor/102127/9 "2002-04-06T04:49:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Monty \* > You have two words to many in the thread title. Should read: > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Monty \* > You have two words too many in the thread title. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-that-jerry-falwell-has-no-sense-of-humor/102127/10 "2002-04-06T04:49:49Z")
I hope the prick loses, but I wonder if he might win because of cyber-squatting laws. ---
**Author:** ![Big\_Kahuna\_Burger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Big\_Kahuna\_Burger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Big_Kahuna_Burger)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-that-jerry-falwell-has-no-sense-of-humor/102127/11 "2002-04-06T04:54:02Z")
[www.gwbush.com](http://www.gwbush.com) has survived for about three years, so I think there’s hope for the anti-Falwellites. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-that-jerry-falwell-has-no-sense-of-humor/102127/12 "2002-04-06T06:43:36Z")
Er, point of clarification. He’s not actually “suing” them in the litigious American sense–he has only filed a complaint with a body called the World Intellectual Property Organization. They will “think about it” and let him know. > [@](#): > > The WIPO, based in Geneva, Switzerland, will appoint a three-person panel to decide the case. I picture three stolid Swiss businessmen going through the paperwork and muttering, “Wass die Fukk?” Jerry says it’s a “trademark violation”. From the USA Today article: > [@](#): > > The complaint, filed in November, says the parody site violates a “common-law trademark” of his name. > > In a response filed last week, the site’s owner, Gary Cohn of Highland Park, Ill., says Falwell’s name isn’t entitled to trademark protection since he hasn’t used it “to identify certain goods and services.” The WIPO’s section on [trademarks](http://www.wipo.org/about-ip/en/index.html?wipo_content_frame=/about-ip/en/trademarks.html) doesn’t say anything about “common-law trademarks” that I can see. It is possibly an American thing. [http://www.bitlaw.com/trademark/](http://www.bitlaw.com/trademark/) > [@](#): > > In the United States, certain common law trademark rights stem merely from the use of a mark. And: > [@](#): > > A mark is infringed under U.S. trademark law when another person uses a device (a mark) so as to cause confusion as to the source or sponsorship of the goods or services involved. So here’s why Jerry filed his complaint with a bunch of Swiss guys–there’s no way he could make it stick under U.S. guidelines. How could anyone possibly be confused as to the source of the goods and services involved? [Jerryfalwell.com](http://Jerryfalwell.com) is from [http://www.internetparodies.org/](http://www.internetparodies.org/) and down at the bottom it says, "This website is not affiliated with Jerry Falwell (Duh!) " ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2002, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-that-jerry-falwell-has-no-sense-of-humor/102127/13 "2002-04-07T05:16:39Z")
As a public figure, you don’t have the right to not allow use of your name. It’s an obvious parody – heck, it says “parody” right at the top – so I imagine that Falwell will lose (eventually). ---
**Author:** ![45\_70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/5f9b8f/32.png) [@45\_70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/45_70)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2002, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-that-jerry-falwell-has-no-sense-of-humor/102127/14 "2002-04-07T13:34:59Z")
Will be interesting to see who he drags around for a character witness since he doesn’t have Charles Keating this time. ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2002, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-that-jerry-falwell-has-no-sense-of-humor/102127/15 "2002-04-07T21:23:45Z")
WIPO doesn’t much care about [international law](http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/21480.html), and has a long history of nonsensical decisions. They’ve fairly consistantly ruled in favor of the bigshots, even when the bigshots were in the wrong by most standards. WIPO is even known to [ignore their own rules](http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/20401.html). Falwell may very well win. ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2002, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-that-jerry-falwell-has-no-sense-of-humor/102127/16 "2002-04-08T12:11:05Z")
But what power exactly does the WIPO wield? Does it have a juristiction? who appointed it? ---
**Author:** ![CRorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CRorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CRorex)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-that-jerry-falwell-has-no-sense-of-humor/102127/17 "2002-04-09T04:13:45Z")
Hrrm I thought the WIPO couldn’t do shit… And Faldwell is a moron… all sueing will do is will drive traffic for the site up ---
**Author:** ![Nocturne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9fc348/32.png) [@Nocturne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nocturne)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-that-jerry-falwell-has-no-sense-of-humor/102127/18 "2002-04-09T04:40:55Z")
Jerry Falwell is proof that God has a sense of humor. And it’s apparently quite twisted. ---
**Author:** ![Wikkit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c0e974/32.png) [@Wikkit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wikkit)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-that-jerry-falwell-has-no-sense-of-humor/102127/19 "2002-04-09T05:11:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TwistofFate \* > \*\*But what power exactly does the WIPO wield? Does it have a juristiction? who appointed it? \*\* WIPO can take away your domain name, it’s jurisdiction is worldwide and netwide, and it was appointed by the UN or one of those types of groups. ---
**Author:** ![Byzantine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dfb087/32.png) [@Byzantine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Byzantine)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2002, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-that-jerry-falwell-has-no-sense-of-humor/102127/20 "2002-04-09T06:41:11Z")
You needed PROOF? What are you? Totally fucked up? I mean, I’m new here, as far as time in the Pit goes, but even I KNOW He is so fucked up it’s obvious. I know HE is, but that you needed PROOF is just fucking warped! Where have YOU been? No really, where? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proof-that-jerry-falwell-has-no-sense-of-humor/102127.md?page=2)