Late last week, the company behind Sesame Street filed a lawsuit against the company behind The Happytime Murders to stop the movie from using the tag line “No sesame, all street.” The fear was it could damage the Sesame Street brand by connecting it to the hard R-rated puppet film. Today, a judge ruled in favor of that hard R-rated puppet film.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, US District Judge Vernon Broderick of New York ruled that the Sesame Workshop, which controls the family-friendly brand, “hadn’t demonstrated that moviegoers were confused or that sponsors or parents were complaining” about the potential link. He heard oral arguments from both sides before making his ruling that STX, which is releasing the film, could keep using the tagline.
STX’s representative, a puppet named Fred Esq., released the following statement. (And yes, STX was so confident about this they used a puppet lawyer in the press, but presumably not in the courtroom.)
The Sesame Workshop did not respond to io9's request for comment as of publication.
And so ends the oh-so-furry case of G-rated vs. R-rated puppet content.