{"id":338346,"date":"2026-03-20T01:19:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T01:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/338346\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T01:19:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T01:19:11","slug":"composer-behind-the-lion-king-chant-sues-comedian-for-misrepresenting-its-lyrics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/338346\/","title":{"rendered":"Composer behind The Lion King chant sues comedian for \u2018misrepresenting\u2019 its lyrics"},"content":{"rendered":"
The complaint states Learnmore \u201cpresented this as authoritative fact, not comedy\u201d, and alleges he \u201cmocked the chant\u2019s cultural significance with exaggerated imitations\u201d.<\/p>\n
Lebo M is suing a comedian over the opening chant from The Lion King, claiming it was misrepresented. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
The filing further states: \u201cJonasi\u2019s reduction to \u2018Look, there\u2019s a lion. Oh my god\u2019 is not a simplified translation \u2013 it is a fabricated, trivialising distortion, meant as a sick joke for unlawful self-profit and destruction of the imaginative and artistic work of Lebo M.\u201d<\/p>\n
The complaint adds: \u201cThe true meaning of Nants\u2019ingonyama bagithi Baba is, \u2018All hail the king, we all bow in the presence of the king\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following the circulation of the clip online, Lebo is said to have contacted Learnmore via Instagram, raising concerns about the comments.<\/p>\n
The complaint alleges Lebo told Learnmore his \u201cstated comments were not part of standup\u201d and sought to \u201cerase over 30 years of work\u201d, while Learnmore is said to have disagreed with that assessment.<\/p>\n
Lebo is seeking a jury trial and US$27 million ($46m) in damages.<\/p>\n
The Lion King remains one of Disney\u2019s most successful animated films, with the film\u2019s soundtrack achieving huge commercial success.<\/p>\n
Its 2019 remake also surpassed US$1.6 billion ($2.7b) globally, reinforcing the franchise\u2019s enduring appeal.<\/p>\n
The story, characters and music have continued to resonate with audiences, supporting spin-offs, stage adaptations and continued global popularity across multiple generations worldwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The complaint states Learnmore \u201cpresented this as authoritative fact, not comedy\u201d, and alleges he \u201cmocked the chant\u2019s cultural…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[9092,7818,4057,31865,40367,10752,156,12938,2082,302,9860,7324,2193,40813,181107,409,111,139,69,4497,133650,223],"class_list":["post-338346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-against","tag-allegedly","tag-behind","tag-chant","tag-comedian","tag-composer","tag-entertainment","tag-filed","tag-for","tag-its","tag-king","tag-lawsuit","tag-lion","tag-lyrics","tag-misrepresenting","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-start","tag-sues","tag-the"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}