{"id":496988,"date":"2026-03-26T20:22:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/496988\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T20:22:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:22:17","slug":"comedian-issues-plea-to-public-after-being-sued-for-27-million-over-lion-king-lyric-joke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/496988\/","title":{"rendered":"Comedian issues plea to public after being sued for $27 million over Lion King lyric joke"},"content":{"rendered":"

Comedian Learnmore Jonasi has started a fundraiser to help pay for his legal bills after being sued $27 million over a Lion King joke.<\/p>\n

Jonasi, whose real name is Learnmore Mwanyenyeka, made a joke<\/a> about the famous ‘Circle of Life’ song<\/a> during a February episode of One54<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the now-viral clip, he suggested that the opening phrase ‘Nants\u2019ingonyama bagithi Baba’ was Zulu, and translates as: “Look, there\u2019s a lion. Oh my god!”<\/p>\n

Disney<\/a>, however, say that its true meaning should be: “All hail the king, we all bow in the presence of the king.”<\/p>\n

Lebohang Morake, the composer of the chant, believes that the video has damaged his reputation and is ‘disrespecting his work’.<\/p>\n

His lawyers said in the complaint that ‘ingonyama’ can literally translate to ‘lion’, but is used in the song as a ‘royal metaphor’ that invokes kingship, and that Jonasi intentionally misrepresented ‘an African vocal proclamation grounded in South African tradition’.<\/p>\n

\"LebohangLebohang Morake, the composer of the Lion King ‘Circle of Life’ song, believes the comedian has damaged his reputation (Oupa Bopape\/Gallo Images via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

“He\u2019s insulting my work that has been inspirational to people around the world for over 50 years. Then insulting my culture,” Morake said.<\/p>\n

Learnmore Jonasi launches GoFundMe to ‘fight unjust lawsuit’<\/p>\n

The stand-up has set up a $20,000 GoFundMe<\/a> and admitted that he is ‘reaching out during one of the most difficult moments in my life’.<\/p>\n

“I was recently hit with a $27 million lawsuit by renowned artist Lebohang Morake (Lebo M) over a joke I made about The Lion King\u2019s opening Zulu chant,” he wrote, as almost $11,000 has already been raised at the time of writing.<\/p>\n

“What started as a bit of humor has escalated into a devastating legal battle.<\/p>\n

\"'Circle‘Circle of Life’ was written by Elton John and Tim Rice (Disney)<\/p>\n

“I am a passionate creator who never intended harm, but I now face overwhelming legal fees just to defend my right to speak and tell jokes.”<\/p>\n

Jonasi revealed that ‘the total cost for my defence is beyond my means’, and that he ‘needs your help’.<\/p>\n

“Every donation, big or small, will directly go toward my legal representation, so I can fight this unjust claim and protect my livelihood. Please help me raise the funds needed so I can keep telling my story,” he explained.<\/p>\n

“If you can, please donate and share this campaign widely. Your support means the world to me.<\/p>\n

“Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”<\/p>\n

Learnmore Jonasi was served on stage<\/p>\n

While on stage, Jonasi asks ‘What is this?’ as he’s handed a yellow piece of paper.<\/p>\n

\"JonasiJonasi was served on stage (Instagram\/@learnmore_jonasi)<\/p>\n

He tells the crowd: “Oh s**t I just got served. Oh s**t. Oh my God.<\/p>\n

“This is for… I did a joke about The Lion King. I’m paying for that s**t now. F**k The Lion King.<\/p>\n

“Listen, I now have anxiety, a gluten allergy, I’ve got served – I’m now American! Any lawyer?”<\/p>\n

The complaint accuses Jonasi of presenting his translation ‘as authoritative fact, not comedy’ so it shouldn\u2019t get the First Amendment protections afforded to comedians.<\/p>\n

LADbible has contacted Disney and representatives of Jonasi for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Comedian Learnmore Jonasi has started a fundraiser to help pay for his legal bills after being sued $27…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[6460,96,2332,2839,128,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-496988","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-disney","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-film","11":"tag-movies","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}