After praising her a couple of weeks ago, I’m sorry to report that Lady Gaga is now batting clean up for the Curmudgeons. Via TechDirt and The Guardian, I learned of this disappointing story.  Moshi Monsters, a UK based company that allows kids to adopt “pet monsters” on their website recently posted a music video on YouTube featuring an animated character named Lady Goo Goo. This is clearly a Lady Gaga parody, and even manages the impossible... to be more annoying than Lady Gaga herself!

The original video has been pulled from YouTube, but according to an article in The Guardian the video must have been pretty popular since Michael Acton Smith, the founder of Mind Candy (Moshi Monsters’ parent company), claims it had millions of views

"It's pretty obvious that kids will be able to tell the difference between the two characters," he said. "The shame is that millions of kids fell in love with Lady Goo Goo's debut single on YouTube and now won't be able to enjoy her musical exploits. It was all done in the name of fun and we would have thought that Lady Gaga could have seen the humour behind this parody.”

Gaga won an injunction against Moshi Monsters. The Lady GooGoo character can still appear in the Moshi Monsters game, but can’t play the song. Lady Gaga claims this was needed to protect her image because the parody could lead to confusion, and cause people to think she is linked to the parody. If you’re brave enough to watch the video, I’m sure you’ll see there is no confusion and I have to side with Smith in stating that it’s obvious kids can tell the difference. Unfortunately the courts didn’t see it this way and this can set a scary precedent for other parody or tribute bands. We’ll see where this rabbit hole leads.