Polygram Records, Inc. v. Superior Court

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that an “obvious joke, told during an obvious comedy performance,” was not defamatory as a matter of law
• holding that “the jocular intent of the publisher will not relieve him from liability if it is reasonable to not understand the utterance as a joke”
• holding that \the jocular intent of the publisher will not relieve him from liability if it is reasonable to not understand the utterance as a joke\
• holding that an “obvious joke, told during an obvious com- edy performance,” was not defamatory as a matter of law
• holding that “the jocular intent of the pub- lisher will not relieve him from liability if it is reasonable to not understand the utterance as a joke”
• finding a comedian’s statement that a brand of wine should advertise with the slogan “tastes like urine” was not actionable, as it was made during a stand-up routine where humorists are given broader first amendment rights to criticize.

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).