In episode 63 of Supreme Court Briefs, a pornographic magazine makes a parody ad about a famous televangelist, so he sues them for $100 million.

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Hustler Magazine, a pornographic magazine known also for crude humor and political satire, publishes a parody ad that targets a popular Christian fundamentalist televangelist and conservative political commentator named Jerry Falwell. Uh yeah, here is the ad, which I censored a bit. It was right inside the front cover of the issue. It basically mimicked the advertising campaigns of Campari, an Italian alcoholic beverage that featured interviews with random celebrities that always started with a question about their “first time.” Well in this parody ad, Jerry Falwell shares details about him...um... having sexual relations with his mother. Now, the ad did carry a small disclaimer at the bottom of the page that said “ad parody – not to be taken seriously", and the magazine's table of contents also listed the ad as: "Fiction; Ad and Personality Parody." Regardless, after Falwell found out about it, he sued Larry Flynt, the publisher of the magazine, as well as Flynt’s distribution company, for libel, invasion of privacy, and “intentional infliction of emotional distress.” Libel is a written form of defamation. Oh you don’t know what defamation is? Defamation means ruining someone’s good reputation. Basically, Falwell seemed worried that people might think this parody ad WAS TRUE.

Hustler Magazine v. Falwell was a landmark Supreme Court case that made it easier to make fun of celebrities. It represented two wildly different perspectives. On one end was Flynt, representing the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s and pushing of boundaries with free speech, and on the other end was Falwell, representing a culturally conversative and religious backlash to that. Their feud was later dramatized by the film The People vs. Larry Flynt, but interestingly, right after this case Larry and Jerry put aside their differences and regularly met up to talk philosophy, later becoming good friends. In fact, they appeared on TV together on several occasions. Falwell died in 2007 and Flynt died earlier this year.