“Lost” Untangled

Quite the bru-hah over the Fine Bros. “Lost” spoof and ABC’s official spoof, “Lost Untangled” (Below).

Intellectual property, he said she said, my action figure is funnier than your action figure, and “Down with the Man!” reader comments following some of the previous articles covered most of the issues, but, the Fine Bros – no matter how talented they are – are probably going to come out with the short end of the stick in this particular situation. However, they’ve proven themselves to be masters of the medium, and without a doubt will have offers and opportunities from other networks, web production shops, movie studios, whatever. Plenty of sticks.

As long as things remain civil (read: nobody actually sues anyone over this), The Brothers Fine have a loyal following and their show is funny enough to continue being a worth while effort. Their episodes will continue to be the ones that people buzz about while ABC gives fans the quick fix while they wait around. I’ve got room for both of them in my playlist.

The bigger problem facing the Fine Brothers that was completely ignored was that this isn’t just about the content. I assume that they’re relying pretty heavily on the “parody as fair use” defense if anything did escalate legally, but I’m not sure they’re in very good shape by trying to monetize their Lost spoofs. They can’t be generating enough revenue from Google AdSense for Video to want to fight that fight. Just my two cents.