'Sesame Street' creators sue producers of Melissa McCarthy's new racy puppet movie

The Happytime Murders, a film wherein Melissa McCarthy will appear, was sued by Sesame Street creators because it is an attempt to appropriate the brand to promote a movie for adults.

Page Six reported that Sesame Workshop filed the suit in Manhattan federal court admitting that the producers of the film have a widely-distributed marketing campaign showing puppets with an explicit and violent behavior.

If things weren’t bad enough, the trailer of the movie has the tagline ‘no Sesame, all street,’ which is a direct reference to the educational children's television series.

Among the things that can be watched in the trailer of the film, there are puppets doing drugs, fighting humans, copulating, and even ejaculating, aspects that would never be addressed by the original brand.

Due to the fact that there are many violent aspects that could endanger Sesame Street’s brand, Sesame Workshop pointed out in the lawsuit that the threat of irreparable injury should not be overstated.

They added that the misuse of their brand and characters were a way to confuse the public. Apart from that, it infringed the company’s intellectual property rights. Sesame Workshop’s request is simple: the movie must drop the ‘no Sesame’ slogan and compensate them for the damages.

The Happytime Murders is a comedy directed by Brian Henson, the son of Jim Henson (creator of the Muppets), which is set to be released in August. It will address the murder mystery revolving around some puppets who exhibit raunchy behavior.

A spokesman for STX, which is the company producing the film, released a statement admitting that they had no regrets for the movie and that they were disappointed by the fact that Sesame Street did not ‘share the fun.'

According to him, the movie seeks to tell the ‘untold story of the active lives of Henson puppets when they’re not performing in front of children.’ Finally, he added that they wanted to introduce a mature audience to the Muppet’s world.