If you’ve seen Chewbacca asking a woman out on a date in a normal, human voice, then you’ve probably watched Bad Lip Reading ‘s recent parody of Star Wars: The Force Awakens on YouTube.
Mark Hamill Is Han Solo In Bad Lip Reading Video #theforceawakens #anewhope #princes … https://t.co/MchewcZu6J pic.twitter.com/Pzppfh9FbT
– Star Wars Fanatics (@StarWars4Fans) April 9, 2017
But YouTube users and Star Wars fans were unable to watch the Force Awakens parody for almost a day, after YouTube pulled the Bad Lip Reading video down due to a bogus copyright claim.
Last Friday, YouTube restored the viral parody of the 2015’s Star Wars flick after Bad Lip Reading found that the copyright claim made by Dramatists Play Service was fake.
As of Tuesday, April 11, the viral Star Wars: The Force Awakens parody is up and running on YouTube, boasting more than 3.5 million views. Before YouTube pulled the six-minute Bad Lip Reading video down, it had boasted more than one million views , according to Variety .
. @HamillHimself gets in on the #StarWars Bad Lip Reading fun for #TheForceAwakens https://t.co/Wkm449J3NN pic.twitter.com/pI7XMOS0j4
– Nerdist (@nerdist) April 10, 2017
Shortly after the Star Wars parody video was taken down, Dramatists Play Service, one of the leading play-licensing and theatrical publishing agencies in the world, took to Twitter to say the copyright claim to The Force Awakens spoof video was “erroneous.”
We are aware of an erroneous claim made by our org to YouTube regarding the video’s copyright and are looking into how this occurred.
– Dramatists Play Srvc (@DramatistsPlayS) April 7, 2017
There’s no telling whether DPS made the copyright claim to the Bad Lip Reading parody of the 2015 blockbuster by mistake, or if the takedown claim was submitted in its name by someone else.
This is not the first time that YouTube has suffered from a bogus copyright claim. The video streaming service has taken certain measures to prevent malicious groups from creating fake copyright claims.
After looking into the copyright claim, DPS apologized to Bad Lip Reading on Twitter and said it has no copyright claim to the Star Wars spoof video.
We have no claim on any works in the video and will be working with YouTube to get the video reinstated ASAP.
– Dramatists Play Srvc (@DramatistsPlayS) April 7, 2017
All Star Wars fans know is that The Force Awakens spoof video by Bad Lip Reading returned to YouTube, and it’s as hilarious as ever.
The spoof Star Wars video features Mark Hamill’s spot-on voice-over impression of his The Force Awakens co-star Harrison Ford, while Jessica DiCicco contributed to the clip as the voice of Rey.
The Force Awakens parody by Bad Lip Reading shows Han Solo struggling with a language barrier, Chewbacca asking a woman out on a date, and Kylo Ren admitting to trying to make “chocolate shoes.”
It’s not the first time Bad Lip Reading , the YouTube channel that was launched in 2011, has teamed up with Disney to create a hilarious parody.
In addition to Star Wars: The Force Awakens , Bad Lip Reading also cooperated with Disney on a High School Musical spoof video.
Parodying films such as the 2015 Star Wars flick is not the only field of expertise of Bad Lip Reading , as the YouTube channel, which boasts more than six million subscribers, has also expanded into sports and politics.
During the U.S. presidential election in 2016, Bad Lip Reading released a series of viral videos spoofing Republican candidate Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, as well as Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz.
“FIRST REPUBLICAN DEBATE HIGHLIGHTS: 2015” — A Bad Lip Reading of The Republican Debate https://t.co/OWjuIbQJc8 pic.twitter.com/cntEPUgWYH
– Ford3627 (@ford3627) March 31, 2017
As of today, Bad Lip Reading boasts more than 800 million video views on its YouTube channel, more than 3.5 million of which are thanks to the latest Star Wars parody, which will most likely generate millions of more views, just like the channel’s other viral uploads.
In early February – back when NFL fans were all fired up ahead of the Super Bowl game – Bad Lip Reading released six minutes of NFL 2017-themed, dubbed footage on its YouTube channel, according to Time magazine.
Did you see this? It’s still funny. Bad Lip Reading NFL 2017: https://t.co/KIZbCe9Sqk pic.twitter.com/S77hm8nCfI
– FantasyGram (@Fantasy_Gram) March 17, 2017
As of Tuesday, April 11, the NFL video boasts more than 10 million views. In the hilarious spoof video, Tom Brady is heard complaining to his teammates that somebody stole the nickels out his “dang locker.”
Brady then tell his teammates that every one of them is a suspect before adding, “Smurfs.”
[Featured Image by Joel Ryan/AP Images]
