One of Borat’s most notorious ejaculations, “WaWaWeeWa,” has invited potential legal action. Israeli actor Dov Glickman apparently decided to pursue legal action after seeing Sacha Baron-Cohen use the expression as he began his remarks accepting his Golden Globe award the other week. Glickman claims–and most Israelis who remember will confirm this–that he came up with the expression 16 years ago, and he considers it to be both his trademark, and apparently, intellectual property, as well.
The accusation and potential legal battle invite some interesting questions:
1. Can anyone sue to protect a line/word/phrase which they feel is their own? Can Arnold Schwarzenegger sue anyone who says “I’ll be back” or “Hasta la vista, baby”?
2. Supposing that the suit is brought to court, under whose jurisdiction is it tried? American, British, Israeli, The Hague?
3. Assuming that Glickman is victorious, what ramifications will the suit have for the entertainment industry? How will the court decide on an appropriate sum for compensation?
(via NRG)
Hi there. I’d thought the phrase was originally Polish after looking it up online, as some sources say it is of Polish origin meaning, oh my g-d. Interesting.
Comment by Yen — April 27, 2007 @ 7:30 pm
It’s true that it’s a Polish phrase “oh my god” borrrowed by the general Polish Language from the language of Polish Tatar Comunity and it’s written originally (use UTF8 Encoding please!) łałałiła, which is a corrupted phrase “La illaha ill Allah” from the Muslim Shahada, which means “There is no god but God” and could be used as “oh my god” by the Tatars who confessed Islam.
It’s like the Spanish word “¡Olé!” which originallly was the name of Allah.
“Kalki Rudrachakrin” M.A. in Philology
Comment by kalki — August 2, 2007 @ 7:31 pm