‘Sesame Street’ Suing ‘The Happytime Muders’ Over Puppets

We recently reported that the trailer for Melissa McCarthy‘s new movie, The Happytime Murders, has been released. While it looks like a lot of adult fun, one group of people aren’t happy.
Fox5 is reporting that the people behind “Sesame Street” are suing the promoter of the movie saying that the movie has gone too far by tarnishing their puppets’ fame with gore, sex, violence, and all around raunchiness.
Friday, a judge scheduled a hearing for this week for “immediate relief” on the behalf of “Sesame Street”, which filed a suit Thursday for an undisclosed amount, and wants The Happytimes Murders to be marketed in a different way. The lawsuit claims that the “Sesame Street” brand will be hurt by the trailer, along with its tagline, “No Sesame. All Street.”
Directed by Brian Henson and set to be released on August 17, 2018, the film features McCarthy as a detective teaming up with a puppet detective to solve a series of murders.
Here’s my issue, we aren’t talking about the same characters from “Sesame Street“. There’s no Elmo, or Big Bird, or Oscar the Grouch. They do not own the rights to any puppets used in the film. While the tagline may have crossed a line, they have caused no real harm. It’s not like The Happytime Murders is a kid’s movie anyway, it’s clearly for adults. In fact, Sesame Street is giving the film free advertising by making the situation a big thing. But that’s just my opinion.