A "George Carlin" Special Sparks Controversy
Summary
On January 25, 2024, George Carlin’s estate filed a lawsuit in the Central District of California against the comedians who released “George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead,” a comedy special that was released earlier in January and claimed to be created with AI called “Dudesy,” trained on George Carlin’s standup routines. The video contained jokes delivered in a soundalike voice alongside AI-generated imagery. The lawsuit alleges that the video infringes copyrighted material, violated the California common law right of publicity and runs afoul of California’s right of publicity. A representative for the comedians stated that Dudesy is “a fictional podcast character created by two human beings” and that the special was written by one of them. The Dudesy YouTube channel is run by comedians Will Sasso and Chad Kultgen, with a premise that an AI participates in their podcast, and often features Will Sasso performing impressions. The podcast following the special contained a discussion of the role of AI in art, along with some discussion of professional wrestling kayfabe (the act of presenting staged performances as genuine). The George Carlin portion of that video and the special have been taken down.
