Mayor McCheese Is A Rip-Off Of H.R. Pufnstuf?? That Is All Kinds Of B.S.

 

You may be familiar with the characters of McDonaldland, such as Grimace, the Hamburglar, Officer Big Mac, and Mayor McCheese. That last character was forcefully discontinued in 1985 following successful legal action taken for copyright infringement.

McCheese was a rip-off of H.R. Pufnstuf, who was also a mayor and bears a striking physical similarity to McCheese. Also, H.R. Pufnstuf had first appeared in his eponymous children’s television show in 1969. McDonald’s had launched the McDonaldland advertising campaign two years later.

The similarities were not limited to Pufnstuf and McCheese, either. The entire concept of McDonaldland was weird and psychedelic, anthropomorphizing normally mundane bits of the environment as if we had a secret peephole into Ronald McDonald’s brain as he experienced an acid trip. That does sound pretty unique, right? Well, that’s a large chunk of why the copyright infringement was so flagrant. It was unique—when done in the H.R. Pufnstuf show.

McDonald’s attempted to argue that minute details, such as clothing differentiation between Pufnstuf and McCheese, made the characters different. The jury in the court case disagreed, specifically stating, “We do not believe that the ordinary reasonable person, let alone a child, viewing these works will even notice that Pufnstuf is wearing a cummerbund while Mayor McCheese is wearing a diplomat’s sash.”

After a relatively paltry initial payout of $50,000, Pufnstuf’s creators took the case to appeals court. There, the amount to be paid was raised to more than $1,000,000.

http://listverse.com/2017/12/05/10-outrageous-mcdonalds-scandals/

This of course is total Bullshit. Look at Pufnstuf. He is a freak while McCheese is classy. Pufnstuf is a glue sniffing freak. Look in his eyes. Not to mention his criminal record for trying to move drugs across the border in his jumper. What kind of mayor doesn't wear a top hat? It's just so wrong.