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PureDWTS Alfonso Ribeiro Sues Fortnite Creators Over Their Use of the “Carlton Dance” (POLL)

So, this is admittedly a bit DWTS-adjacent, but given that this topic has somewhat been touched on in the past here (and there’s not much to report on DWTS at the moment, outside of tour updates), I figured “Why not see what our readers think?”

For those of you who haven’t heard, news broke this morning that season 19 DWTS champ Alfonso Ribeiro actually filed two separate lawsuits against Epic Games (the creators of Fortnite) and Take Two Interactive (the creators of the NBA 2K series) for their use of his famous “Carlton Dance”:

Carlton wants his dance back.

Actor Alfonso Ribeiro is suing to stop two video game developers from selling a dance popularized by his “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” character.
In two lawsuits filed Monday, Ribeiro said the companies have “unfairly profited” from using his likeness and from exploiting his “protected creative expression.” The suits name Fortnite developer Epic Games Inc., and Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., creator of the NBA 2K series, and several of its subsidiaries.
Epic Games declined to comment on the lawsuit. Take-Two subsidiary 2K Games did not respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuits ask a California federal court to bar the game developers from using, selling or displaying the dance. The suits state that Ribeiro is in the process of copyrighting the dance.
Ok, so right off the bat, I’ve gotta raise my eyebrows a bit at the fact that Fonz is “in the process of copyrighting the dance”, but doesn’t have it copyrighted YET. I think it might be hard to prove copyright infringement if you don’t even officially own the copyright yet (and the question remains whether you can truly copyright a dance at all – more on that later). I also find the timing a bit curious, as both Fortnite and NBA 2K have been around for over a year (the latter definitely longer, though I don’t know how long they’ve been using the dance), and Fonz is just now slapping them with a suit. But I digress…
…I’ve said more than once that I think copyrighting specific dance moves is a slippery slope – given that dance is an art form that has very much evolved from collaboration and various individual moves slowly becoming widely-known pieces of dance vocabulary, I think granting people the ability to copyright certain moves has a potential chilling effect on dance as a whole. I’m all for people getting credit for their intellectual property, but I think within a dance context that should be applied to entire choreographic works, rather than just specific moves…particularly very simplistic ones, like “The Carlton”, which I think could be argued is a very natural movement that pre-dates Alfonso making it his “thing”. Alfonso has even admitted that he basically came up with the dance just by watching a young Courteney Cox dancing onstage with Bruce Springsteen in the “Dancing in the Dark” video, and imitating Eddie Murphy’s “White People Dance” from his Raw standup performance. All that being said – Alfonso might still have (somewhat of) a leg to stand on.  Check out this post from a trademark lawyer’s website, titled “Can I Trademark a Dance?” – it basically says you can trademark the NAME of a dance, but not necessarily the move itself. So if I’m interpreting it correctly, Alfonso might be able to claim that the move is called “The Carlton” (especially since the Fortnite character that does it supposedly looks a lot like his Fresh Prince character) but I don’t know that he can really claim to have invented the dance and own exclusive rights to it in any capacity. And who the hell knows how you go about monetizing that type of trademark. But here’s where I think it gets even more complicated: I’m not even sure that Alfonso owns the rights to the character of Carlton Banks – it’s hard telling, but I think most of the rights to the characters on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air actually belong to Andy & Susan Borowitz, the show’s creators, and to a lesser degree, Benny Medina (whose life experiences the show was loosely based on).  So does he really have the capacity to say “This is the Carlton dance!” when he himself might not even own the rights to the character that performed it…? I dunno…it all seems pretty murky to me, and it seems like a bit of a cash grab on Alfonso’s part.
But what do you guys think? Vote in the poll below and speak your mind in the comments!
December 18, 2018 I Written By

Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, baker, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donnie Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night" as a paso doble.

PureDWTS: Questions We’re Tired of Answering, Volume II: The Emmy Edition

I wasn’t planning on writing another edition of “Questions We’re Tired of Answering” so soon after the first edition, but after the sh*tstorm I witnessed on Twitter in the past 36 hours since Derek & Julianne won an Emmy for their “Elastic Heart” routine with Tessandra Chavez, I felt it necessary to field some of the questions I’m seeing over and over again about the Emmy’s.

Before I get into it, though, let me just say this: I think a lot of these questions are stemming from the increase in “entitlement mentality” I’m seeing from a lot of the pros – and some of the fans are starting to buy into it.  Contrary to what some seem to believe, not every pro deserves a MBT, an Emmy nomination, an Emmy win, movie roles, Broadway gigs, book deals, endorsements, etc., simply by showing up and being a pro on DWTS.  That, in itself, is a privilege; things like MBT’s, Emmy’s, etc. are rewards for merit and hard work – not entitlements.  If a pro wants these things, to quote Britney Spears, “you better work, b*tch!”. Let’s try to keep that in mind…

Why does SYTYCD get so many more nominations than DWTS?

To understand this, you have to understand that there’s two components for success in the “Outstanding Choreography” category at the Emmys: the strength of the choreographic content, and the strength of how it was performed.  Therefore, you’re much more likely to get nominated if a) your choreography is strong, creative, and innovative, and b) you’ve got a skilled dancer performing it. Thus, it’s kind of easy to tell why it’s easier for SYTYCD routines to get nominated: all of them are performed by professional dancers, and because the choreographers (usually) aren’t limited to tailoring their choreography to the skills of their dancers, they can take more risks and do more off-the-wall stuff.  Choreography for DWTS, on the other hand, tends to be limited by the skill set of the celebrity – which affects what exactly the pros can include in the routine, and how well it gets performed on show night.  On top of those two factors, the Academy voters tend to be more from the contemporary style than from ballroom – and thus have a bit of a bias towards contemporary routines (of which there is usually quite a few on SYTYCD) and a bit of a bias against ballroom (which is the bulk of what we see on DWTS).  Most years, the best that DWTS can hope for is (1) nomination, against usually 4-5 from SYTYCD.  So for me to see some people complaining about [insert pro here] and [insert another pro here] not getting nominated as well, I feel like puking – cause the fact that DWTS was actually able to get TWO nominations this year is HUGE…whining about them not getting more is a tad greedy, I’m afraid.

Why wasn’t Sharna nominated for an Emmy for her choreography for Noah? It was awesome!!!

The explanation above kinda explains this one, too – Sharna likely didn’t get nominated because the routines she created for Noah were rather limited in their choreographic scope, and were not performed by a skilled dancer.  Let me repeat for good measure: it is incredibly hard to get nominated for a routine that isn’t performed by a dancer with a high level of skill.  It’s not impossible – Derek did get nominated last year for some of his choreography for Amy, who wasn’t quite as physically limited as Noah – but it’s certainly not probable. While the choreography Sharna did for Noah was great for someone as physically limited as him, I’m not sure it would stand up as great choreography for someone that was completely able-bodied.  Would you still be as wowed by choreography if, say, Alfonso danced the same routine? I doubt it.  Remember, when DWTS is up against dynamic routines danced by professional dancers on SYTYCD, they’ve gotta bring their A-game – solid routines danced by skilled dancers.  This explanation in particular seems to be one that Sharna & Noah fans just can’t seem to wrap their brain around – I’ve gone blue in the face explaining this one, only to have the people asking say “Well, I still think she should have been nominated. That choreography was incredible!” That’s great – their routines were awesome and Sharna did an incredible job showing what Noah could do.  No one can take that away from her. But just understand that it was incredible choreography FOR NOAH – not necessarily incredible choreography, period.  And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Why wasn’t Mark nominated for his choreography with Sadie and/or Willow?

IMO, because he focused a bit too much on production value…at the expense of choreographic content.  These past two seasons, Mark has choreographed a LOT of routines that were very set and costume-heavy…and it seemed to dominate those performances, to the detriment of the actual dancing being done.  His Halloween paso doble with Sadie kinda sticks out in my mind as a good example – I enjoyed it, but even I can admit that the OTT costuming and set kinda distracted from the actual dancing.  The set and costumes OVERWHELMED the dancing, rather than working with it.  Derek’s “Walking on Air” routine with Jamie Goodwin is a good example of the set working WITH the dance – the set itself was almost like a 3rd dancer, with all of the moves choreographed with it in mind.  Ditto for “Elastic Heart” – the set itself was actually choreographed into the dance.  I think if Mark would focus more on the choreography itself instead of the set & costumes, we might see more nominations for him in the future – especially if SYTYCD kicks the bucket after this season, which is looking evermore likely from their dismal ratings.

Why was Witney nominated??? IT WASN’T EVEN HER CHOREOGRAPHY!!!

This is me emphatically rolling my eyes.  To those of you still repeating this tripe started by a few disgruntled pros (and one rather scheisty-seeming outside choreographer) on Twitter/Instagram, please stop – we’ve already talked about it at-length here, but here it is again, once more, with feeling: if you don’t have a formally-written contract with an outside choreographer to help with a certain routine, the Academy will not give them co-choreographer credit in the event of a potential nomination.  Academy rules, fools. And judging from what SYTYCD choreographer Spencer Liff said in the link I posted above, ghost choreographers are well aware of this rule – so for this Alan dude (and most of “The Fam”) to suddenly be crying foul is kinda…d*ck.  If you’re of the camp that is trying to claim that she shouldn’t have been nominated because the choreography “just wasn’t that good”, hehe…ok.  Whatever you say.  Nevermind that it was choreographed for possibly the most skilled male celebrity that we’ve ever had on DWTS, and he KILLED IT – and the Academy agrees that the choreography was outstanding.  And then it gets even weirder – I’ve had more than a couple people try to write off the Carlton jazz routine because “it was derived from a dance that Witney didn’t choreograph”.  The fact that people are (probably pretending to be) genuinely upset that about 15 seconds of a nonsensical dance with TWO STEPS was used in the routine makes me not want to live on this planet anymore.  So, were you guys expecting her to give Alfonso credit for “the Carlton dance” or something? It ain’t even really his dance, either – he cites Courteney Cox & Eddie Murphy as his inspiration for it.  Should they have been given credit? Do you people now see how ridiculous you sound?  At this point, you may as well just admit that you just don’t like Witney…cause this is really reaching, kids.

Why wasn’t Allison nominated???

I have to kinda eye roll at this one, too, because it seems like some are drinking the “Allison was awesome on SYTYCD; therefore, by default, she is also awesome on DWTS” Kool-Aid.  For as stellar as Allison is as a contemporary dancer/choreographer, she is still a mediocre-at-best ballroom choreographer.  And again – the bulk of the routines on DWTS are still hardcore ballroom.  On top of that, her first season with Jonathan didn’t really have any standout routines, and some of her strongest routines with Ryker were a bit derivative (i.e. their paso – it was good, but how many Pirates of the Caribbean routines do you think the Academy has seen in the last 10 years?).  Maybe we’ll see some nominations for her once she steps up her ballroom game, but right now? Just not cutting the mustard as a ballroom choreographer yet, though she is improving.  She’s probably more likely to get nominated for any pro-dance collaborations she does – particularly if she does them with Derek.

September 14, 2015 I Written By

Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, baker, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donnie Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night" as a paso doble.

DWTS13 End-of-Season Award Winners – Who Was the Cutest Kid in the Audience?

Other responses:

Johnny Solo, Hope’s nephew (kid in Buzz Lightyear costume) – 6 (Some of you seem convinced that this was a deliberate omission on my part – I can assure you it was not.  I honestly didn’t know that the cute kid in the costume during movie score week was her nephew.)

All of the kids were cute – 4

I didn’t even notice the kids in the audience/did not enjoy the kid distraction – 2

No vote – 1 (Ok…so why bother even voting, then?)

Tie between Coco & Hope’s nephew – 1

Tie: Nancy’s twins – both! – 1

Maks (on the day of the finals) – 1 (He did seem unusually chipper…)

Carson – 1 (I can’t recall a time when they actually got him to stay in his seat…)

Oksana – 1 (Hehe)

NOT NANCY’S – 1 (Go back to your lair under your bridge, troll…)

Ricki’s sons – 1

Courtney: First of all, some clarification – this was not meant to be a mean-spirited question, and I think some of you kind of assumed it was, based on some of your write-in responses.   I just found it interesting that this was a season where the “shot of somebody’s kid in the audience” played a bigger role than ever before – I can’t recall a previous season where we were constantly bombarded with cute, clapping, gap-toothed grinning kiddie faces week after week, and we even discussed the fact that TPTB may be rather invested in whose faces we see each week – hence the “boost” they may have been giving David.  Really & truly though, I agree with the majority – I got the biggest kick out of seeing Coco’s little bashful, excited face each week after her daddy’s dances.  She really is a mini-David, with some of the faces she pulls! I just loved that she seemed so happy to be there, and so proud of her daddy after every dance, whether he knocked it out of the park or failed miserably. Mason was also cute in his few appearances – I got a kick out of seeing him dressed as an Indian during Halloween week, and during the non-dress up weeks, I just thought it was cute how he clapped more out of mimicry of the rest of the audience, rather than actual comprehension of what was going on around him 😛 Nancy’s twins were fun in that they seemed like polar opposites – John David seemed like the sweet, affectionate one, waving to the camera, smiling and blowing kisses; I think a lot of us agreed that Lucy seemed like the handful, often pouting and scowling in pictures and refusing to cooperate.  Nancy’s gonna have fun with those two! 😀 I think I only caught a short glimpse of Hope’s nephew in his costume, but he was cute too 🙂 And I can only recall Ricki’s sons showing up once, and they’re a bit older, so they were pretty tame, just clapping politely and smiling rather than doing anything generally considered “cute”.

Heidi: Well, ya know, to some people everything is mean spirited. 🙂  Oh, and by the way – saying “no vote” is, in reality, A VOTE.  :::rolls eyes:::  (That was mean spirited of me… 🙂 )  Anyway, on to the kiddies. While I do think Coco is adorable and loved seeing her, I think Mason Disick is probably the most beautiful child I’ve seen in a while.  How does such a thing happen in that family? I mean, have you seen their various shows?? Ridiculous – complaining about paparazzi while being the biggest famewhores (looking at you mamma Kris and Kim, in particular) is so eye roll inducing as to give me a massive headache. The list goes on with the absurdities on those shows. Yes, I did see some because it comes on after E! News on Saturday morning. Like a trainwreck, I couldn’t look away. Sue me. It won’t happen again.  Anyway, I like all the kiddies in the audience and think they are all cute, but Mason gets the award from me – the indian outfit capped it off. 🙂

Vogue: Courtney, I didn’t think this was a mean spirited question. I thought it was a fun one especially being the camera showed the celebrities kids and family so much last Season. All the kids were so cute. I voted for Coco being her heart was so much into the whole show. She was clapping nonstop! You could tell she loved being in the audience and her love for her Dad was so apparent. Nancy’s kids caught my eye too…but, boy oh boy, I imagine they are a handful…..much like SHE is. LOL!!

*photo courtesy ABC/Adam Taylor

January 24, 2012 I Written By

Ultrasound sales specialist by day, semi-knowledgeable DWTS fan by night...with a smattering of hair & makeup enthusiast, occasional model, baker, and crazy cat lady peppered in to make things REALLY interesting ;-) I might pee my pants in happiness if Donnie Wahlberg ever does DWTS - or if they ever use "Sunglasses at Night" as a paso doble.