Avalon’s Jon Thoday Hits Back At Paddington Lawsuit: “It Didn’t Cross My Mind That A Company That Also Did Comedy Would Pursue Us For A Joke”

EXCLUSIVE: Avalon founder Jon Thoday has given his characteristically forthright take on the Paddington lawsuit amid the ongoing bust-up over a bear.

As Deadline revealed last week, Studiocanal, producer of the Paddington movies, and Michael Bond’s estate have sued Avalon for copyright infringement after satirical puppet show Spitting Image depicted the famous Peruvian bear as a loco drug-taking podcaster.

Deadline ran into Thoday, Avalon’s joint founder and Co-Executive Chairman, at MIPCOM in Cannes. Of course, we had to ask about the Paddington spat.

“When Roger asked us to bring Spitting Image back a few years ago, we were incredibly honored to do that and support everything that Spitting Image means,” Thoday said. “We never expected to get sued by Studiocanal, a giant organization that one would have thought also supports creative work.”

He added: “This company has made two brilliantly funny films, particularly Paddington 2 I think, I’m a fan of that. It didn’t really cross my mind that a company that also did comedy would pursue us for, essentially, a joke.”

Studiocanal declined to comment.

Thoday noted that, historically, people parodied in the show, even in some of the more grotesque puppet forms, have taken pride in the fact. Several have even sought to buy their rubber doppelgangers. Spitting Image notably took aim at Yoda in a previous season, avoiding legal papers from Disney in the process. It is a given that its sketches have always been on the nose. It has, however, rarely found itself in the crosshairs of the lawyers. Now, Avalon is itself lawyering up.

“There was a discussion about whether we should listen to them [Studiocanal], or whether we should continue to parody what we think is a funny thing,” Thoday explained. “I said, of course, we should continue to support the creatives on the show. I’ve just simply said we should give it to the best lawyers we can find and let the law do its thing.”

It’s fair to say that in the wake of the lawsuit, Spitting Image was not cowed. The second sketch, available on YouTube, showed Paddington snorting piles of white powder while wiping his furry bottom on the legal papers served by a company called “Studio C-Anal.” It is perhaps notable, however, that Paddington’s appearance in this follow-up changed: gone was the signature red hat and duffle coat.

Is there more to come? “It wasn’t a news story until Studiocanal made it one. And Spitting
Image is about parodying the news, so you couldn’t really not do that,” Thoday said about the show returning to the topic. “I’m not the producer of the show, so I can’t possibly say… but Spitting Image is all about following news stories, and if it’s still a news story, I imagine there will be more.”

Amid the legal fight, Thoday noted that Studiocanal has itself produced a satirical puppet show, Les Guignols, and professed himself a fan of the films and series the French studio makes and sells.

“If you look at some of their catalogs, they’ve got some of the Ealing comedies, they’ve got Paddington, which are really funny movies, and they have The Producers, which is a movie that I incredibly admire. I can’t imagine that Mel Brooks would think that attacking a bear is a good use of money.”

Speaking to Radio Times last week, Al Murray, co-creator of Spitting Image‘s YouTube incarnation, defended the series, citing freedom of speech. Avalon is on the same page. “In the climate we’re living in at the moment, freedom of speech is important,” Thoday said. “I think comedians need to be able to make jokes, as they always have done, and that’s what Spitting Image does.”

Avalon is shopping Spitting Image in Cannes, along with the likes of Taskmaster and new Julia Roberts-narrated comedy drama Leonard and Hungry Paul.