I feel their pain. Once a character with the same name as me was featured in a sitcom. It was actually pretty cool until the writers overhauled said character and made him a bumbling fool. Eventually I had to change my name to something I read on a hairdryer.

It's all true. My wife, Hootie McBoob, will back me up 100%.

I think McDonald's should sue both of them for turning Grimace red.

At least Elmo is mature enough not to get caught up in this.

There are two giant red monsters now? What next they gonna make a C.S. Lewis "Chronicles of Narnia" movie? Will the insanity ever end???

Sexual Harassment Panda unavailable for comment.

db420d-

Nice reference.

they must have stolen it. the thing looks exactly like the WKU mascot. that's no coincidence. on the other hand, $250 million!? what the hell is wrong with people these days? is that for all of Big Red's suffering? jeebus, folks. . .simmer down now.

WKU's is just a ripoff of my high school's mascot...
(or was it the other way around)

R.I.P, Booger


/go Rocks!

This was on Good Morning America today. There's no doubt that the Italians ripped off WKU.

Stuff like this is why I cancelled my daily subscription to the Tennessean.

WKU has to understand that there are 6 billion + people on this crappy planet, many with very similar DNA and life experience.. maybe.. just MAYBE, some mascot costume designers are going to come up with similar looking ideas.

This one borders on 'Dumbass'

FYI they made all the narnia CS Lewis movies - strait to DVD negro

Why doesn't Western Kentucky get money the old fashioned way?..Just sell its academic soul to College Football, Inc and get a BCS bowl bid like all the other institutiuons of Higher Learning?

Il Duca Succhi

Booh-Bahs, Teletubbies and Tweenies

Is it just me, or is this scary?

"Flob-a-dob"

Gabbo is Fabbo

Whitefire_Zero, they are making another. Now excuse me while I barricade my closet, oh crap they are breaking through!!

Making another, like in America - to be a full length feature in the movie theatre? Do you have a link? Cuz the DVD's were done well but everything was over-lighted.

I am confused, Kentucky has an additional state university after Univ of Kentucky?
/obvious

The Narnia story is on CNN, but back to the subject, if the show is a satirical news show, then are they not satirizing WKU's mascot?

Ouch, my headline!! I mean, my head!!

Ok, so from the quotes, my statement is unfounded... though still valid, I say!

/retracts angry statement toward WKU (please don't sue me!)

Big Red sleeps with the fishes

Well, the Italian company did file the first lawsuit.

Crossland Enterprises Inc. licensed the rights to market Big Red in Italy in early 2002 to the company Adfra, which is selling reflective safety bibs bearing the mascot's image. Mediaset countersued, accusing Adfra of exploiting Gabibbo's image.

WKU's Big Red:


Gabibbo:

They're suing Silvio Berlusconi? Big Red has big cojones.

From NPR

Don't get me wrong, I'm against the way people are so quick to sue nowadays, but in this case it's more'n justified.

If we let those Italians get away with stealing our Western Kentucky mascot, the next thing you know they'll be stealing our trailer parks, and marrying our 13yo cousins...

Kentucky has an educational facility?

/catalyst for flame war

Why is it that americans freak out when they see a sagged old boob on TV for 3 seconds while it is OK to have a basketball mascot shaped like a big red penis?

braddri

The term 'educational', just like a Kentucky wedding, is all relative.

They're heads are basically the same. The only thing the Italian designers changed was they gave it a shirt (probably to cover up the "WKU" and cuffs.
Gabibbo is dressed for a formal dinner where as Big Red's dressed to do keg stands, eat at the 'Caf and sleep through his early classes.

In other news, Wrigly to sue WKU for $500 million over the use of the name "Big Red". They were not made aware of theft until one of it's employees noticed an article on Fark.com

Cthulus_Toaster, that would seriously kick ass.

Sorry! wtf? I'll try that again:

From NPR

Come on, now. Isn't there room enough in the world for two giant, red penis characters?

Braddri: Kentucky has an educational facility?

Yeah, they come to Tennessee and become writers for the Tennessean.

/adds a couple tanks of gasoline to fire

Actually, here's an interesting point. KY is going to lose quite a bit of money now that we (in TN) are getting all the lottery stuff, including the PowerBall. Many TN residents went to KY to get these in the past... so this is just a ploy in order for the university to recoup monetary losses from what will be a lack of lottery ticket sales!

The UCONN basketball teams (both men and women) have a fan who is called "Big Red". I wonder if I should hunt him down and have him join this fracas.

The Italian one looks like a queer.
The football confirms it.

Oh and since the creator of Gabibbo made a statement to the effect that he did copy Big Red, they should have to pay like $5 a year to use it.

I find myself unsympathetic to either one. I guess it spawns from the fact that it all boils down to that its a BIG RED FUZZY COSTUME. If you read between the lines you notice that it was not the University that was really pulling the strings on this, it was the company that holds the rights to the stupid overstuffed Elmo. They just want the money that the Italian version has made. Just like American business 101 teaches, if you can't earn it, steal it from someone else in court. Money makes the world go 'round and makes us all look like total a$$'s.

Umm, everyone really knows that Big Red (name) is affiliated with Cornell University

DUMB DUMB GREEEDY farkIN BASTARDS

It's cases like this that make me want to hurt things sometimes, and denounce my citizenship

I mean, c'mon, jesus farkin christ.

DUMB DUMB GREEEDY farkIN BASTARDS