A teenager is suing websites for making fun of his mullet with memes
An Australian teenager is suing a small handful of publications for making fun of his luxuriant hair style, after an image of the man became immortalised in memes.
In what could be described as one of the most surreal legal records published in recent times, Ali Ziggi Mosslmani says Daily Mail Australia, The Daily Telegraph and KIIS radio defamed him through a series of memes, photoshopping "pictures of the plaintiff ... on Mount Rushmore, on a dollar bill, as 'pin the tail on the donkey' and as a horse."
And all because of his (frankly beautiful) mullet.
You May Also Like
A "mullet" is a timeless hair style that could be broadly described as "business at the front, party at the back." In Mosslmani's case, it could best be described as an urban, avant grade take on a classic Australian version of the 'do.
The young man says that coverage from the three outlets included defamatory meanings, by implying that he was a "ridiculous person" whose haircut was "controversial," "silly," and "horrendous."
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
Defences issued by the publication's legal teams are the real wonder to behold though.
The defendant pleas include statements like: "The plaintiff, by reason of his mullet hairstyle, has justifiably exposed himself to ridicule by the public," as well as "the plaintiff is a joke," and "the plaintiff is a ridiculous person."
The New South Wales district court judge in the preliminary hearing didn't mince words, however. Turns out she's quite the meme connoisseur.
Judge Judith Gibson said the content made the point that "the plaintiff's striking mullet haircut has generated a great deal of interest on the internet, most of it humorous, and some of it in the form of clever observations, such as the 'Pythagoras' direction [digitally added to the plaintiff's head] in one of the memes."
Dismissing the claim that the articles suggested Mosslmani was "hideously ugly" she said "the closest any such picture gets to suggesting there is anything unattractive (as opposed to ridiculous) in the plaintiff's appearance is the photograph where a skunk has been added to the plaintiff's head."
The next preliminary hearing for the case will take place on Nov. 17.
Jerico Mandybur is the editor of Mashable Australia. Previously, she worked as a digital editor at SBS, Oyster Mag, MTV and ASOS. Tweet her at @jerico_m.
