Legal representatives for NFL legend Tom Brady have sent a cease-and-desist letter to comedians Will Sasso and Chad Kultgen, threatening to sue them if they did not take down an AI-generated comedy special impersonating Brady. The hour-long special, titled "It's Too Easy! A Simulated Hour-Long Comedy Special" had featured an AI version of Brady doing standup and telling jokes that were crass in nature.
According to the cease-and-desist letter, Brady's attorneys claimed that the special "blatantly violated" the seven-time Super Bowl champion's rights and demanded that the hosts of the podcast either remove the video posted to their Patreon or face a lawsuit.
The pair acquiesced, but not without raising objections on their podcast, pointing out that the AI-generated impersonation of Brady was clearly satirical in nature and analogous to impersonations of celebrity on sketch comedy shows.
"Again, I think this is First Amendment, freedom of speech-type s--t that we're dealing with here," Kultgen said. "This is obviously a parody... This is what all impressionists do. You watch hours of tape of that person to get their mannerisms and stuff like this down. It's literally the same."
Interestingly, Brady seems to not have an issue with jokes being made at his expense in a certain context: Last May, it was announced that Brady would be the subject of a roast special on Netflix.
