It’s possible that “Happy Birthday to You” is an ancient custom, but it wasn’t in the public domain until the middle-late 2010s. On January 1, 2017, the copyright in the song expired in the European Union. A federal court ruled in 2016 that the song is in the public domain and has been for decades, against claims by Warner/Chappell Music. And Canada’s copyright has long since expired. This is a Dead Horse Trope, as well as potentially a Discredited Trope, because to this.
When it comes to television and film birthdays, it’s unusual for those involved to sing “Happy Birthday To You.” Rather than opting for “For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow,” as is done in the real world, shows may use “A Fine Old English Gentleman” instead (except when the waitstaff of certain chain restaurants do so).
Given the preceding events, it’s clear that this will alter — in fact, it has already changed for many of those chain restaurants — but presently, nearly every job you’ll come across will almost certainly be represented with a different or The Jimmy Hart Version.
The melody to “Happy Birthday to You,” on the other hand, was not. It was stolen from a previous song called “Good Morning to All,” which had long since gone into the public domain. So, instrumental or foreign-language renditions were not subject to this restriction.
It’s worth noting that the author of this joke, who was also a former composer for Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons, used snark bait to address several internet copyright issues. Lampshade Hanging was a term coined by critics to describe when people used lampshades in their works as a way to mock copyright laws.
The case of copyright rules gone too far was frequently subject to Lampshade Hanging. Warner/Chappell’s assertion to the song’s copyright turned out to be so flimsy that it might well have been fraudulent. What Is The Slug: ‘Happy Happy Birthday From All Of Us To You’.
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Happy Happy Birthday From All Of Us To You
One, two, three, GO!
Happy happy birthday, from all of us to you!
We wish it was our birthday, so we could party too!
Happy happy birthday, may all your dreams come true!
We wish it was our birthday, so we could party too!
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