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Hustler Magazine v. Falwell
A 1983 issue of Hustler featured a spoof advertisement, where minister Jerry Falwell appears to describe how he lost his virginity during an incestuous rendezvous with his mother while drunk in an outhouse. In 1988, the Supreme Court upheld the jury’s initial conclusion that the Hustler page cannot “reasonably be understood as describing actual facts.” Image source: Flickr/Mike Essl -
WIC Radio v. Simpson
In 2008, Justice Lebel of the Supreme Court of Canada determined that audiences wouldn't wouldn’t interpret Rafe Mair's (pictured) comparison of a conservative activist to Hitler and the Ku Klux Klan as defamatory because they would be familiar with his outrageous radio persona. Image source: Flickr/Damian Kettlewell -
Levant v. Awan
Ezra Levant tried to invoke the shock-jock defense in a defamation suit launched by Saskatchewan-based lawyer Khurrum Awan. Justice Wendy Matheson ordered Levant to pay $80,000 in damages, suggesting he is to be taken seriously as a journalist. Image source: Flickr/Raj Taneja
