The Grammy-winning lyricist behind The Lion King’s famous opening vocals is now being ordered to pay nearly $40,000 in attorneys’ fees after unsuccessfully suing a comedian for poking fun at the song.
South African comedian Learnmore Mwanyenyeka, better known by his alias Jonasi, was hit with a $27 million lawsuit in March 2026 from plaintiff Lebohang Morake, who penned the Zulu lyrics that are sung at the beginning of “The Circle of Life” in Disney’s animated animal epic.
Jonasi made the joke during an episode of the One54 Africa podcast in February, where he playfully translated the line as, “Look, there is a lion! Oh my god.” While it got a laugh from the show’s hosts at the time, the song’s lyricist didn’t find it very funny.
A March 16 lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California labeled Jonasi’s humorous mistranslation as a “fabricated, trivializing distortion meant as a sick joke,” saying it damaged the “royal praise poetry” written by Morake that “stands independently as an African vocal proclamation grounded in South African tradition” outside of its use in The Lion King.
For reference, Morake’s lawsuit translated the line “Nants’ingonyama bagithi Baba” as “All hail the king, we all bow in the presence of the king.” The suit mentioned that “ngonyama” can also translate to Lion in Zulu, but argued that the term “signifies kingship” due to Praise Imbongi tradition and the use of royal metaphor, per NBC News.
In a now-deleted Instagram post, Jonasi said that he and Morake spoke about the situation privately. “This was just a joke, and comedy always has a way of starting a conversation,” he said. “I told him this. This is now your chance to actually educate people because now people are listening. I was even ready to create a video with him, to be honest. Personally, I had no idea it had a deeper meaning.”
Jonasi was famously served a lawsuit over the joke during a live performance that same month. Now, five months later, the suit has been struck down, with Morake ordered to pay thousands of dollars to cover Jonasi’s attorney fees.
More specifically, he’ll have to shell out $39,560, as laid out in a court order filed on August 28, 2026. The order says the “prevailing defendant” ultimately won the case due to an Anti-SLAPP motion, which basically means the court struck down what it believed was a frivolous and costly suit designed to punish Jonasi for his joke.
The suit was officially dismissed on July 10, 2026. Speaking with the Rolling Stone, Jonasi’s lawyer, Bryan Sullivan, celebrated the ruling as a win for free speech.
“We have always believed this was a frivolous lawsuit in violation of our client’s First Amendment rights,” he told the outlet.
For more Lion King news, check out IGN’s review of the movie’s Diamond Edition Blu-ray version, or take a peek at our take on Mufasa: The Lion King.
Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s News Editor. With ten years of experience reporting on games and entertainment, she’s got a storied background in the fighting game community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her on Twitter at @TheeMissGlaze.
