Hi, I'm John Green. Welcome to my salon
This is Mental Floss Video, and did you know that in 2011 a woman sued the store Century 21 for $5 million
because she was shorted 80 cents when trying to return an outfit? The issue was that she'd bought it with a coupon, but when she returned it, the store deducted some of the value of the coupon from her refund
She eventually dropped the lawsuit because, you know, it was without merit
And that's the first of many ridiculous lawsuits that I'm going to share with you today
A high school student filed a lawsuit against his school in 2003
He took a work experience class in a law office, which happened to be where his mother worked
The law office employees gave him an A+, but he took the class through the intermediate
countywide district, which didn't recognize A-plus as a legitimate grade, even though his
school did, so it was on his report card as a lousy A. And that is cause for a lawsuit
In 2002, musician Mike Bott released the album Classical Graffiti, which contained a track
that was all silence. Soon after, he received a royalty claim because another musician, John Cage, had released
his own silent track in 1952. The traditional story is that they settled out of court for six figures, but in 2010
Mike Bott revealed that he had convinced the lawyers that they had no case and agreed to pay $1,000 to the John Cage Trust
By the way, Mike Bott is still convinced that his silent song is better because he was
able to say in one minute what Cage could only say in 4 minutes and 33 seconds
In 2011, a woman sued the Houston Police Department after she was arrested and the officer driving
her to jail was playing the Rush Limbaugh radio show. She claimed that this meant that she was forced to listen to derogatory comments about black people
That doesn't seem like a ridiculous lawsuit to me, actually. A man sued the Anheuser-Busch Company for $10,000 in 1991 for misleading advertising
He asserted that beer ads implied that if you drink beer, you'll experience, quote
scenic tropical settings and beautiful women and men engaged in endless and unrestricted merriment The case was dropped and he later claimed that he was just making a point about irresponsible alcohol ads But you know I bet he would have accepted the 10 bucks Two men from New Jersey sued Subway in 2013 after they saw a picture from Australia of a foot sandwich which turned out to only be 11 inches
This led their lawyer to go around to 17 Subways and measure sandwiches. All of them were smaller than a foot for the record
Eventually, a settlement was reached. In 2009, a man made the news when he sued his ex-wife for a kidney that he had donated to her while they were married, since it was a marital asset
He also agreed to settle for $1.5 million. The court ruled that marital property does not include, quote, human tissues or organs
I don't want to criticize the court, but what about children? They're nothing but human tissues and organs
Well, and I guess a soul. Another disgruntled divorcee filed a lawsuit against his wedding photographer for bad pictures, even though his marriage had already ended
He filed the suit in 2011, but his divorce had been finalized in 2010
Nonetheless, he wanted the photography company to pay for his wedding to be recreated so he could, quote
have memories of the wedding. In 2014, a Little League coach sued one of his players for over $500,000
after the child threw his batting helmet in a victory celebration and accidentally hit the coach on the ankle
He claimed this caused him pain and suffering, as well as lost wages and medical costs
Speaking of lost wages, in 2009, Trina Thompson sued her alma mater, Monroe College
because she couldn't get a job. She wanted $72,000, which was more than the cost of tuition
because the school didn't help her with job placement, which had caused her stress
By the way, the lawsuit was filed a mere three months after her graduation. A woman sued the film distributor Film District in 2011 because she thought the trailer for
the movie Drive was very misleading. The suit stated that the company promoted the film
Drive as very similar to the Fast and Furious, or similar series of movies. Because it wasn't
She felt she was owed compensation. In fact, I would argue that Drive is better than at least two of the Fast and Furious movies
I'm referring, of course, to Tokyo Drift and Two Fast, Two Furious. The others are unadulterated classics
In 2014, a man sued McDonald's for $1.5 million. He claimed he experienced quote undue mental anguish because he only received one napkin with his food at the restaurant One napkin You lucky What was it Free Napkins Day at McDonald I never received a napkin
Also in 2014, a woman sued Disney for plagiarism for $250 million
She'd written an autobiography in 2010 titled The Snow Queen and believed that Frozen directly stole her real-life story
Some similarities listed in her lawsuit include intense sisterly love, two male characters, and recluse sister
I mean, that's a compelling argument, but I think in the end you're gonna have to let it go
Robert Lee Brock filed a lawsuit against himself while he was in prison in 1995
He believed that he had infringed upon his own religious and civil rights by getting drunk and then breaking the law
The lawsuit read, For violating my religious beliefs, I want to pay myself five million dollars, but I asked the state to pay it since I can't work
It was dismissed by a judge. A judge, an actual judge, had to dismiss that lawsuit
Magician David Blaine was sued by a man in 2005 for $50 million
The man said that Blaine had stolen his godly powers and was using them to perform magic
He'd already filed a similar lawsuit against David Copperfield. In 2011, a woman filed a $5 million lawsuit against Chuck E. Cheese
She claimed that the arcade games in the chain were gambling machines that bore similarities
to slot machines and roulette wheels. A man named Ron Joseph filed a lawsuit against NASA in 2014 after he saw pictures from the
Mars Opportunity rover. There was a rock in one of the photographs, but Joseph was convinced that it was a living organism
So the lawsuit insisted that NASA, quote, perform a public, scientific, and statutory duty which is to closely photograph and thoroughly scientifically examine and investigate a putative biological organism
Alright, from here on out I'm only going to refer to rocks as putative biological organisms
In 2014, a 62-year-old man sued a group of seemingly random corporations and people for a total of two undecillion dollars
That's significantly more money than exists on Earth, but he wanted NYC Transit, Kmart, a dog owner, and many more people to pay up
A man sued Michael Jordan and Nike founder Phil Knight for million each in 2006 He was a Michael Jordan look and claimed that those two parties caused him emotional pain and suffering because he couldn go anywhere without being stopped or compared to Jordan Not unlike the life of LeBron James Maybe he should sue Michael Jordan
Speaking of celebrity look-alikes, in 2010, Lindsay Lohan sued the company E-Trade for a commercial they ran on TV
in which a baby calls another baby that milkaholic Lindsay. They eventually settled
Another sensitive celebrity is Ron Livingston of Office Space fame. In 2009, he filed a lawsuit against an anonymous Wikipedia editor who added the following to Livingston's Wikipedia page
He is gay and officially confirmed it in TMZ. He is gay and darn proud
The Recording Industry Association of America sued a woman named Gertrude Walton in 2005 for illegally downloading music, then skipping her court date
The only problem, she was dead. That's why she missed her court date due to, you know, being dead
Also, according to her daughter, quote, my mother wouldn't even know how to turn on a computer
I know, because she's dead. In the late 90s, a man named Bob Croft renamed himself to Jack Ass
And then, in 2003, he sued Viacom International Inc. for $10 million because he claimed that
the MTV show Jack Ass was plagiarism and also that it defamed his name
It seems like maybe Jack Ass should take a lesson from Robert Lee Brock and sue himself
And finally, I return to my salon to tell you about perhaps the only person on this list who really had a case
In 2012, a man received $7.2 million from Gilster Mary Lee Corp, The Kroger Company, and The Dillon Companies, Inc
He developed microwave popcorn lung, which is a real disease that people can get from inhaling too much of the diacetyl in microwave popcorn butter fumes
Thanks to his two-bags-a-day habit, he was the first person to get the disease who didn't work in a popcorn factory
It's quite a serious disease, by the way, but diacetyl is no longer in popcorn, just in case you're worried
Thanks for watching Mental Floss Video, which is made with the help of all of these nice people, and also thanks for not suing us
As we say in my hometown, don't forget to be awesome