'This Was Just a Joke' — Lion King Lyricist Ordered to Pay Nearly $40,000 to Cover Comedian's Attorney Fees After Suing Him Over Joke Translation of 'Circle of Life' Lyrics

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’ingonyam