Whenever someone finds success in Hollywood, there’s an inevitable lawsuit from someone who didn’t. When The Dark Knight earned record breaking earnings at the box office, it was only a matter of time before someone found a way to sue the hell out of it. That someone is, believe it or not, an entire town.

Somewhere in the country of Turkey, in the province of Batman, there is an oil town named Batman. The mayor of that town, one Huseyin Kalkan, is according to Variety suing Warner Bros. for using the city’s name without permission. Apparently, his oil-producing town isn’t making enough money from raping the human race at the gas pump, so now they want to rape us at the movie theater as well. They want in Warner Bros. pockets and want a share of The Dark Knight’s royalties.

But wait, it gets wackier. Among the charges the mayor is preparing to level at Warner Bros, is murder. He’s planning to blame them for the town’s high female suicide rate and for a series of unsolved murders, all of which he claims is caused by the psychological impact of the film’s success on the town’s inhabitants. That makes sense. Their female suicide rate must be the fault of Batman, it can’t possibly have anything to do with being a woman living in a culture which oppresses and abuses anyone with breasts.

I’m no lawyer, but I imagine it’s highly unlikely he’ll be able to find a court willing to listen to this load of lunacy. According to Warner Brothers, they’ve not seen any actual legal action, only a bunch of crazy announcements from Mr. Kalkan. Mr. Kalkan meanwhile insists he’s preparing a case, gathering evidence to prove that the town’s name predates the 1939 creation of the Batman character… as if that would somehow turn his madness into sanity.

No word yet on whether the neighboring town of “Silvan” plans to sue the Silvan Learning Center for educating women and infidels without their permission.


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