Riot Games is facing some backlash online after it posted a clip to social media using the popular dancing Toothless meme from a How to Train Your Dragon animated skit created by Cas van de Pol. The clip was uploaded to League of Legends channels featuring another dragon design in place of Toothless with the original meme’s Pokemon music replaced. According to the community, Riot Games failed to properly credit Cas van de Pol before using the meme.
Earlier this year, Cas van de Pol’s dancing Toothless meme went viral as part of his ongoing animated skits on YouTube, where the artist “recaps” movies in his unique art style. The meme shows Toothless, with a rather goofy expression, dancing to the “Driftveil City” theme from Pokemon Black & White. The meme has since been used in thousands of parodies across social media. Riot Games were among those to catch onto the meme but decided to put its own spin on it without crediting the artist.
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Uploaded to the League of Legends UK, IE & Nordics Twitter/X account, the recreated meme shows Toothless replaced with its new dragon champion, Smolder, from the series along with new music. The meme still uses Cas van de Pol’s animation, though the artist was never properly credited in the video.
he’s just a happy lil’ guy 🐲 pic.twitter.com/miEXLvDUq3
— League of Legends // UK, IE & Nordics (@LoLUKN) January 11, 2024
The artist caught wind of the unauthorised use of his meme and replied, “Who do I invoice for this?” adding Riot Games into his response. Riot Games has yet to officially respond the the uncredited use of the meme.
“So you guys are just going to trace over an artist’s work and not credit them for it? What a joke,” wrote one user. Another wrote, “When nobody cared for the champion and to make some publicity you trace the shit out of other animators work as a meme.”
The usage of memes online has blurry legal grounds, especially since memes are easily replicated and spread without ever crediting the original owners. In this case, however, Cas van de Pol’s dancing Toothless is an original creation by an artist so there might be some ramifications for a major company using his work without crediting him.
Source: Twitter/X