You've probably all heard about it. A Florida man is known as a Florida clown because of his facial tattoos that resemble supervillains. He accused Rockstar, the production company behind Grand Theft Auto, of using his likeness in the trailer for its upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6. Unfortunately, he didn't give up on this feud and kept posting more **. But let's start at the beginning.
On December 4th, Rockstar Games released the first trailer for the upcoming Grand Theft Auto, reintroducing players to Vice City, a fictional city inspired by Miami. The trailer shows several elements and characters typical of Florida, including a crowded coastline, a woman wriggling her body in a moving car, and even a giant alligator in a store. The trailer also showcases some of the familiar faces of Floridians we've seen in the news. Apparently, the Florida Joker wasn't happy with the use of his portrait in the trailer and in Grand Theft Auto 6. He shared his thoughts on the matter with his fans on Tik Tok. If you're wondering who he is and how a character similar to him appeared on the upcoming Grand Theft Auto, Lawrence Sullivan is a former tattoo model from Miami whose 2017 episode went viral and became an internet celebrity overnight. According to the Tampa Bay Times, the Miami-Dade Police Department reported that he was arrested for carrying a concealed firearm. Sullivan's facial tattoos and bright green hair fascinated many netizens, as if he had stepped straight out of the DC comic books and earned the nickname of the Florida Joker.
Obviously, Sullivan didn't realize the irony in this, and even though the character of the Joker is a copyright IP of DC Comics, he has now started calling himself the Joker. While the character only appears for 3 seconds in the trailer, social media users and video game journalists quickly noticed a character standing in court, with facial tattoos and colored hair. The GTA version of the character has some differences, with purple hair instead of green and facial tattoos that are different. However, it's hard not to notice the similarities between them. IGN even listed this small snippet as part of a Florida reference that players can discover in the game. This story may sound familiar to fans of Grand Theft Auto 5. Back in 2014, Lindsay Lohan filed a lawsuit against Rockstar Games, claiming that they had wrongly used her image to create the game's famous character, Lacy Jones, while also dressing her in the same clothes and a similar voice.
Not only that, but she also claimed that they used her iconic peace logo as promotional material for their famous Jones artwork, which can also be seen on the game's loading screen. While she considered the lawsuit reasonable, the court sided with the video game developer. Judge Eugene Fah said the artwork was a vague caricature of the style, look and image of a young woman on the beach and could not have been identified as the plaintiff. In simple terms, the court dismissed her case because the artwork and character design could have been a model for any blonde woman, not necessarily her. But back to the topic, a few days later, Sullivan released another **. He demanded $2 million from Rockstar Games for using his image. A lawyer who won a similar case for a video game publisher said his chances of getting any money from Rockstar were very low. He was asked, "What are the chances that this person will get any money from this?" "Very low. Lindsay Lohan tried to do the same with Rockstar, but failed. Yes, but this time it was not just a coincidence, they directly copied him. The tattoos are all different, the hair is different, the face is different. Just another guy with a facial tattoo, at least that's what Rockstar would say, and I bet they're going to win.
He could argue that he didn't want to have anything to do with the GTA, as it was clear that they were referencing him. I don't think it's obvious enough that referencing someone isn't illegal enough. I know this because I won a case on this issue for a video game publisher last year. It's unclear if the Sullivan-based character is just an inside joke for the release trailer or if he'll be featured in the full game. But if Sullivan is planning to file a lawsuit, then Rockstar may be protected under the imitation law, as Arthur Morgan's actor Roger Clark points out. This certainly isn't the first time the studio has modeled a model. Four days later, Sullivan released another Tik Tok. This time he threatened to file a lawsuit against the character from the GTA 6 trailer after dyeing his hair purple.
As you can guess, they didn't respond. I think Sullivan could face a tough uphill battle with his claim against Rockstar Games. Honestly, it looks like Rockstar doesn't really care, or they just don't want to get involved. Other famous people tried to do the same, like Lindsay Lohan, but they didn't work out, so the Florida Joker might have a hard time winning the case. I would say that he might have been smarter to use the attention he gets now to make money in other ways. But I just opened his tik tok and noticed that he was already on this path.
First, he got people to follow him on Instagram, and now he's promoting the upcoming *** I hope he can make better use of the attention he's getting right now. He can make special guest appearances or produce ** because he's famous right now. This way he can make money without Rockstar having to do anything. Also, if Rockstar takes the character out of the game or trailer, there's not much to say about the Florida Joker.
He's in the spotlight because of this whole thing, so he'd probably be better off going with the flow and seeing what other fun things he can do with his fame. Although Rockstar has never responded to his provocations and threats of lawsuits, I'm curious if they might include some Easter eggs related to this situation in Grand Theft Auto 6.
Now imagine if the studio wanted revenge on Lindsay Lohan's years of legal battles and all the chaos the Florida Joker havoc, they could portray them as a couple in a strange relationship that they occasionally encountered in the game. Their involvement in Grand Theft Auto 6 could also be part of Stranger and Weird quests, which may appear in upcoming games.
In Grand Theft Auto 5, these missions play a very interesting role in the game's narrative, so I can't imagine Rockstar giving up on this idea, especially since Florida has a lot of people who are suitable for such missions and encounters.
I'm curious, what are your thoughts on what Florida Jokers and Rockstar should do in this situation? Let me know in the comments below. That's all we know at the moment, but of course I'll keep updating you so much so don't forget to hit the subscribe button and bell. "