Alfonso Ribeiro And Backpack Kid Are Next To Sue Fortnite Creators For Stealing Their Famous Dances For The Game

Alfonso Ribeiro, the costar of  “Fresh Prince of BelAir,” is suing Epic Games for what he calls an “unauthorized use” of his signature move on the popular game Fortnite. The same thing goes for the #BackpackKid, the young creator of “the floss” dance.

Ribeiro is currently in the process of copyrighting the dance for this exact reason and claims not only that Fortnite’s “Fresh emote” is identical to his dance but also that the name gives it away. “Indeed, by naming the emote ‘Fresh,’ Epic intentionally induced a direct connection between the in-game purchase and the show where The Dance started, ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.’ That connection implied an endorsement of that in-game purchase by Ribeiro,” the lawsuit states.

Backpack Kid is also suing the popular video game after discovering the game offers a new emote called “the Floss,” which allows players to mimic the viral arm-swinging dance he created. His mother filed a suit against both 2K Games and Fortnite, on his behalf, for unspecified damages and is requesting that a judge stop the companies from stealing his dance as he’s in the process of having it copyrighted, as well. 

Epic has been accused of consistently seeking to exploit African-American talent by copying their dances and movements and selling them through emotes. In fact, there are claims that Fortnite has copied the dance moves of #SnoopDogg from the music video “Drop It Like It’s Hot” and Donald Faison’s signature dance from the tv show #Scrubs. Rapper #2Milly has already filed a suit against #Epic for allegedly stealing his “Milly Rock” dance too.

According to The Blast, Ribeiro also filed a lawsuit against 2K Sports, the makers of #NBA2k, claiming the game sells an in-game dance called “So Fresh” that is also a rip-off of his “Carlton Dance.”