Parody is protected under Fair Use, but it needs to satisfy its defination.
Both parody and satire employ humor in commentary and criticism, but the key difference, and the reason that under copyright law, parodic uses are more likely to be considered fair use than satire, is because
copyrightalliance.org
As the Supreme Court explained in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., “Parody needs to mimic an original to make its point, and so has some claim to use the creation of its victim’s (or collective victims’) imagination, whereas satire can stand on its own two feet and so requires justification for the very act of borrowing.”
Nonetheless, every attempt at a parody is not created equally, and in each instance the particular parody would need to undergo the four factor fair use analysis to determine whether it constitutes a fair use. For example, an attempted parody of a song that borrows too much of the original composition and lyrics, and as a result sounds too much like the original, is less likely to qualify as a fair use.
I think Anthony has a good shot as his claim depute especially since the person making the claim isn't the actually copyright holder, but using the CHIP's theme song directly can be a problem too.
- Wolf