The MTA unfairly pulled an ad campaign for a movie about Muslim culture because the transit agency confused the humor in the posters for political statements banned under a new policy, the filmmakers charge in two new lawsuits.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is accused of reneging on a $15,000 deal to plaster movie posters on walls in 140 subway stations.
The film “The Muslims are Coming!” by Negin Farsad and Dean Obeidallah is billed as a lighthearted look at the culture of the religion.
The ads used what the studio calls “satirical and tongue-in-cheek” statements such as “The Ugly Truth About Muslims: Muslims have great frittata recipes” and “Those Terrorists are All Nutjobs,” with the word “nutjobs” substituted for the crossed-off “Muslim” because it was “more accurate.”
According to the studio, the film carries a message that “American Muslims are ordinary people,” and that the MTA had no compelling reason to ban it.
When the posters didn’t go up on the scheduled date in April, the filmmakers called the MTA but didn’t hear back for several days, and then were told the ads would violate a new policy that bans ads that are “political in nature.”
The filmmakers countered that there is nothing political about funny movie posters. One of the ads says, “Muslims! They invented coffee, the toothbrush and algebra . . . Oh wait, sorry about the algebra. That’s a year of class you’ll never get back.”
Another said: “Beware! The Muslims are coming! And they shall strike with hugs so fierce that you’ll end up calling your grandmother and telling her you love her!”
“We tried to reason with the MTA,” the filmmakers wrote in an article in The Daily Beast. “We tried appealing to their sense of fairness. We even tried groveling. But to no avail. MTA lawyers made it clear that our ads, ads intended to show that Muslims are ordinary people with a sense of humor (and a sense of hummus), had no place in their New York City subway system.”
The studio also said the MTA had approved the ads in March, but withdrew that approval last month in light of its April 29 ad ban.
MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg said the agency had not been served with the complaint, and he declined to comment further.
“Our lawsuit will travel through the legal system slower than the G train,” the filmmakers wrote. “But at least it’s moving.”