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Uri Geller Finally Apologizes for Suing Pokemon 20 Years Ago (kotaku.com.au) 85

Posted by EditorDavid from the gotta-sue-'em-all dept.
In January of the year 2000, Pokémon was sued by stage magician Uri Geller for $97 million (over a Pokémon card with a similar name that carried the magician's trademark bent spoon).

20 years later, Kotaku reports... Spoon-bending magician Uri Geller gave Nintendo permission to use the character Kadabra on Pokémon cards today, after a 20 year legal dispute in which Geller claimed the Pokémon's Japanese name and image were too close to his own.

"I am truly sorry for what I did 20 years ago," Geller tweeted today. "Kids and grownups I am releasing the ban. It's now all up to #Nintendo to bring my #kadabra #pokemon card back. It will probably be one of the rarest cards now! Much energy and love to all!"

As Screenrant explains, while Kadabra is a word associated with magic, the Pokémon's Japanese name — variously written as Yungerer, Yungeller, and Yun Geller — seems to be a reference to Geller... Geller sued Nintendo over Kadabra in 2000, seeking damages and insisting the card stop being used in sets. "Nintendo turned me into an evil, occult Pokémon character. Nintendo stole my identity by using my name and my signature image," Geller said at the time.
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Uri Geller Finally Apologizes for Suing Pokemon 20 Years Ago More

Uri Geller Finally Apologizes for Suing Pokemon 20 Years Ago

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  • OMG you guys, (Score:3)

    by h33t l4x0r ( 4107715 ) on Sunday November 29, 2020 @08:38AM (#60775474)
    Sarah Michelle Gellar's dad was, like, the original hater.

  • Meanwhile... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Megane ( 129182 ) on Sunday November 29, 2020 @08:47AM (#60775484)
    ...people everywhere are stunned to learn that Uri Geller is still alive, as his career certainly isn't! However, zoomers are confused about how the hell he has anything to do with Kadabra, did he get the idea to bend spoons from it?

  • Trying to get attention after everyone forgot him. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by BAReFO0t ( 6240524 ) on Sunday November 29, 2020 @08:56AM (#60775498)

    And what a cheap scam he was.

    All formerly famous peope who have become desperate will try this.

    Sorry, Ui, you didn't deserve your five minutes of fame back then, and you certainly do not deserve them now. Go sit with the Kardashians and Flappy Bird.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Wow (Score:5, Insightful)

    by fred911 ( 83970 ) on Sunday November 29, 2020 @09:17AM (#60775536) Journal

    So he's bad because he had media publish he could bend metal with thought. But.. we're cool with virgin birth, resurrection, walking on water, parting seas, living days inside a whale and repeating hallucinations as fact.

    There's obviously no hope for us.

    • Re:Wow (Score:4, Interesting)

      by ledow ( 319597 ) on Sunday November 29, 2020 @09:26AM (#60775550) Homepage

      I'm with you, but there are entire US states who voted for Trump on the basis that he's a "Christian" president, and the new president has had to demonstrate that he's also Christian, and there was a massive fuss over whether Obama was Muslim or not. You need to fix that reverence and reasoning (that someone being Christian means they'll be better for America) before you do anything else.

      Sorry, but until we literally make people understand how much bollocks they live their lives by, all we can do is cherry-pick the low-hanging-fruit like this idiot.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by martinX ( 672498 )

        It's not the religion, per se. Not anymore, anyway. It's the expected behaviour and the expected reactions to situations. Voters like to put government on autopilot so that they don't have to be constantly worried about what their representative or president will do. If someone professes and seems to be Christian-ish enough for them (maybe call it 'culturally Christian'), they have an idea how their rep will vote in congress on known things and how they will react to unknown things (threat of war, new econo

    • Abrahamic religions can easily do what the dharmic/karmic religions of the East do, admit the scripture has stuff too incredible to believe, but the scripture has to be right, so the fault must lie with our understanding. Then reinterpret them all as allegories, or some sort of philosophy told exists at a higher plane etc etc.

      For example they are able to take The Gita, where Lord Krishna exhorts Prince Arjuna to take up arms against his own brothers and pursue a war that would kill his brothers, guru and

      • Wondering if the clergy in the West can make such a transformation, where they preach compassion and kindness without succumbing to the temptation to become authoritarian.

        They're already authoritarian. Some of them already preach compassion and kindness, but unfortunately they find relatively few takers. Still, I'll admit that those things can be difficult.

        • Long time ago the "hindoos" were also authoritarian, and did their bad things, their way. Somehow they made the transformation.

          May be the loss of access to government during power the colonial era has something to do with it. May be Jews being more progressive in general also might have something to with them not having their own government. If the modern state of Israel is increasing the prevalence of authoritarianism among the Jews, it could provide a little corroboration to the theory, "religions get a

          • As a culture, they did not "make the transition" until they abandoned key tenets of their fath in the modern world. This especially included the caste system and the enslavement and abuse of the Dalit, the "untouchables". The abandonment is not complete. Slavery is nominally illegal in India, but apparently the Dalit are experiencing slavery as "bonded laborers", including in Delhi where they are far too often denied, wages, food, shelter, or clothing and worked to death as slaves. It's a tragedy.

            • Hindus are not perfect. But at one fundamental level their religious leaders are not gathering masses, not talking about the Great Satan, and not making them violent, suicidal and intolerant.

              The exploitation of the poor is the regular run-of-the-mill variety oppression, by any means necessary, caste, language, religion, anything that comes in handy. Its horrible and needs to be eradicated root and branch.

              The only point is, when you look at ALL the crimes done using ALL the scriptures ALL over the world,

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by gtall ( 79522 )

        I get the kick out of the Prosperity Preachers. Even the alleged president has one as his "spiritual advisor"...."uh, Mr. Alleged President, could you please stop running that 'Stop the Steal' scam, you are making our scams look bad".

        Apparently Jesus wants you to be rich. Dr. Mike Murdoch (all the P. P.s have doctorates of something or other) explains, looking through his wallet, "here's a picture of my first horse." Then he exhorts the faithful to go to the phone right now, RIGHT NOW, don't WAIT, and promi

        • Wall St Journal ran the photo of a bunch of born again Christians praying in front of the bull statue in New York in Wall Street with the stock exchange in the background. Its simply beyond me how people missed the irony of worshiping a golden calf in front of the Temple of money changers ... (May be they did not and I missed the reaction. )

          The "Eye of the Needle" has been claimed to be a gate in Jerusalem, which opened after the main gate was closed at night. A camel could not pass through the smaller gate unless it was stooped and had its baggage removed. The story has been put forth since at least the 15th century and possibly as far back as the 9th century. However, there is no widely accepted evidence for the existence of such a gate.[8][9]

        • > Apparently Jesus wants you to be rich.

          Yes and no.

          Any parent wants their children to be healthy and have their basic needs be met. Our Father wants to provide for his children (us) IF we ask. (Matthew 7:7â"8 , Matthew 17:20-21, John 14:12, Matthew 6:9-13, etc.)

          However your point about Greed becoming a False God is very much a concern. These pseudo-teachers manipulating people with the doctrine of "health and wealth" needs to be examined closely to see what their motivations are.

          Money isn't the pro

      • Abrahamic religions can easily do what the dharmic/karmic religions of the East do, admit the scripture has stuff too incredible to believe, but the scripture has to be right, so the fault must lie with our understanding. Then reinterpret them all as allegories, or some sort of philosophy told exists at a higher plane etc etc.

        ...

        Wondering if the clergy in the West can make such a transformation, where they preach compassion and kindness without succumbing to the temptation to become authoritarian.

        All large religions preach compassion and kindness, and all these religions have adherents who kill, plunder, and abuse. Hinduism is no exception, as events in India over the last few years have unfortunately shown. Certainly Christianity and Islam have also have more than their fair share of killing, plundering, and abuse. Even the venerable Buddhists have their problems, as seen with the Rohingyas.

        However, all these large religions also have truly good people, where at least part of their expressed goo

    • So he's bad because he had media publish he could bend metal with thought. But.. we're cool with virgin birth, resurrection, walking on water, parting seas, living days inside a whale and repeating hallucinations as fact.

      There's obviously no hope for us.

      Don't forget boys becoming girls just by wishing it (surgery optional). And viruses who know why you are protesting.

      What ... no? Not what you meant?

    • There's obviously no hope for us.

      Not all of us are liars.

    • I mean, if he promoted peace and love, proven by him bending metal, people would be a lot less upset with him. He spent his time telling people he was really psychic and he needed to be given millions of dollars to provide them information they needed. Worlds of difference.

    • So he's bad because he had media publish he could bend metal with thought.

      Yes, and in addition, he convinced millions of people he could do it and they gave him their money. He also claimed other "psychic" powers but, as many on here have already said, the late James Randi showed Uri for the charlatan he is.

    • A tip of my fedora for you, xir. Very brave to speak out against the horrors of Christianity in the current political climate.

  • Geller (Score:3)

    by ledow ( 319597 ) on Sunday November 29, 2020 @09:23AM (#60775546) Homepage

    "Man who's becoming increasingly irrelevant and further revealed as a charlatan tries to rebrand in hopes that young people might know who the fuck he is, while hopefully forgetting the bollocks that he claimed to be able to do".

    The man's a cock. He's a charlatan who sues people who call him a charlatan except nowadays he pretends that none of that happened and it's nothing to do with psychic powers etc. any more.

    Let him die in obscurity in the annals of history, like so many other charlatans.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hey! ( 33014 )

      While that's true, legally he has a point. You don't lose you right of publicity by being an a**hole. Maybe you should, but you don't.

  • I guess he would be ... (Score:3)

    by ebcdic ( 39948 ) on Sunday November 29, 2020 @09:41AM (#60775560)
    ... a fraud-type pokemon

  • Scam artist (Score:4)

    by Ecuador ( 740021 ) on Sunday November 29, 2020 @09:49AM (#60775572) Homepage

    The famous scam artist was upset he was the basis of an "evil" Pokemon character? Nintendo did him a service, any sort of publicity this scammer gets is good for him and he's trying to bank on it twice, first by suing, then by issuing an apology.

  • How on earth does a legal dispute about the word 'Kadabra' and a picture including a spoon last 20 years? I guess technically the case wasn't in court or something.

  • that he got all of the produced cards as part of a settlement which he now can sell at premium prices.

    • Given his comment about the possible value of the cards, I was going to ask how many he had in his possession. Might be the only value in his estate at the moment. :-)

  • Old spoons (Score:3)

    by Joe2020 ( 6760092 ) on Sunday November 29, 2020 @10:10AM (#60775606)

    I'm sure a lot of old spoons and bending in their graves about now.

  • He's nothing but a fraud and a scammer.
  • To be fair, a character named "Geller" who bends spoons with magic/psychic powers pretty clearly is trading off his stage character. I mean c'mon.
  • Then give away the card with herpes cremes and ointments. Drive the collector's value into the ground.

  • to people either interested in Uri Geller or in Pokemons. In other words, imbeciles.

  • Uri Geller is still and asshole charlatan.

  • Whenever I hear of Uri Geller, I must watch this video:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTd4dkeEvFU [youtube.com]

    People have done various things for money, but systematically making obvious fraudulent claims exposes one to deserved ridicule.

  • So what is up with all these negative posts? The guy figured out how to make spoons with a little piece of low temperature metal in the middle that he could bend by breathing on it. That was a pretty slick trick in its day. It doesn't make him a fraud or a charlatan - he was a stage magician and people paid to see his shows, same as David Copperfield and many others. Low temperature metals are alloys of bismuth, lead, tin, indium, cadmium, thallium, gallium and antimony in different proportions. Some co

    • David Copperfield never claimed he had "psychic powers" or that he was anything but an accomplished state magician.

      Uri Geller on the other hand...

      • The TV presenters knew exactly what he was doing and were playing along. Anyone closeup would see that he was breathing on the spoon to warm the Indium solder up. Thousands upon thousands of engineers the world over knew exactly what he was doing. It was a neat trick and for it to work he had to pretend to be very serious.

    • So what is up with all these negative posts? ...

      The character of a person matters. Success does not automatically make up for a bad character, a bad attitude or a bad behaviour. An outcome, such as success, doesn't necessarily justify the means.

      Best example is Donald Trump. Eventually it gets too much and people then simply had it with these kind of personalities. They then chase them out of the light and back under the rock they came from.

    • He falsely presented himself as the real deal, not an entertainer at all. He is an anti-science charlatan. Knowingly misleading scientists into wasting significant parts of their career trying to reproduce this nonsense. There must be 10s of millions who still believe in this paranormal rubbish that was all over TV in the 70's, largely inspired by this guy. This con-man was an international superstar at the time and still a household name.

      • Ach - it was a show. Every chemical engineer and metallurgist knew exactly what he was doing. The people who tried to 'reproduce' his actions were playing along. Low temperature metals are in wide use in industry - I also have some Indium solder in my lab. There were probably a few idiots who fell for it, but that is always the case with successful magicians. For the show to actually work, the TV presenters all have to play along. You can order metal that will melt at any temperature you want, for exam

        • If I may beg your pardon, Uri Giller often did bend real spoons by surreptitiously applying quite a lot of force. Try it with a battered kitched spoon, especially a cheap, thin one.. They weren't _always_ faked spoons.

          The "self-bending" spoons sold in magic trick kits usually use a nickel-titanium alloy, which costs _considerably_ less than pure iridium. Please, do not mistake some knowledge of chemistry for knowledge of how things are actually made.

  • FUCK YOU, con man! (Score:4)

    by JustAnotherOldGuy ( 4145623 ) on Sunday November 29, 2020 @01:18PM (#60775930) Journal

    Fuck you, Uri Geller. Go die in a fire, you lying piece of shit.

    • Sounds like you are feeling sore about falling for his simple parlour trick. Have you at least figured out how he did it by now? Here is a hint: https://www.rotometals.com/low... [rotometals.com]

      • I was doing sleight of hand and close-up table magic while you were still a gleam in some John's eye.

        • "I was doing sleight of hand and close-up table magic" - Err... so you are a lying piece of shit too? Or maybe only *your* parlour tricks are real tricks and all *other* parlour tricks are a disgrace? This was all supposed to be entertainment, so maybe you should lighten up a bit, lest you pop a coronary before the age of 30...

          • "I was doing sleight of hand and close-up table magic" - Err... so you are a lying piece of shit too?

            Hell yeah, I fooled around with and learned all sorts of fun things back when I was a wee lad. Most people do.

            This was all supposed to be entertainment

            No, he was a committed fraudster and a con man. Stop trying to rewrite history and whitewash him. He's the kind of guy that would swindle your grandma and never think twice about it.

  • How about he apologize to the millions of morons he misled and more importantly the people who had to deal with the fact that he made people believe in supernatural stupidity over science and rational thought?

  • One more con before he shuffles off. No doubt Geller is siting on a pile of those cards and the "apology" is simply priming the pump to drive up the price before he starts selling his inventory off.

  • Really. Did he really think Nintendo purposely rip off his image?

    I'm surprised more peoole didn't sue Nintendo because of these kinds of co-incidences.

    Also, this brings to mind that man who just happened to have the last name of "Noid" who robbed a Domino's pizza because he took offense of the slogan "Avoid the Noid". (IIRC)

  • Uri Geller is still a fucking scammer in my book

  • Imagine being such a fucking diva known for literally one gimmick that you're threatened by a child's videogame series having a monster that references your single trick.

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