John Key "Birthday BMX" Video Returns To YouTube
An election campaign parody video, in which John Key is determined to talk about the BMX he got for his birthday, has been reinstated by YouTube on appeal from its creator.
The video was taken down in December after a copyright complaint by the New Zealand Herald. The Herald's video footage – of the Prime Minister refusing to answer questions on the Epsom 'teapot tapes', repeating that he wanted to talk about "trade and the economy", and finally leaving the press conference – was used to make the clip.
The YouTube video redubs the audio so that Key wants to talk about how it's his birthday and he got a BMX.
YouTube has in the past drawn attention to its policy regarding parody videos, regarding the removal of many re-captioned versions of the angry-Hitler scene from the movie Downfall.
New Zealand law, unlike the United States, does not provide explicit copyright protection for satire or parody. Last year Green MP Gareth Hughes put forward a member's bill to add such an exemption to the copyright act.
Also on the Epsom 'Teapot
Tapes':
- Pundit.co.nz Out-Link - Andrew Geddis: It's always tea-time, and we've no time to wash the things between whiles. And From November...
- Scoop News - Judge Declines To Make Privacy Call On Teapot Tapes
- University of Canterbury - Media coverage of party policy sidelined by tea tape scandal
- Massey University - Grant Duncan Opinion: Storm in a teacup turns to a tornado
- Gordon Campbell - On Information Shearing - On whether politicians should have the same rights to privacy - On Epsom, and dodgy aspects of the asset sales programme - On the cuppa tea tape and billboard circuses

Ramzy Baroud: Subjects Of Empire - Breaking The Cycle Of Arab Dependency On US Elections
Peter Dunne: Dunne's Weekly - The Pragmatic Food For Fuel Deal With Singapore
Eugene Doyle: After Israel’s Brutal Attack On Kiwis, Our Government Does Nothing
Keith Rankin: Has Sweden Become A De Facto Apartheid Narco State?
Bruce Mahalski: Change In The Weather #194
Binoy Kampmark: Dangers To The Fourth Estate - The 2026 World Press Freedom Index