• New York sports radio host Mike Francesa has called out the popular Funhouse Twitter account @BackAftaThis for sharing his content without permission.
  • On his show on Thursday, Francesa emphasized the rules about sharing his content but didn’t explicitly name the Funhouse account.
  • Funhouse responded by noting that much of the recent attention Francesa’s comments have gotten have come thanks to his account, writing “Enjoy yelling in the forest, pal.”
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Mike Francesa called out the Funhouse Twitter account, @BackAftaThis, on Thursday, emphasizing that posting video and audio from his show without express written consent was illegal.

“No one else can reproduce the audio or video of this program again without written permission from Entercom,” Francesa said. “And that goes for anybody, or you’ll be hearing from the lawyers.”

While Francesa didn’t name the Funhouse account directly, it was clear who he was talking about. Funhouse has gained a huge following over the past few years posting clips of Francesa’s show to the account – often clips that show Francesa’s errors or moments of stubbornness.

The reason Francesa made a point of the account at this moment goes back to his show on Monday, when he criticized President Donald Trump for his response to the coronavirus pandemic. Francesa had been relatively supportive to Trump throughout his presidency but was clearly frustrated with how he had spoken about medical professionals fighting the pandemic.

Funhouse posted the clip, which made national news and has garnered more than 2.75 million views at the time of this writing.

https://twitter.com/BackAftaThis/status/1244787103281508352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

"The other day I did an open that was viewed 2.4 million times in different places, and used illegally in a bunch of places too," Francesa said on Thursday, before reading off the show's copyright rules. "You wanna go get video of me, or see part of the show, go to Radio.com."

Funhouse posted that clip too, calling out the fact that much of the attention Francesa gets from national media, such as his show opening on Monday, comes thanks to the work of the account clipping and sharing the show.

Francesa escalated things on Twitter himself, threatening to out the identity of the anonymous person behind Funhouse.

Funhouse responded by once again emphasizing that if Francesa was interested in reaching potential listeners, the account was a blessing.

Francesa is correct that he does have the right to take down the videos Funhouse posts of his show if he wanted to, the idea that that would be in his best interest is baffling. While Francesa was once one of the most powerful voices in radio and still is an influential figure in the industry, younger sports fans are aware of Francesa thanks in large part due to the Funhouse account.

On Twitter, the Funhouse account has just under 100,000 followers, just a few shy of the 127,000 followers of Francesa's personal account.

Francesa might not like that the account highlights the low points of his show in many cases, but the value that Funhouse presents to Francesa could not have been illustrated more clearly than it was on Monday.

On Friday, Francesa posted something of a half-apology but seemed to stand by his call for Funhouse to stop posting his clips.

Funhouse obliged, saying if Francesa doesn't want his show posted, so be it.

https://twitter.com/BackAftaThis/status/1246092342425255940?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Francesa may have gotten what he asked for, but it's unclear how the move will help him in the long run.

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