I thought I recalled a rapper (the one who did “Gangsta’s Paradise”) getting upset with Weird Al Yankovic because the latter recorded “Amish Paradise” without his permission.
The case was argued before the USSC in the series of two live crew and two live jew cases.
IRONICALly the lawyer who argued the case was famous for looking like some amish dude.
fair use parody is legal. ESPECIALL POLITICAL PARODY.
Except Weird Al did have his permission, in writing, but the cRapper claimed he didn't understand what Weird Al was going to do. Weird Al was interviewed about it and said: "He never complained about the royalty checks we sent him."
Weird Al is making a profit on a derived product based on the original intellectual property. He has to get permission and pay an agreed upon royalty.
Weird Al described getting permssion from Curt Cobain: Curt told him he didn't want the parody to be about food. Weird Al replied: "No, actually it's about how you mumble your lyrics."
I think Weird Al generally gets permission as a matter of courtesy.
My family are big fans of Weird Al - the way I remember the story is that he tries to get permission from the original artist. Maybe he goes ahead and does the parody if they say “no” anyway. I read somewhere that Kurt Cobain said that he knew he had made it when Weird Al did the parody of “Teen Spirit”.