The Chewbacca Defense

I ran across this today and with all the exploits and FUD flying around, I figured I would pass this along.

The term Chewbacca defense is used to refer to any legal strategy or propaganda strategy that seeks to overwhelm its audience or jury with nonsensical arguments, as a way of confusing the audience and drowning out legitimate opposing arguments. It is thus a kind of logical fallacy, specifically, an ignoratio elenchi (red herring) fallacy.

Fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) also can be viewed as a particular case of Chewbacca Defense, where the confusing arguments are tools for the spread of FUD.

The term Chewbacca Defense originated in the animated series South Park. The show satirized attorney Johnnie Cochran's closing argument defending O.J. Simpson in his murder trial.

The term Chewbacca Defense was first used in the South Park episode "Chef Aid", which premiered on October 7, 1998 as the fourteenth episode of the second season.

In the episode, Chef discovers that Alanis Morissette's (fictional) hit song "Stinky Britches" is the same as a song he wrote years ago, before he abandoned his musical aspirations. Chef contacts a "major record company" executive, seeking only to have his name credited as the composer of "Stinky Britches." Chef's claim is substantiated by a twenty-year-old recording of Chef performing the song.

The record company refuses, and furthermore hires Johnnie Cochran, who files a lawsuit against Chef for harassment. In court, Cochran resorts to his "famous" Chewbacca Defense, which he "used during the Simpson trial", according to Gerald Broflovski.