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Music

Watch Pharrell Pout and Snark His Way Through a "Ludicrous" "Blurred Lines" Trial Deposition

"I'm not here to teach you music."

Deposition footage from artist court cases is always revealing. Nobody ever wants to be there, but while they're there, they don't want to get themselves in trouble. So these videos always end up catching our favorite stars at their most uncharacteristically evasive and grumpy: Lil Wayne basically commandeers control of the interview in his, and Justin Bieber catches a glorious case of amnesia under oath. This weekend The Hollywood Reporter got their hands on video of Pharrell being deposed last year in the suit put forth by Marvin Gaye's estate over the Robin Thicke single "Blurred Lines." Watch some of the footage below.

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It's wild seeing our joyful Mr. "Happy" at his most guarded and testy. The man conducting the interview is flatly clueless about music theory (even with cues from a musicologist sitting next to him) but so anxious to nail the producer in some statement of plagiaristic intent that Pharrell actually shakes his head in disbelief at one point, deadpanning, "I'm not here to teach you music." Also, we finally get the producer's full withering pull quote comparing the similarities between "Blurred Lines" and Gaye's "Got to Give It Up" to swatches of fabric: "The truth of the matter is silk and rayon are two different things. They just feel the same."

It's worth noting that these similarities, though anyone with a passing familiarity with Pharrell's work knows he's nobody's thief, ended up costing the writers, producers, and performers of "Blurred Lines" a cool $7 million.