You should check out the rest of the thread.

I don't think copyright is going to be an issue. "Derivative works" are generally well-protected; there's been a long-standing "attempt to confuse" that lies at the heart of most copyright litigation and if your product does not attempt to cash in on the success of the product you're copying, you're generally good. "The Kermit Lebowski" is never gonna fly but "that frog looks reminiscent of Kermit" isn't worth the litigation.

I actually ran into this while working on this:

Nintendo has been legendarily chill about litigating "homages" to their stuff, having determined that anything that doesn't hurt the brand is good for the brand. This is, of course, why we can't have nice things: about a month before I started mixing that project, Nintendo sued a production company that had made like Mario Bros porn or some shit. So everyone was extremely skittish about me using legit Nintendo samples and shut me down.

I rejoined that I wasn't using Nintendo samples, I was using a faithful chip module that emulated the circuitry necessary to make Nintendo sound effects:

And that nothing I did was over seven notes, therefore they couldn't cry copyright on the samples, and they couldn't cry copyright on the publishing, and Smosh legal gave me the go-ahead.