# Does this qualify as satire? Matt Busch zombie movie posters
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-qualify-as-satire-matt-busch-zombie-movie-posters/629133
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 23, 2012, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-qualify-as-satire-matt-busch-zombie-movie-posters/629133 "2012-07-23T14:12:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2012, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-qualify-as-satire-matt-busch-zombie-movie-posters/629133/1 "2012-07-23T14:12:26Z")
[http://shop.fark.com/catg/Matt-Busch](http://shop.fark.com/catg/Matt-Busch)
:dubious:
I thought satire had to have an element of commentary on the original work, this doesn’t.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2012, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-qualify-as-satire-matt-busch-zombie-movie-posters/629133/2 "2012-07-23T14:15:26Z")
For copyright purposes, yes, they qualify as satire.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2012, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-qualify-as-satire-matt-busch-zombie-movie-posters/629133/3 "2012-07-23T14:17:23Z")
Not satire. Parody.
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### Author:  [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)
#### Post date: [July 23, 2012, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-qualify-as-satire-matt-busch-zombie-movie-posters/629133/4 "2012-07-23T14:19:05Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> For copyright purposes, yes, they qualify as satire.
How far could you take this? Say I want to make some low budget satires of popular movies that are vaguely the same film scene by scene but with zombies in it.
The Terminator..of zombies
Star Wars…and zombies
Look Whose Talking…to zombies
Seems pretty clear there is no commentary taking place.
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2012, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-qualify-as-satire-matt-busch-zombie-movie-posters/629133/5 "2012-07-24T12:14:59Z")
The commentary exemption and the parody/satire exemption are not the same thing, I don’t believe. They may not be saying anything about the work, but the work is vital to the message being displayed. Which, BTW, is that Zombies are taking over everything in cinema.
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### Author:  [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2012, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-qualify-as-satire-matt-busch-zombie-movie-posters/629133/6 "2012-07-24T14:04:55Z")
Deadpan(?) humor is still humor. (sorry)
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### Author:  [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2012, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-qualify-as-satire-matt-busch-zombie-movie-posters/629133/7 "2012-07-24T14:40:55Z")
Some of those parody titles are hilarious, but my personal favorite is Indiana Jones Vs Darth Vader
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### Author:  [@Deegeea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deegeea)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2012, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-qualify-as-satire-matt-busch-zombie-movie-posters/629133/8 "2012-07-24T17:16:09Z")
Satire is not an exemption to copyright and parody is. Parody is the one that requires some element of commentary on the original work.
[http://apps.americanbar.org/litigation/committees/intellectual/roundtables/0506\_outline.pdf](http://apps.americanbar.org/litigation/committees/intellectual/roundtables/0506_outline.pdf) has a more detailed explanation.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [July 24, 2012, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-qualify-as-satire-matt-busch-zombie-movie-posters/629133/9 "2012-07-24T23:28:44Z")
> [@grude](#):
>
> How far could you take this? Say I want to make some low budget satires of popular movies that are vaguely the same film scene by scene but with zombies in it.
>
> The Terminator..of zombies
> Star Wars…and zombies
> Look Whose Talking…to zombies
>
> Seems pretty clear there is no commentary taking place.
That would fit into parody. As the case of **[The Wind Done Gone](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wind_Done_Gone)** which got a parody exemption even though it was using characters and situations similar to **Gone With the Wind** (and wasn’t humorous – parody in the legal sense does not mean it has to be funny). The matter was settled with the Mitchell estate, but they got no traction in trying to claim infringement, and the settlement was probably because the publisher didn’t want to spend the money defending the book even though they’d probably win.
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### Author:  [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2012, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-qualify-as-satire-matt-busch-zombie-movie-posters/629133/10 "2012-07-25T17:26:32Z")
As an example of what failed in a court case:
> **[Penny Arcade | American Greetings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Arcade_(webcomic)#American_Greetings)**
>
> Krahulik and Holkins received a cease-and-desist letter from American Greetings Corporation over the use of American Greetings' Strawberry Shortcake and Plum Puddin' characters in the April 14, 2003 Penny Arcade strip entitled "Tart as a Double Entendre".
> The duo chose not to enter into a legal battle over whether or not the strip was a protected form of parody, and they complied with the cease-and-desist by replacing it with an image directing their audience to send a letter to a lawyer for Ame...
As I recall the comments at the time, the “Strawberry Shortcake” characters in the picture may have been making fun of something, but it was not related to Strawb herself, even peripherally - so they wisely decided to obey the cease and desist order. The argument was they were cheapening the character to attack and parody something completely unrelated, and that did not satisfy the legal definition.
The article even still has a sample of the work.
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### Author:  [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)
#### Post date: [July 25, 2012, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-this-qualify-as-satire-matt-busch-zombie-movie-posters/629133/11 "2012-07-25T17:41:43Z")
> [@md2000](#):
>
> As I recall the comments at the time, the “Strawberry Shortcake” characters in the picture may have been making fun of something, but it was not related to Strawb herself, even peripherally
American McGee’s Alice, as mentioned in the wiki article. (I don’t remember any mention of McFarlane Toys at the time it originally came out, but that does better explain the exact details of the image.)