It’s a sad fact, but zombies just aren’t that frightening anymore. Sometime before zombie movie #500 was made, original ideas were outnumbered by a horde of undead clichés, and many of the best representations of zombies in pop culture became more about humor than about scares. Here are our 10 favorite instances where zombies made us laugh.
10. Fido
Another one of the great things about Shaun of the Dead is that where it ends is practically where Fido begins. In this Canadian flick, everyone owns zombies and uses them as pets and servants and a source of cheap, semi-reliable labor. Sure, every now and then a few break out and kill everyone, but every power source has at least a few drawbacks. Did we mention it features a zombified Billy Connolly in the title role?
9. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Admittedly it’s kind of a one-joke concept, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a pretty great joke. And for some reason the book features ninjas and even has a sequel (as well as a graphic novelization), which like the book itself is simultaneously a great idea and pretty stupid.
8. Zombies Ate My Neighbors
Not only is this SNES classic a well-designed game, it let you attack zombies with weed-whackers and exploding soda cans and pretty much anything else you could find in a suburban neighborhood. Any game whose end boss is a giant, bottle-wielding baby gets our recommendation.
7. I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1
Capitalizing on the theory that anything gets better by adding zombies, creator James Silva took a pretty good twin-stick shooter and added zombies to it. The result may not be a masterpiece, but it certainly lives up to the title’s promise.
6. Zombieland
While we’re still disappointed some of Zombieland’s rules remain shrouded in mystery, the movie was hilarious and allowed us to vicariously live out our fantasies of killing zombies in a post-apocalyptic world and partying with Bill Murray in his house. Plus, it was the first movie to point out that when it comes to zombies, it’s more important to have good cardio than to be good with a shotgun.
5. Resident Evil Dialogue
Of course, a lot of zombie-related productions are cheaply made and frequently rather lousy. As such, we thought it was worth including what’s probably the best unintentional comedy that the zombie trope has produced thus far: the dialogue/voice acting of the original American version of Resident Evil. Even Tommy Wiseau himself would have trouble topping these line readings.
4. “Epidemiology” (Community)
Community loves its genre parodies, but it never got one quite so right as the time it took on zombie flicks. After all, it’s not often that you get to see the entire cast of a prime-time comedy try to eat each other and have it remain part of the show’s continuity.
3. “Re: Your Brains” – Jonathan Coulton
What sets this lovely power chord ballad apart from not just all those other zombie songs (hey, there are more out there than you might think) but also zombie films and literature is that it tells the story from the zombie’s point of view. It also teaches a valuable lesson, that zombies aren’t unreasonable. After all, they only want to eat your brains—no one’s going to eat your eyes.
2. “Dial Z for Zombies” – The Simpsons
We always suspected Homer didn’t have enough brains to interest a true zombie, but it was nice to have it confirmed. Best of all, though, this part of an early Simpsons‘ Treehouse of Horror triptych featured the following immortal lines:
Bart: Dad, you killed the zombie Flanders.
Homer: He was a zombie?
1. Shaun of the Dead
One of the greatest zombie movies ever also happens to be the funniest treatise on the subject ever made. If you haven’t seen it yet, stop reading this list and go watch. No, this isn’t a joke, just go do it.