http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zombiewarning.GIF
[[caption-width:600:[[RulesOfTheRoad Watch out!]] Undead Ahead!]]

->'''Steve:''' All right. What's with the Zombies?\\
'''Eric:''' Oh them. [...] They only come up here when they're bored.\\
-- ''[[http://www.radioactivepanda.com Radioactive Panda]]''

There's a [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Romero-style]] zombie shambling around, but it's not a ZombieApocalypse. So what's it doing here? [[RuleOfCool Because zombies are cool]]. Whether it's to set up a LowFantasy setting with necromantic {{Horror}}s, add an element of comedy, or simply to add variety, some works of fiction feature Zombies in a less then central position. It doesn't even have to have a reason. The zombie is there just because.

This is something of a popular advertising gimmick for games, MMORPG's, and ComicBooks these days. Just like slapping [[WolverinePublicity Wolverine]] on the cover adds to sales, a "zombie invasion", "Halloween Episode", or other stunt can drive up sales and give a fun BreatherEpisode from more plot heavy story arcs.

This could also work if there actually is a ZombieApocalypse, but it's not part of the main story. It's just thrown in there as a parody or homage with [[ResetButton little lasting effect on the plot.]]

%%Do not remove the folders, they are the standard.
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[[foldercontrol]]

!!Examples

[[folder:General]]
* Halloween specials and events used to mean a variety of monsters. Now it just means a zombie episode or zombies spawning in {{MMORPG}}s everywhere.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* One episode of ''ExcelSaga'' (which throws in ''a lot'' of things just for the hell of it).
* The NegativeContinuity Halloween episode of ''SamuraiChamploo'' had zombies in it.
* The "Thriller Bark" Arc of ''OnePiece'' has an army of zombies and their creators as the major antagonists. Of course, being ''[[SlidingScaleOfSillinessVersusSeriousness One Piece]]'', these zombies are considerably [[RuleOfFunny more comedy flavored than usual]].
* The enemies of ''[[AllThereInTheManual StrikerS Sound Stage X]]'', a special Sound Drama of the ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'' series featuring a mini-arc set between the third and fourth season? The [[NightOfTheLivingMooks Mariage]], an army of [[ActionBomb Kamikaze]] SuperSoldier [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Cyborg Zombies]].
* How is Sid Barret from ''SoulEater'' not on here already? Sid is an awesome, blue zombie -- with tattoos! Actually, he's only seen alive in one of the first three episodes where the series is getting its {{Ducks in a Row}}, after that he's killed and well... a zombie. He's not just slight comic relief with his "That's the man I used to be" lines, but he's also an extremely skilled fighter and weapon technician.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Card Games]]
* Topps has a card range called Hollywood Zombies.
* ''MagicTheGathering'' loves zombies and has them in [[OurMonstersAreDifferent all sorts of varieties]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comics]]
* ''{{Hellboy}}'' had a small eastern European town beset by a horde of zombies. The townsfolk took care of it.
* MarvelZombies
* A recent GreenLantern story shows that the only thing worse than a horde of intelligent zombies is a horde of intelligent zombies with ''GreenLanternRing''s.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* In ''AnAmericanCarol'', Malone has a vision of the [=ACLU=] as relentless zombies.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Zombie appear in ''{{Xanth}}'', but they are simply undead instead of dangerous.
* ''{{Pride and Prejudice and Zombies}}''. ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.
** Seeing the rights for this book were being disputed by Hollywood, a Brazilian movie magazine parodied this trope by suggesting/creating other stories [[RecycledINSPACE WITH ZOMBIES]]: ''Kramer vs. Kramer vs. Zombies'', ''[[DeadPoetsSociety Undead Poets Society]]'', ''[[{{WALL-E}} ZOMB-E]]'', and ''[[GoneWithTheWind Gone with the Zombies]]''.
* There IS a short story titled "Everything's Better with Zombies".
* {{Discworld}}'s zombies, seeing as they're basically the same person's mind and body, just... dead, aren't usually plot-central. One member of the City Watch, Reg Shoe, is a zombie, for example, and a reasonably okay guy. The only "bad" zombie is Mr. Slant, but that has more to do with him being an AmoralAttorney than a zombie.
** The Discworld novel ''Reaper Man'' details an actual zombie apocalypse (or more precisely, an undead apocalypse... with zombies!) caused by Death being fired for taking too much of an interest in his work. {{Hilarity ensues}}.
* The Cauldron-Born in the ''PrydainChronicles'' are reanimated corpses that exist only to slay for BigBad Arawn.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* "[[DegrassiTheNextGeneration Degrassi of the Dead]]"
* The "Green Men" from the ''DarkTower'' series by Stephen King, though they're [[OurZombiesAreDifferent actually mutants]].
* One episode of ''{{Buffy the Vampire Slayer}}'' had a mask that was making a bunch of people come back as homicidal zombies, which had no real relevance to the ongoing plot about Buffy returning after having run away from home. Also, in an episode of ''{{Angel}}'', an evil law firm was being destroyed by a terrible monster, and for no apparent reason most of the lawyers turned into zombies.
** It was a supernatural safeguard against unwelcome intruders. After all, Wolfram & Hart is led by very old demons who do not want to share their secrets. And fortunately for Gunn, they left out the "Bite makes a convert".
** Xander also ran into a guy who somehow had the ability to reanimate dead people with a special charm. They still kept their intelligence, but they also kept their wounds.
** In ''{{Angel}}'', there was also one guy who was a zombie, and all he wanted to do was hook up with his ex-girlfriend. It's unknown what exactly brought him to undeath.
*** The girlfriend poisoned him. He died. He came back as a zombie. She forgave him for cheating. He forgave her for killing him. They kissed and made up.
* ''{{Supernatural}}'' has yet to include any Romero-style zombies (though there was at least one case of classic necromancy), but at one point Sam tricked Dean into going on a personal mission by claiming they had to go zombie-hunting. Dean really seemed to be looking forward to it.
* In the [[DoctorWho Second Doctor]] story ''The Web of Fear'', the evil Great Intelligence operated chiefly through the body of [[spoiler:Staff Sergeant Arnold]], KIA early on in the emergency.
* The Charmed Ones in {{Charmed}} have to fight against zombies created by a necromancer and Zankou.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''{{World of Warcraft}}'' had a zombie invasion.
** You can ''be'' a zombie in ''World of Warcraft''. ''Warcraft'' likes zombies a ''lot''.
* As did ''{{City of Heroes}}''. In addition to the Zombie invasions in CityofHeroes, there are zombies in pretty much every flavour wandering about as antagonists, or, if you're a villain, as ''minions''.
* ''{{Nox}}'' had zombies as standard monsters mid-game (and they get upgraded later), but it was justified by the fact that the hero's primary enemies were necromancers.
* ''{{Grand Theft Auto IV}}'' has a "viral" achievement called "Let Sleeping Rockstars Lie" which you get be killing someone who has it already (the developers started with it, so it spread from them). It unlocks the ability to play as a zombie in a speedo. No joke.
* Threed in ''{{EarthBound}}''.
** ''{{Mother 3}}'' also had some zombies in the beginning of Duster's chapter, who were (coincidentally) [[spoiler:Hinawa and Claus]] like.
* ''[[CallOfDuty Call of Duty: World at War]]'' now has four bonus levels featuring, what else, Nazi Zombies.[[hottip:*:Okay, one level has you fighting ''Japanese'' zombies, but "Nazi Zombies" is more fun to say]]. Some of them even goosestep instead of shambling.
* "[[HalfLife We don't go to Ravenholm...]]"
** Apart from that rather infamous level, both ''{{Half-Life}}'' games had zombies as fairly weak, slow opponents that were only really threatening in large numbers or small spaces. Apart from (in the second game) the fast ones. And the poison ones. [[NightmareFuelUnleaded Brr]].
** Notably, the creatures which cause the zombies are, in the sequel, loaded into artillery and used as offensive weapons.
* The Dustmen in ''PlanescapeTorment'' use zombies as laborers and offer people large amounts of money in exchange for use of their body after they die.
* ''{{Diablo}}''. In the second game, some of them even had the ability to rez themselves.
** No they didn't. Those giant 3-meter-tall bird-headed people with the praying mantis arms could resurrect them, though.
** Those were skeletons. Some zombies could resurrect themselves once, like the ones outside Nihlithaks lair.
* Some of the ''ArmyMen'' games have zombies thrown in just for the hell of it.
* Most of the baddies in the ''{{Doom}}'' games are demons, but there's no shortage of undead.
* ''SoulCalibur'''s Cervantes is one, while Astaroth is a "Golem" (read: Frankenstein's Monster).
* The original ''{{Breath of Fire}}'' has a whole town (aptly named Romero) full of the walking dead. Though they don't try to harm you, [[VillainByDefault it still becomes your duty to put them back into the ground.]]
* ''VampireTheMasquerade: Bloodlines'' had a cemetery level full of zombies at one point, in direct homage to Romero films. The exact reason for their appearance has never been explained, considering that [[spoiler:no Gehenna actually happened]]. There are two other major zombie sequences in the game - one caused by a virus and the other caused by vampire necromancy. Despite the stark difference between the origins of the three zombie groups in the game, they all move, act, and are essentially the exact same things.
* ''PlantsVsZombies'', a TowerDefense game where [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin you fight off invading zombies with an army of plants.]]
*{{Borderlands}} The first DLC will have Zombies.
* GuildWars has at least 2 different kinds of zombies (without including necromancer minions).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Mur Lafferty's audio drama [[http://www.zombinc.net The Takeover.]] It's like the American venison of ''TheOffice'' but with zombies. And also funny.
** Oh, and there's a cameo by Johnathan Coulton in the last episode of season 1.
* [[SCPFoundation SCP-008]]. The world accessible through SCP-093 suffered what's essentially a ZombieApocalypse under the application of a truly ''epic'' instance of OurZombiesAreDifferent. They fit the archetype of the endlessly hungry, seemingly-mindless hordes of the restless dead, but... well, when the ''smallest'' difference is that they're up to ''six stories'' tall, you know you're dealing with something weird here.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* The "Abracadaver" episode of ''ThePowerpuffGirls''.
* The "Attack of the Zombies" episode of ''CodeLyoko''.
* In "Legacy of Terror" episode of {{Star Wars Clone Wars}}.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* In Austin, TX, pranksters broke the locks on highway construction signs and altered them to read: [[ZombieApocalypse THE END IS NEAR]]! ZOMBIES AHEAD! RUN! [[WorldWarZ RUN TO COLD CLIMATES]]! [[{{Hellsing}} NAZI ZOMBIES]]!
** Unfortunately, this happened once during a hurricane evactuation. Nobody panicked, thankfully, but it could have been a lot worse with the evacuees who were already under stress from the possibility of having lost most of their Earthly posessions.
* Of course, [[http://www.zombiewalk.com/forum/ Zombie Walks.]]
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<<|EverythingsBetterWithIndexes|>>
<<|IndexOverdosed|>>
<<|JustForPun|>>
<<|RuleOfCool|>>
<<|TropesOfTheLivingDead|>>
->'''Waldorf''': Why do you suppose Tropers like zombies so much?\\
'''Statler''': Because they don't have lives either.\\
'''Both''': Do-ho-ho-ho-ho-hoh!