One of the more recent updates for Plants vs. Zombies changed out the Dancing Zombie (which bore a striking resemblance to Michael Jackson from the Thriller video) to a disco themed zombie. While it was one of the more distinct and well-liked zombies, apparently legal pressure forced the change.
“The Estate of Michael Jackson objected to our use of the ‘dancing zombie’ in Plants vs. Zombiesbased on its view that the zombie too closely resembled Michael Jackson, said PopCap in a statement. After receiving this objection, PopCap made a business decision to retire the original ‘dancing zombie’ and replace it with a different ‘dancing zombie’ character for future builds of Plants vs. Zombieson all platforms. The phase-out and replacement process is underway.”
While the portrayal is likely all right in a legal sense because of parody laws, perhaps PopCap agreed with the estate of Michael Jackson that the joke is no longer funny, since the performer is now dead.
Source: MTV’s Multiplayer
