SCARY MOVIE 3 (2003)
Following the departure of the Wayans brothers, who had created the hugely successful Scary Movie franchise for Miramax's genre division, Zucker was called in to bring fresh blood — which he did to the tune of $110 million in box office grosses.
[Dimension Films head] Bob Weinstein called me up and said, ''We want to do a spoof on Signs and The Ring. '' I'd never even heard of them. I'm not a fan of horror movies. It's probably my least favorite genre. But I guess the skill is being able to put a joke on the screen. Everybody jokes that I enter the set like a surgeon wearing scrubs: ''Where's the patient?'' I just say thank God for M. Night Shyamalan. Is this guy wonderful or what? His movies have been such a gift. We can dive right in. Steven Spielberg has also been perennially wonderful for us. From the time of Airplane!, when we did the Jaws parody, it seems we've always parodied something from him. And Spielberg has a good sense of humor. He has always been in the front row at my movies.

SCARY MOVIE 4 (2006)
As he directs another installment of a series that was itself inspired by his own early movies, Zucker's career has come full circle.
I see our influence in the bad movies, the really wretched movies — ''I've begotten another horrible spoof!'' But I don't look at The Simpsons or the Farrelly brothers or South Park and say, ''I influenced that.'' Humor morphs into different things: Just like we were influenced by Woody Allen and the Marx Brothers, somebody takes what's there and changes it into something else. Somebody once asked me, ''How does it feel to be the one who started Airplane! and did all this?'' You know, I still have to wipe my kid after he goes to the bathroom. You're just living life. The Scary Movie franchise is the only franchise that could go on forever. I mean, Police Academy 18 — these guys are still going through training? But Scary Movie will always be fresh because the movies we're spoofing are fresh. People say it's stupid humor. But to be that stupid you have to be smart.

SPOOF - SAURUS
Over the years, Zucker and his cohorts have developed a glossary of comic terms. Here are some entries:

1 DANCING AROUND THE CALF:
Rejoicing over some idea or concept that seems great at the time. Dancing typically continues until a wiser voice arrives to point out how stupid the idea or concept actually is.

2 EAT:
A setup so obvious it might as well have one of those neon restaurant signs with the blinking arrow pointing right at it.

3 FLOOCHER DIALOGUE:
Filler lines recited by foreground characters to enable the audience to focus on a background joke.

4 BLACK HOLE:
An actor who just isn't well-disposed to be funny. According to ZAZ, Al Pacino is a fantastic actor but in a comedy can literally suck the air out of a scene.

5 SPOOF HOLE:
When an item is used during a joke and completely disappears in the next shot, it vanishes down the spoof hole.