The spoofing of Southern gun-waving and Mormon piety is too broad to register.
Central to many of his films was the spoofing of popular culture, from comic books and advertising to television and popular music.
In his relentless spoofing of the unholy relationship between art and commerce he is, in his own words, "a social satirist".
"The spoofing of reality TV and the playing with pop-culture memes should help achieve the brand objective, to cut through and get a wide audience," Ms. Skey said.
The first two "Men in Black" movies did some spoofing of the conventions of the black and white, cross-generational buddy picture, but the third one finds its way back to the heart of the genre.
In addition, law enforcement officials said they were seeing spoofing of Web sites, where bank customers are tricked into entering confidential account data into what seemed to be legitimate sites.
And the spoofing of stereotypes can become a little heavy-handed; I could have done without Ira's nightmare in which he dreams of his girlfriend as a Nazi with swastikas on her brassiere cups.
"The Colbert Report," Mr. Colbert's mock news show on the Comedy Central cable network, is teaming up with the Frito-Lay division of PepsiCo for a second round of spoofing of branded entertainment and product placement.
