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Screencapture from Joss Whedon’s campaign ad about presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

TV and film writer-director Joss Whedon once employed a gaping portal to hell filled with soulless, evil creatures as a metaphor for high school . Now, Mr. Whedon is using "the zombie apocalypse" to describe another four-year horrorshow, as he sees it: the prospect of a Mitt Romney presidency.

On Sunday, Mr. Whedon released a video giving a fake endorsement of Mr. Romney.

"Romney is ready to make the the deep rollbacks in health care, education, social services, reproductive rights, that will guarantee poverty, unemployment, overpopulation, disease, rioting – all crucial elements in creating a nightmare zombie wasteland," he says in the spot.

While the Obama campaign has engaged in some edgy humour – notably with last week's ad featuring the creator of HBO's Girls , Lena Dunham, comparing a young person's first vote to another type of first time – Whedon's satirical spot is not affiliated with the campaign directly. At the end, where the source of the ad's funding is usually stated, the slogan "Zomney: He Needs Brains" appears, along with a statement that it is paid for by a fictitious "committee to learn parkour, like really soon, like maybe take a class or something." (Parkour is considered by Mr. Whedon an essential skill for those coping with a zombie apocalypse.)

While the joke may seem light, some of Mr. Whedon's statements about Mr. Romney are fairly aggressive – and venture into territory that regular campaign ads don't usually touch. For example, he says that Mr. Romney is "not afraid to face a ravening, grasping hoard of sub-humans, because that's how he sees poor people already."

Just one day after being posted, the video has logged more than one million views.

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