<P> Although the disclaimer is routinely included as boilerplate, producers sometimes vary from it, sometimes to make a statement about the veracity of their work, for humor, or to satirize the standard disclaimer . </P> <P> The disclaimer is sometimes presented with qualifications . In Jack Webb's police series Dragnet, each episode begins with an announcer intoning, "The story you are about to see is true . The names have been changed to protect the innocent ." The 1969 alternative western comedy Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, based upon real individuals whose lives and exploits already had a place among American legends of the West, opens with the disclaimer "Most of what follows is true ." Because of the autobiographical nature of Dave Eggers' memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, the book features the following play on the usual disclaimer: "Any resemblance to persons living or dead should be plainly apparent to them and those who know them, especially if the author has been kind enough to have provided their real names and, in some cases, their phone numbers . All events described herein actually happened, though on occasion the author has taken certain, very small, liberties with chronology, because that is his right as an American ." All episodes of South Park, which frequently features well - known public figures or parodies of them, open with a tongue - in - cheek disclaimer that begins by stating, "All characters and events in this show--even those based on real people--are entirely fictional . All celebrity voices are impersonated--poorly ." </P> <P> Disclaimers can occasionally be used to make political or similar points . One such disclaimer is shown at the end of the industrial / political thriller The Constant Gardener, signed by the author of the original book, John le Carré: "Nobody in this story, and no outfit or corporation, thank God, is based upon an actual person or outfit in the real world . But I can tell you this; as my journey through the pharmaceutical jungle progressed, I came to realize that, by comparison with the reality, my story was as tame as a holiday postcard ." The 1969 film Z, which is based on the military dictatorship ruling Greece at that time, has this notice: "Any resemblance to actual events, to persons living or dead, is not the result of chance . It is DELIBERATE ." German nobel laureate Heinrich Böll's novel The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum was originally preceded by a statement which made the usual disclaimer, but stated that similarities to the journalistic practices of the German newspaper Bild "are neither intended nor coincidental but inevitable"; this disclaimer was later removed in the English edition . </P> <P> The familiar disclaimer is often rewritten for humor . Early examples include The Three Stooges' parody of Nazi Germany You Nazty Spy, which stated that "Any resemblance between the characters in this picture and any persons, living or dead, is a miracle," and its sequel I'll Never Heil Again, which features a disclaimer that states that "The characters in this picture are fictitious . Anyone resembling them is better off dead ." In the 1966 film Thunderbirds Are Go, a disclaimer states that all the persons in the feature are fictitious "as they do not exist yet" (the film is set in the year 2068). In the film An American Werewolf in London, and in Michael Jackson's Thriller, the disclaimer refers to "persons living, dead or undead". </P>

Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental