Spoofs
 

I present Waxwork 2: Lost in Time, a kind of obscure horror movie spoof that has everything. Even Bruce Campbell.

Spoofs today just don't have this kind of awesome, and too often rely on crude penis humor. So basically, this is a discussion on movie spoofs.

It never ceases to amaze me that the Scary Movie series somehow is the predominate spoof material these days, when Mel Brooks did it better twenty years ago.

Hell Monty Python did it better thirty years ago, and they didn't even have many movies to chose from and sometimes just fell back to old fables instead, not really making fun of specific scenes from really familiar movies and instead just being awesome.

And on that note, I'd like to include the obligatory Spaceballs Is The Best Goddamn Spoof Ever, Contested Only By Men In Tights.

I dare you to name anything, anything in the history of moving pictures, funnier than Jamal cocking his shovel in Scary Movie 3. :)

A little experiment:

If we can display Spoof movies in the following rating over the last 10 years (From 1998 to 2008 ) like so:

OMG! ~ Awfull ~ REALLY bad ~ Ok (0%) ~ Fun ~ Hilarious ~ LOL!

Were would you put The last 10 years of Spoof movies?

Because i'm having a really hard time letting anything go beyond "Fun", but i dont have any problems identifying all the "OMG!" bad ones

That trailer is made of win. I need this movie.

Well, currently, there are two types of 'spoof'/parody movies. One is based on audience recognition, and the other is audience familiarity.

Recognition movies are just easier to write. Spend twelve minutes watching TMZ, then 'write' a series of vignettes where celebrities get kicked in the balls, or puked on if they happen to lack balls. Sure, the critics will tear you a new one, but your main audience are the type of slack jawed, glassy eyed non-readers who see your trailer, go "Wow, they mentioned Ugly Betty! I know what Ugly Betty is!" and then trundle off to the theater, and since your main source of expense while making the film was shredding all of the look-a-like's headshots you only need one mediocre weekend to make a profit.

Movies that appeal to familiarity are harder because before you have a chance to begin writing you need to actually be aware of the themes and messages and construction of the genre you want to parody, which usually isn't something you can glean from Apple's trailer site, and then you have to find a clever way to deconstruct those themes and messages and present them to the viewer in a humorous manner, and, unfortunately, "Shove in Paris Hilton look-a-like" doesn't really cover that, and even if you do make it humorous you run the risk of not letting everyone in on the joke since you're expecting the audience to be somewhat cognizant.

While I personally believe that Friedberg and Seltzer are the two biggest bile producers in Hollywood today, I have to admire their money making methods. These guys have to be aware that their names will be forgotten in five years, and they laugh themselves to the bank anyway.
Hell, even if we're only allowed to use spoof movies, the didgeridoo line from Walk Hard will be funnier for as long as people remember that Brian Wilson was fucking crazy, and I'm pretty sure that Brian Wilson was fucking crazy enough to be remembered as being fucking crazy for a good long while.

Blazing Saddles was always one of my favorites. Spoofed westerns and I think the only damn "reference" in the entire thing was where Bart asks the townspeople to give him a chance to save them, to which of course they reply, "No!" He then asks, "Would you do it for Randolph Scott?" Removing their hats and in voices of awe, the townspeople say, "Randolph Scott!" and agree to help Bart with his plan.

Anyway the rest of the movie was actual damn jokes interspersed with a little tiny bit of Airplanish! humor which I think is more what crap like Meet the Spartans goes for, except to call it Airplanish! humor and say that Meet the Spartans is even in the same league is an insult to both Airplane! movies.

Men In Tights is a better modern example of how to do the damn thing right.

You are all forgetting the greatest spoof of all, the Austin Powers films.

*Insert flame here*

Please don't man. Those movies caused me physical pain, and I really like bad movies.

Galaxy Quest managed to be a great parody of Star Trek and Star Trek fans, while simultaneously being a pretty great sci-fi movie in and of itself. I submit it as a great parody/spoof movie.