3 ms·
>Not that the story should be the main appeal of a parody, just that there must be a good story for the jokes to serve. Although “Airplane!” was a joke- and gag
by akhilcacharya 8y ago
>Not that the story should be the main appeal of a parody, just that there must be a good story for the jokes to serve. Although “Airplane!” was a joke- and gag-heavy enterprise, the film had an obvious story with three distinct acts, along with a main character who had a clear arc. “Top Secret!”, though, had major narrative and character issues.
It seems like modern style parodies seem to ignore this point entirely but it is exactly why Airplane and Hot Shots and Naked Gun worked. I can’t think of a single spoof that has worked so effectively since the 90s.
- LanceH 8y agoCommunity regularly spoofed a wide variety of shows very well.
- akhilcacharya 8y agoI guess you are right about that (The paintball episodes and the KFC shuttle episode being my favorites). I was more thinking along the lines of films.
- Intermernet 8y agoTropic Thunder, but it's almost a meta spoof.
- r_smart 8y agoI was going to say this. I just saw that movie for the first time about 6 months ago and it killed me. For some reason I had it in my mind it wasn't a good movie, but it's one of my recent favorites now.
- mrec 8y agoThe plot of Airplane! was lifted verbatim from a non-comedy 1957 movie called Zero Hour!, specifically because AZZ knew they couldn't write plot. They were up-front about it - paid for the rights - but it does suggest that writing comedy and writing plot are very different things.
- conradfr 8y ago"Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" is a very good one from ten years ago (especially if you're into rock history).
- abraham_lincoln 8y agoI've always enjoyed Last Action Hero and also True Lies.