The 3 that come to mind for me are Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The Princess Bride. All three are poking fun at their respective genres but also are great examples of the genre. I’m curious if Lemmy has other such examples.
Galaxy Quest
There is a curse in the Star Trek movies where every other movie in the franchise is terrible. The first one is bad, the second is good, the third is bad, and so on. This almost fits perfectly, but it inverts from the 10th movie onwards. The 9th is bad, the 10th is bad, the 11th is decent, the 12th is bad…
However, if you add Galaxy Quest into the line up, then it’s the good Star Trek movie between the 9th and 10th, and the pattern holds.
TMP and Insurrection are great Star Trek films! Insurrection is arguably the most TNG of the TNG movies.
I prefer the explanation that the bad movies are those which are odd if you add up their digits. It would mean 19 and 20 should be both good.
I still say “Never give up! Never surrender!” occasionally to this day
It’s legitimately one of the best Star Trek movies.
Hot Fuzz is what I came here to suggest - it’s the best ACWATNOBI (A Cop With A Theory No One Believes In) spoof/film ever.
I also think Cabin in the Woods did a great job balancing spoof (or at least meta) with actual horror.
Everybody is talking about movies so here’s some books: Discworld by Terry Pratchett started as a parody of the fantasy genre but evolves into one of the richest fantasy worlds you’ll even have the pleasure to read.
I’ve been considering reading these books. This might just be the thing that pushes me to start.
Just to let you know, Pratchett’s writing improves massively over the series. This means, if you read it in chronological order, you start with the least good books (Colour of magic, and light fantastic).
There are multiple story arcs, however, that can be read semi-independently. The “Witches” arc, or “City guards” arc are an easier in point for many people.
I personally read them in chronological order. I knew the earliest books wouldn’t be as good, so got to watch his writing improve, and the world crystallise. I knew about the slow start however, and so wasn’t put off by the “average” level writing, at the start.
https://www.hookedtobooks.com/discworld-reading-order/
I’ve always read them in published order personally, books tend to reference earlier novels in the series and a lot of little in jokes appear as the series progresses.
The first 2 novels have a slightly different “feel” to the others, then he settles into a style that continues to the end.
The first thing I thought when reading this question! Discworld is amazing
For sure, it’s one of the greatest fantasy series ever written.
Scream was incredibly meta. It references plenty of slasher films and even has one character talking about the rules of slasher films.
While it’s not exactly a parody, it does poke fun at its own genre a lot.
The Scream and Saw franchises were pretty groundbreaking at the time. They single-handedly redefined the entire horror movie genre.
While it’s not exactly a parody
It is. It is exactly a parody.
Scream is the perfect answer. It was a response to the waning 80s slasher boom, making it all more real, more visceral, and more of a threat to the savvy audience, while still being funny as hell. Comedy and horror go beautifully together. There’s a shared tension with the unknown.
Scream is the perfect answer because Scary Movie didn’t get the joke and assumed it was a normal slasher, so they tried to make a parody of it.
This is such a quality question. But a lot of people are just naming their favorite movies in the comments.
What you want is Moore’s Watchmen. It is a deconstruction and reconstruction of the Superhero as an American trope.
What I loved about HBO’s continuation is that they focused on how white supremacy is intertwined with heroism, just as Moore wrote in his original IP.
Then you got the Zack Snyder movie which was mostly, “ooh, look at these people with powers fight crime”. None of the impending doom of the fall of society from nuclear war and/or fascism, and how the heroes were pointless because they were the ones pushing forward this doom. “Who watches the Watchmen?” etc.
Cool supplementary article: https://nationalpost.com/entertainment/books/watchmen-creator-alan-moore-says-superhero-genre-remains-a-white-supremacist-dream-of-the-master-race
Starship Troopers
DO YOU APES WANNA LIVE FOREVER!?
Tucker and Dale Vs Evil. Starts fine and eventually becomes a horror. It’s great.
James Bond. Ian Fleming wrote a series of novels parodying spy novels, and they’ve turned into one of the best spy movie franchises, with no hint of parody left.
Though when I go back and watch the Pierce Brosnan movies, it’s obvious they’re a parody.
What’s weird is how serious they seemed in the 90s when they came out. But they’re so silly.
None of the Bond movies are serious, they’re all clearly campy and fun movies. Timothy Dalton is the closest to the Bond of the novels.
deleted by creator
Moon Raker and From Russia with Love are so over the top
This Is Spinal Tap.
Glee. It started out as a parody of musicals and high school dramas in Season 1. Then went on to be a musical high school drama for the rest of the show.
The Simpsons started out as a parody of sitcoms and has since become the longest running sitcom.
The 1960s Batman was a campy satire of comics and itself influenced comic adaptations for decades after.
Get Smart
Not Another Teen Movie
Heathers. it was made to parody adolecent movies and its considered the mother of all adolecent movies (like, the mother of netflix-like movies.)
The Orville. Homage more than parody I’d say.
On that vein: Galaxy Quest
Better Star Trek than a lot of actual Star Trek
After watching Season 2 of The Orville I’m of the opinion that Seth MacFarlane should be put in charge of the next mainline Star Trek series. The man truly gets Roddenberry’s vision.
Damn, really?? I never watched it because I can’t stand McFarlane but I have loved trek my whole life. I figured it would be a family guy version of Star trek.
No, it’s like a love note to TOS. All of the Treks that followed were a bit more serious in tone, which is fine and dandy, but The Orville captures the spirit of the original series very well. Strange New Worlds is somewhat similar to the original series in tone, but doesn’t have that 60s campy feel.
It kinda starts out that way. People theorized that that’s what Seth needed to do to sell it. But by the end of Season 1 it becomes the Star Trek you’ve been wanting. Season 2 continues it and the last season absolutely kills!
Season 1 leans into the comedy angle, Season 2 onwards is basically TNG. Seriously, its better than Discovery and Picard.
I didn’t like discovery or Picard, felt way off from Trek to me, but strange new worlds is amazing imo. I’ll check it out though, admittedly I never even gave it a chance.
Watch Picard Season 3, it’s probably the best Trek I’ve seen since Deep Space Nine’s final two seasons.
JFC in this thread: People who don’t know what a parody is.
