Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,951
edits
No edit summary |
No edit summary |
||
(7 intermediate revisions by 7 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
In order for a parody to work, a work of fiction needs to also take on many of the traits of its target. For example, a parody of action films will, inevitably, have to have some action sequences of its own. If it didn't, it wouldn't be so much of a parody as it would be a public mocking of the genre. A parody of [[Magical Girl
However, the line for what defines a parody can often get murky. Besides [[Parody Retcon|flat out labeling something as a parody]] (which is rarely a good sign due to the lack of subtlety involved), the criteria for what defines a parody changes from person to person. Some works of fiction straddle the line, unsure of whether it's a parody or just a quirky entry in the genre it's supposed to be a parody of. This can often lead to [[Misaimed Fandom]] when people [[Poe's Law|take a parody dead seriously]] (or, perhaps due to the [[Weird Al Effect]], are unaware that it even is a parody).
How this happens can vary widely. Perhaps it is just too [[Affectionate Parody|affectionate]] of the genre it's a parody of. Perhaps it doesn't go far enough. Perhaps it's just too [[Truth in Television|close to its target]]. Perhaps it was actually meant to be serious, but took on too many comedic traits. But often, this happens because the writer(s) just couldn't decide what they wanted to do. In any case, an
See [[Stealth Parody]] for when something very intentionally evokes this to try and get responses as such. And compare [[Indecisive Deconstruction]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime
* ''[[Black Lagoon]]''. it's hard to tell, at times, whether it's an over-the-top parody of the Hollywood action film genre or a straight example with a tendency to occasionally take [[Refuge in Audacity]]. The series seems to swing a bit back and forth depending on the arc in question.
* ''[[Busou Renkin]]'' is also somewhere in between, but often seems closer to a very self-aware [[Shounen]] entry, especially in the second part when the [[Cerebus Syndrome]] sneaks in.
Line 33 ⟶ 32:
* ''[[Army of Darkness]]'', as below.
* ''[[Big Trouble in Little China]]'' can easily be seen as a straight action movie, rather than the parody it's intended to be, especially if one isn't familiar with the [[Wuxia]] tropes it mocks throughout. To be honest, it's not much more over-the-top than many straightforward action flicks.
* ''[[Condorman]]'' is an extraordinarily [[
* ''[[Enchanted]]'' has elements of both, thus this trope. While it mocks a lot of the tropes of fairy tales and shows how ridiculous they would be in real life, it also has a happy fairy-tale ending and suggests that life would be better if people did live more by fairy tale ideals of kindness and trust. The only way that a relationship between Giselle and Robert can work is for her to become less of a fairy-tale true-believer (and give up the perfect prince) and him to become more of one (allow himself to love someone again).
* ''[[Feast]]'' , a survival horror film starts as an obvious parody of such films, wherein the characters are simply named after their archetypes. However, despite the occasional sex joke, it creates some truly frightening monsters and horrific death scenes. By the end of the movie, no-one's laughing.
Line 39 ⟶ 38:
* The ''[[Get Smart (film)|Get Smart]]'' remake movie was criticised by some reviewers for attempting to both parody spy action movies whilst at the same time attempting to be a straight spy action movie. The original was like this as well, though not quite as blatant about it.
** That happens to most spy movies aimed at children and teenagers. ''Spy Kids'', ''Agent Cody Banks'', ''Stormbreaker'', ''Los Superagentes'' and even ''Cats and Dogs'' suffered from it.
* ''[[The Golden Child]]'' can't seem to decide if it's an [[Affectionate Parody]] of [[The Chosen One]] or a straight
** Interesting case, the movie originally was going to be a straight action movie staring Mel Gibson, then the part was recast as Eddie Murphy so they took out a lot of the dialogue and [[Harpo Does Something Funny|just let Murphy improvise stuff]].
* Seth Rogen's version of ''[[The Green Hornet]]'' seems a parody of the comic book heroes that the Green Hornet actually predates. However, parodies by their very purpose exaggerate the outlandish elements of the target. To take the Batman, one finds it outlandish that a man would dress up as a bat and even more outlandish that he would drive around in a huge car with wings on it that would look screamingly outlandish traveling to and from a crime scene. Now look at the Green Hornet who wears a rain coat with a hat (just as numerous undercover law enforcement officials do), and drives around in an ordinary looking Imperial Chrysler. Kind of odd for a parody to jettison the ridiculous elements of its source, making this an indecisive parody.
** Muddying the waters further with the movie is that it's not even really parodying the original show, but the [[Flanderized]] version that people remember after Bruce Lee's rise to stardom, with the Green Hornet cast as an ineffectual loser and Kato as the hypercompetent action hero who did everything himself.
* ''[[Gremlins]]'' The first film didn't seem to know if it was supposed to be a parody of monster films or just a particularly weird monster film itself. While it had the highly goofy scenes with the gremlins themselves, it otherwise portrayed them as a very real threat. Action sequences were a bit hard to pin down. For example, is the violent kitchen fight supposed to be just a simple horror action sequence or a parody of it? The sequel was a more clear cut case of being a spoof.
* ''House of the Wolfman'' can't seem to decide whether if it wants to be a spoof of old [[Monster Mash]] films or a [[Retraux]] horror film.
Line 51:
** Ultimately, it ends up firmly on the side of [[Affectionate Parody]]. ''[[Mystery Men]]'' may [[Lampshade Hanging|hang a few lampshades here and there]], but it's rooted firmly in comic book logic. The only subversion is that the film focuses on superhero [[Fan Boy|Fanboys]] who end up inheriting the real job.
* ''[[Never Say Never Again]]'' The "unofficial" [[James Bond]] film can't quite seem to decide if it's a harsh satire of the Eon series or if it's a regular James Bond film. Plainly satirical scenes (such as Bond's discussion with M at the beginning) are side by side with normal Bond-style scenes.
* ''[[Pineapple Express]]'' starts out as mushing a stoner movie into an action movie, showing how poorly this type of thing would go in real life. But then Seth Rogen [[Took a Level
* ''[[The Princess Bride (film)|The Princess Bride]]'' is this trope done more or less to artistic perfection.
** More obviously a parody in the book (if only because of Goldman's "analyses" of "S. Morgenstern's" work. See the whole idea is Goldman is pretending it's someone else's... it's a weird setup). Would you believe it ends with a {{spoiler|[[Bolivian Army Ending]]}}?
* ''[[Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves]]'' is never really sure whether or not it's serious.
* ''[[Scream (film)|Scream]]'' was marketed as a [[Deconstruction]] of the [[Slasher
* ''[[Shoot'Em Up (film)|Shoot
** The fact that Paul Giamatti is in an action movie ''at all'' should have been something of a clue.
** There's a scene were he shoots up an entire room full of bad guys WHILE having sex, and another were he shoots out the umbilical cord of a newborn baby. People took this movie seriously?
Line 63:
* ''[[Starship Troopers]]'': Your enjoyment of [[The Film of the Book|the film version]] may depend on whether you think it's a parody. The movie started simply as a movie about a war with alien bugs until someone pointed out vague similarities with the book, and [[Executive Meddling|meddlesome executives]] insisted they [[In Name Only|buy the rights to the name to avoid a lawsuit.]] The director claimed that he found the book too slow and depressing to get through, so he decided to make the whole thing a [[Stealth Parody]] of fascist propaganda, which he felt the book was leaning towards.
* ''[[This Is Spinal Tap]]'' A lot of people didn't understand that the "[[Rockumentary]]" film was a parody of the burgeoning heavy metal scene of the time. [[Stealth Parody|People thought it was a documentary of a real band]]. Much of this was probably because of how much [[Truth in Television]] it had (Eddie [[Van Halen]] is quoted as not finding it funny because "everything in that movie had happened to me"... Which just goes to show how [[Serious Business|serious Eddie Van Halen takes himself]]).
** Confusing things further, [[
* ''[[True Lies]]'': Either a 90's action comedy, or a parody thereof.
* ''[[Van Helsing]]'' couldn't decide if it was an [[Affectionate Parody]] of old fashioned horror movies, a straight parody, or a [[Massive Multiplayer Crossover]] of the genre. Although it might be considered "[[Two-Fisted Tales|pulp]]" like ''[[The Mummy Trilogy]]''.
** Interestingly, whether or not a person likes ''Van Helsing'' seems to be determined a great deal by whether they thought it was a parody or not.
== Literature ==
Line 73 ⟶ 72:
* ''I Kissed a Zombie and I Liked It'' parodies YA [[Paranormal Romance]], eg. ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'' and its ilk. The message it sends is that it's silly to [[Space Whale Aesop|literally give up your life just to be with a guy]] yet Alley would have gladly done so had Doug not {{spoiler|been torn apart by feral zombies he created himself.}}
** {{spoiler|[[Word of God|From the author]] - nah, they would have broken up in about six months. But I didn't have time to write a book that long. }}
* ''[[Snow Crash]]'' is an
Line 81 ⟶ 80:
* ''[[Power Rangers RPM]]'' In a definite case of [[Tropes Are Not Bad]], it manages to be one of the most depressing parodies of ''[[Power Rangers]]'' ever. The show constantly varies between lampshading PR tropes ("Sometimes when I morph, a giant fireball appears behind me for no apparent reason..."), and dark storylines (Dr. K's past). Of course, for some, [[Your Mileage May Vary]].
* ''The 7pm Project'' Part of the reason it's struggling in the ratings is because of this. Is the show a news satire, a news parody which looks at amusing stories, or an ordinary news show that happens to be hosted by comedians?
* ''[[She Spies]]'' Nobody seemed to get that it was an action-comedy series bordering on parody, mainly because to the untrained eye, it looked like just another trashy syndicated action show. Which is probably why it got [[
** ''[[Breaking the Fourth Wall|bordering]]''?
* ''[[The Muppet Show]]'' always walked the line between being a full-blown parody of [[Variety Show
Line 96 ⟶ 95:
** Also, while it would be entirely possible to either interpret the over-the-top guitar solos as straight over-the-top guitar solos or parodies of over-the-top guitar solos, the lyrics are fairly unambiguously parodic.
* [[Jethro Tull|Jethro Tull's]] 1972 effort ''Thick as a Brick'' was intended to be a parody of [[Progressive Rock]], in response to Ian Anderson's discontent of their previous album consistently being called a [[Concept Album]]. Of course, today the album is deemed one of the essential classics of the genre. So, depending on how you look at it, they either [[Gone Horribly Right|did it right]] or [[Gone Horribly Wrong|terribly, terribly wrong]]. A [[Sequel]] came out 40 years later in 2012.
== Radio ==
Line 104 ⟶ 102:
== Myths & Religion ==
* Religious(?) example: The Church of the SubGenius. One Church text openly taunts the reader with this: "A joke disguised as a religion? Or an actual, secretive religion, ''disguised'' as a joke disguised as a religion? Or an incredibly complex joke, disguised as an ''extremely ambiguous'' religion, disguised as a joke disguised as a religion?"
* [[Discordia
* At least one of the above has been described such that "If you don't see the joke, you've missed the point. But if you think it's nothing at all except a joke... you've also missed the point."
== Tabletop Games ==
* The creators of ''[[FATAL]]'' have variously claimed it to be a work of "historically and mythically accurate scholarship" and "controversial humour".
== Theater ==
* Arguably, ''[[A Midsummer Night's Dream]]''. Particularly the scenes with the Mechanicals, who are performing a self parody of [[Romeo and Juliet]], it's possible those characters are parodies of some of the Lord Chamberlain's Men
* The Broadway version of ''[[Tanz der Vampire]]'', retitled ''Dance of the Vampires''. ''Tanz'' is a serious rock musical, albeit not without humor. ''Dance'' tried to make the show into a straight-up musical comedy, since the producer thought this would go over better with an American audience. Unfortunately, due to an incredibly dysfunctional creative process, many of the songs didn't fit in with the new approach, so the show wound up swinging between [[Camp]] and seriousness, leaving no one satisfied. To quote the [http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117919518?refCatId=33 Variety review]{{Dead link}}: "It's not an outright comedy [...] but as a serious musical -- well, it's pretty damn funny."
* The play ''[[Done to Death]]'' is an [[Affectionate Parody]] of the [[Mystery Fiction]] genre. However it combines drastically different styles and the first scene of Act 1 is extremely different from the rest of the show.
== Video Games ==
* High Voltage Software claimed that ''[[Conduit 2]]'' is supposed to be "tongue-in-cheek". Some portions the game are clearly taking the piss (half of Ford's dialogue, for instance), but other parts of the game are done completely seriously (like the conspiracy objects), and still others are ambiguous (the ending).
** Though the [[A Winner Is You|final message]] seems to support the parody claim.
* It's not always immediately clear whether ''[[Trenched]]'' is supposed to be [[Rated "M" for Manly]] or [[Testosterone Poisoning]]. Some aspects seem to be firmly mocking over-the-top manliness, while others seem to be playing it straight. The [[Word of God]] isn't very helpful
== Web Original ==
* ''[[A Very Potter Musical]]'' and its sequel run on [[Rule of Funny]]
* Meta example: In ''[[My Little Pony: Camaraderie Is Supernatural]]'', an [[The Abridged Series|abridged]] parody of ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'', Twilight Sparkle explains that a proper parody has to stay close to its source material and cannot just go off the rails with whatever the author thinks would be funny.
== Western Animation ==
Line 133 ⟶ 126:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Parody Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Indecisive Parody]]
|