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Indecisive Parody: Difference between revisions
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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|Magical Girls]] would be required to have at least one Magical Girl character or else it would just be mocking the character type. Most of the best parodies actually stand not only as comedy, but also as the particular genre they are a creation of.
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 [[
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 [[Indecisive Parody]] is when something is confusing about its intent.
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See [[Stealth Parody]] for when something very intentionally evokes this to try and get responses as such. And compare [[Indecisive Deconstruction]].
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{{examples
== Anime & Manga ==
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* ''[[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.
* ''[[Friday the
* 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.
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* ''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.
* ''[[Kick Ass (Film)|Kick-Ass]]'' is somewhere between this, [[Affectionate Parody]], [[Deconstructive Parody]], and [[Indecisive Deconstruction]]. Put another way, it starts off as a deconstruction of superhero tropes and [[Decon Recon Switch|plays them straighter as it progresses]].
* ''[[Lake Placid (Film)|Lake Placid]]'' took a lot of heat from critics who didn't realize it was ''supposed'' to be funny. As though a [[Cluster F
* ''[[Last Action Hero]]'' tried to split the difference between [[Lampshade Hanging]] mockery of action movie cliches and [[Affectionate Parody]] of them, and suffered for it.
* ''[[Lesbian Vampire Killers]]'' At times seems to be parodying the ridiculous oversexualisation of female vampires and vampire clichés, it also has long scenes of gratuitous nudity and a massive phallic sword [[MacGuffin]].
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** Confusing things further, [[De Fictionalisation|Spinal Tap actually toured]]. After opening act [[A Mighty Wind|The Folksmen.]]
* ''[[True Lies (Film)|True Lies]]'': Either a 90's action comedy, or a parody thereof.
* ''[[Van Helsing (Film)|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
** 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.
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* ''I Kissed a Zombie and I Liked It'' parodies YA [[Paranormal Romance]], eg. ''[[Twilight (Literature)|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 [[Indecisive Parody]] of [[Cyberpunk]]. In places it feels like a checklist of all the cyberpunk tropes ramped [[Up to Eleven]]: instead of the [[Mega Corp]] being as powerful as governments, corporations literally ''replace'' governments. The [[Hero Protagonist]] is ''named'' Hiro Protagonist, and is both the world's greatest hacker ''and'' the world's greatest [[Katanas Are Just Better|katana-duelist]]. [[Evil Counterpart|Raven]] is the epitome of [[Badass]], [[Invoked Trope|complete with a whole passage explaining in detail why]] he is the world's greatest badass. There are infodumps about various subjects, from toilet paper to Sumerian mythology, thrown in at random. From the [[What Do You Mean
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== Web Original ==
* ''[[A Very Potter Musical]]'' and its sequel run on [[Rule of Funny]]--until they get to a particularly serious moment from the books and play it up as heartwrenchingly as possible before settling back into nonsense again.
* Meta example: In ''[[My Little Pony Camaraderie Is Supernatural]]'', an [[The Abridged Series|abridged]] parody of ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|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.
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[[Category:Parody Tropes]]
[[Category:Indecisive Parody]]
[[Category:Trope]][[Category:Pages with comment tags]]
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