The Naked Gun: Difference between revisions

A film [[Spin-Off]] of ''[[Police Squad!]]'', following Police Lt. [[The Fool|Frank Drebin]] ([[Leslie Nielsen]]) as he continues to get into trouble. The films serve as parodies of the cop genre, and [[Rule of Funny|let nothing]], including the blatant warping of reality and [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|breaks in the fourth wall]], get in the way of a good gag. The genius of the Drebin character is that Nielsen plays him almost totally straight: he's a buffoon, but he acts like a completely serious film detective even as lunacy explodes all around him, almost as if he's wandered in from a different movie.

The films were:

* [[Acting for Two]]: Joe Grifasi plays the dock worker in the first movie and the Oscar director in the third. Also, Richard Griffiths in the second movie; somewhat [[Justified Trope]] in that one of the characters he played was actually a professional impersonator, hired specifically to pose as the other one.

* [[Affectionate Parody]]: Of cop shows, and later spy movies.

** [[Parodied Trope|"All right, who else is almost dead?"]]

* [[Aluminum Christmas Trees]]: In the third movie, the inmates at the state prison (where Frank has gone undercover) riot in the cafeteria simply because they don't like the food they're being served. As depicted in the film the gag is quite funny, but in fact something like that ''did'' once happen at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in San Francisco (it was known as "The Spaghetti Riot"). In the movie, this culminates in a [[Funny Moment (Sugar Wiki)|Funny Moment]] / [[Moment of Awesome (Sugar Wiki)|Moment of Awesome]] when the prisoners ''make the guards eat the awful food''!

* [[Butt Monkey]]: Nordberg.

** Dr. Meinheimer in ''The Smell of Fear''.

** In the first film, Frank's dramatic speech is cut short when Ed informs him that the massive crowd gathered outside his plane is actually for Weird Al. They go ecstatic when he departs the plane.

** In ''The Smell of Fear'': As a criminal who has taken Ed, Nordberg, and the rest of the station hostage. Frank accidentally incapacitates him when opening a door too fast.

** Subverted in the case of {{spoiler|Hapsburg}} in the second film; see [[Dropped a Bridge On Him]] above.

* [[Lame Comeback]]: In the third movie, Jane is so mad with Frank she calls him a "[[Shaped Like Itself|white Anglo male]]!"

* [[Last-Name Basis]]: Even Nordberg's wife doesn't seem to know his first name.

* [[The Last of These Is Not Like the Others]]: Burglary, arson, and sexual assault with a concrete dildo.

* [[Sexophone]]: When we first meet Jane in the first film.

* [[Sexy Shirt Switch]]

** In the second film, there is a parody of the sexual pottery scene from ''[[Ghost (Film)|Ghost]]''. ''Ghost'' was directed by Jerry Zucker, who co-created ''Police Squad'' and co-wrote the first film.

** The [[Automobile Opening]] shows the car driving through [[Star Wars|Death Star]] and [[Jurassic Park]].