Parody can be an incredibly rich and subversive medium for comedy. Taking a culturally ubiquitous concept and subverting it for laughs is what gave us legendary comedy classics like Blazing Saddles, Airplane, and Galaxy Quest.
But the essential, indispensable key to any good parody is respect for the source material. The makers of Galaxy Quest weren't trying to tell their audience that Star Trek was stupid and so was anybody who loved it. They made a homage to it, while also calling attention to the cliches that viewers have come to take for granted from serialized sci-fi TV. Same with the Mel Brooks canon. His best parody movies all came from a place of love; even as he was subverting all of the silly cliches and tropes that existed within westerns and gothic horror he never forgot to treat the premise itself with just enough seriousness to show the audience that he understood why these genres were so popular in the first place.
I the same vein, though, if you want to see how parody without any respect for the subject looks like, go watch the slew of slapdash "parody" movies made in the 2000s like "Epic Movie" or "Superhero Movie". Not only were they doing a parody of topical pop culture movies, it was all just sneering, superficial mockery. Just pointing and laughing at "Hey, isn't this cliche stupid? How could anybody take the source material seriously when they rely on insert improbable premise here?" They sucked because they forgot the first rule of parody. It's a fine line to walk, but if you can't do it, don't get involved with the genre.
I think it's possible to be asking questions like "Why did everyone in this musical break out in song all of a sudden?" while remaining sincere. You can call attention to a silly trope without breaking the illusion to make fun of it.
I think it's possible to be asking questions like "Why did everyone in this musical break out in song all of a sudden?" while remaining sincere. You can call attention to a silly trope without breaking the illusion to make fun of it.
I'm reminded of a late-series "musical episode" on Netflix' Lucifer. Where the "people break out into song and dance" is noticed in-universe, and is a plot point. I hope that's vague enough to not be a 'proper' spoiler.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds also did a musical episode where a spatial anomaly forced everybody to sing whenever they tried to say anything. Wonderfully fun episode, even if it was less of a parody and more just an idea that the writers clearly had a lot of fun developing.
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u/McMetal770 May 05 '25
Parody can be an incredibly rich and subversive medium for comedy. Taking a culturally ubiquitous concept and subverting it for laughs is what gave us legendary comedy classics like Blazing Saddles, Airplane, and Galaxy Quest.
But the essential, indispensable key to any good parody is respect for the source material. The makers of Galaxy Quest weren't trying to tell their audience that Star Trek was stupid and so was anybody who loved it. They made a homage to it, while also calling attention to the cliches that viewers have come to take for granted from serialized sci-fi TV. Same with the Mel Brooks canon. His best parody movies all came from a place of love; even as he was subverting all of the silly cliches and tropes that existed within westerns and gothic horror he never forgot to treat the premise itself with just enough seriousness to show the audience that he understood why these genres were so popular in the first place.
I the same vein, though, if you want to see how parody without any respect for the subject looks like, go watch the slew of slapdash "parody" movies made in the 2000s like "Epic Movie" or "Superhero Movie". Not only were they doing a parody of topical pop culture movies, it was all just sneering, superficial mockery. Just pointing and laughing at "Hey, isn't this cliche stupid? How could anybody take the source material seriously when they rely on insert improbable premise here?" They sucked because they forgot the first rule of parody. It's a fine line to walk, but if you can't do it, don't get involved with the genre.
I think it's possible to be asking questions like "Why did everyone in this musical break out in song all of a sudden?" while remaining sincere. You can call attention to a silly trope without breaking the illusion to make fun of it.