With the release of Scary Movie 4, I thought readers might like a historical overview of spoof movies. I'm sure there were the odd spoof movies before Blazing Saddles, but it's clear that the genre only really began with Mel Brooks' western... so here is part one of my rundown (from 1974 to 1990).
The first notable spoof was Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles (1974), a bonafide classic pastiche on the western movie with Cleavon Little as a black Sheriff and Gene Wilder as burnt-out gunslinger the Waco Kid. Primarily a clever satire on racism, it's also considered a fore-runner to gross-out comedy that perhaps influenced Animal House (1978).
Mel Brooks also released Young Frankenstein in 1974, starring Gene Wilder again (in a script he wrote), that was a more slapstick parody of old-fashioned horror movies, with Marty Feldman as the hunchback Igor. "It's pronounced Fronkensteen!"Just a year later, in 1975, the Monty Python team released Monty Python And The Holy Grail, a madcap spoof on Arthurian legend. The movie became an instant classic and still tops comedy polls to this day.
1977 became a notable year in "spoofdom" owing to the release of John Landis' Kentucky Fried Movie, as it was the first film written by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker. The trio (hereon referred to as ZAZ) would go on to revolutionize the spoof genre in the 80's...
Also that year, Mel Brooks returned with a spoof of Alfred Hitchcock thrillers with High Anxiety. It didn't generate the same success as his previous releases, but is now regarded quite highly in some circles and is considered a "hidden gem".
The 1980's got off to a phenomenal start with Airplane! (1980), from ZAZ. This was their first true venture into spoof following Kentucky Fried Movie and it rewrote the book, laying out conventions that the genre continues to abide by to this day. Airplane! was essentially a pastiche of airplane disaster movies, yet also parodied a few other movies, most notably Saturday Night Fever. It was most memorable for its ingenius wordplay, visual gags, the sheer volume of silly jokes, and its use of serious actors in key roles -- such as Peter Graves, Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack and Leslie Nielsen. In fact, Bridges and Nielsen would see their careers dominated by spoof movies thanks to the success of Airplane!Mel Brooks returned in 1981 with History Of The World Part 1, a clever parody of world history that perhaps looked old-fashioned when compared to Airplane's cutting edge approach, but has still gathered a following in the intervening years.
A mere two years later, Airplane! spawned a sequel in Airplane: The Sequel (1982). Sadly, The Sequel didn't involve ZAZ, and while its more outlandish premise about a space mission just came off as hokey, it does contain enough hilarity make viewing worthwhile, despite many retreads of previous gags. But the classic "door scene" with William Shatner is quite rightly considered one of the funniest sight gags in movies...
1984 saw an upset for ZAZ, when the trio returned to the spoof genre themselves with Top Secret!, a pastiche of World War II and Elvis movies. Again, they cast a straight man (a young Val Kilmer) in the lead, but while Top Secret! does contain some memorable sight gags (the big phone, the magnifying glass) it is still an acquired taste...
The same year, writer-director Christopher Guest unleashed This Is Spinal Tap - a parody of British rock bands and the music industry. It was a massive success and is now considered a classic with its pioneering documentary-style to sell the realism to audiences. "These go up to eleven..."Spaceballs was a massive flop for Mel Brooks in 1987, although appreciation has grown since its release. The movie was a parody of science-fiction, particularly Star Wars and Star Trek, and despite its crudity compared to Brooks' earlier works, it is still quite funny in places -- with the Alien spoof a particular highlight...
Director John Landis also returned with another spoof movie following Kentucky Fried Movie, with Amazon Women On The Moon. The movie was similar in spirit to KFM with its sketch-based approach, although only a few sketches are memorable. But I have to admit the opening with Arsenio Hall having a particularly bad day always has me in stitches...
1988 became another key moment in spoof movie history with the release of Naked Gun, starring Leslie Nielsen as Lt. Frank Drebin, an inept police detective out to stop an assassination of Queen Elizabeth II. The Naked Gun was based on a failed spoof TV series by ZAZ called Police Squad (1982), and was a return to form for the trio.Many critics at the time commented that Naked Gun had more jokes in it than every other comedy released that decade! The Naked Gun would continue with two sequels (1991's The Smell Of Fear, a decent follow-up; and 1994's The Final Insult, a hit-and-miss affair with enough humour to keep it from sinking.)
In the next part of my History Of Spoof, I'll continue the rundown as the genre hits a very rocky patch in the 90's...
