Current Events > Can a spoof movie in the vein of Airplane or Naked Gun succeed today?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Comedies as theatrical successes seem to be a thing of the past in general, as everything needs to be a tentpole movie in order to get a widespread theatrical release, but I really miss the days of a quality spoof movie.

Feel like the "Scary Movie" franchise was the last one that could be considered even remotely good.

They don't even try to make comedy/spoof movies like that anymore. It's all lowbrow garbage.

Heck, they really don't even make the "___ Movie" movies anymore

The Scary Movie series and the spinoffs ran this into the ground and then kept doing it even more after that

I wish. I miss that genre.

IIRC the last movie of this type I actually saw in theaters was "This Is The End" with James Franco

It was alright

Don't look up.

HylianFox posted...

IIRC the last movie of this type I actually saw in theaters was "This Is The End" with James Franco

It was alright

I just rewatched it not that long ago.

Don't know if I'd consider if a spoof though.

Imit8m3 posted...

Don't look up.

I'll have to check that out.

History of the World Part 2 had it's moments as well. That's what made me think of it.

bigblu89 posted...

Don't know if I'd consider if a spoof though.

it is basically a spoof of apocalyptic/Left Behind type movies

The last great spoof movie was probably Black Dynamite.

Angie Tribeca on TBS was also a great spiritual successor to Police Squad.

Apparently they're rebooting Naked Gun

Comedy would have to be very clean these days, like a new Hays Code.

Comedy in general is mostly tv shows now, simply because theres no real benefit to making comedy films anymore

that said, Angie Tribeca ran for four seasons recently and it basically a modern Naked Gun

Does cabin in the woods count?

There's a few.
I watched The Hungry Games the other day, it wasnt great, but it did scratch the itch of the spoof movie.

Crimsoness posted...

Apparently they're rebooting Naked Gun

Last I heard, starring Liam Neeson.

HylianFox posted...

They don't even try to make comedy/spoof movies like that anymore. It's all lowbrow garbage.

Heck, they really don't even make the "___ Movie" movies anymore

And thank god for that. Friedberg and Seltzer or whatever their names were, i'm amazed their putrid garbage kept getting greenlit. I remember one critic who summed up everything about their movies perfectly: It's jammed with so many pop culture references in order to cover up a lack of any real comedic talent.

bigblu89 posted...

Comedies as theatrical successes seem to be a thing of the past in general, as everything needs to be a tentpole movie in order to get a widespread theatrical release, but I really miss the days of a quality spoof movie.

Feel like the "Scary Movie" franchise was the last one that could be considered even remotely good.

Yes, but they would need to return to the original formula of spoofing a certain genre heavily and spoofing society/pop culture lightly.
This, IMO, is what dragged the spoof down. Spoofs in 80's and into the 90's were on point, but somewhere they lost connection, and just started to make fun of everything, even if it made little sense in the movie. And the humor became meaner, at the same time.
Also, it's worth pointing out that certain actors were born for it, in particular, Leslie Neilsen and George Kennedy. They never broke character or even reacted to the insanity around them.
Also, it would take a brass set to put out a really good spoof with cutting humor. The "White zone vs. Red Zone" bit would never fly today most likely.

Shamino posted...

Yes, but they would need to return to the original formula of spoofing a certain genre heavily and spoofing society/pop culture lightly.
This, IMO, is what dragged the spoof down. Spoofs in 80's and into the 90's were on point, but somewhere they lost connection, and just started to make fun of everything, even if it made little sense in the movie.

I feel like something that got lost in translation with all the Mel Brooks spoofs is that movie still need to have a plot and in his movies all the characters are playing their roles completely straight. The comedy comes from the absurdity of it all. I feel like one major flaw with modern spoof movies is they're way too self-aware and expect that self-awareness to be a fair substitute for an actual story.

s0nicfan posted...

I feel like something that got lost in translation with all the Mel Brooks spoofs is that movie still need to have a plot and in his movies all the characters are playing their roles completely straight. The comedy comes from the absurdity of it all. I feel like one major flaw with modern spoof movies is they're way too self-aware and expect that self-awareness to be a fair substitute for an actual story.

Yup.
Airplane, Naked Gun, Spaceballs, even Dracula Dead and Loving it had tight stories with an easy to understand plot. And the jokes almost always furthered the plot or interacted with it. They weren't just nebulous things that had no reason to except to make a joke.

s0nicfan posted...

I feel like something that got lost in translation with all the Mel Brooks spoofs is that movie still need to have a plot and in his movies all the characters are playing their roles completely straight. The comedy comes from the absurdity of it all. I feel like one major flaw with modern spoof movies is they're way too self-aware and expect that self-awareness to be a fair substitute for an actual story.

Definitely. They (and the Zucker/Abrams/Zucker films) played their roles like they weren't in on the joke. Where everything after that tried to capture it, but the actors involved were doing the "wink at the camera" acting way too much.

As good as they were, I felt it started to turn with the "Hot Shots" movies. Where they almost shoehorned as many jokes as they could.

Shamino posted...

Yup.
Airplane, Naked Gun, Spaceballs, even Dracula Dead and Loving it had tight stories with an easy to understand plot. And the jokes almost always furthered the plot or interacted with it. They weren't just nebulous things that had no reason to except to make a joke.

Also Clue. Fucking love that movie. It's so hilarious yet the characters are so very serious about it.

HylianFox posted...

Also Clue. Fucking love that movie. It's so hilarious yet the characters are so very serious about it.

I wish my first exposure to Clue was in the movie theater where they supposedly only aired one of the endings at random at each viewing, rather than watching it on Comedy Central where they aired all the endings back to back. It must have been hilarious to the writers and producers on opening night watching all these people fight over how the movie ended before they realize they were each given a different ending.

Crimsoness posted...

Apparently they're rebooting Naked Gun

Who is going to play OJ's roll? Dwayne Johnson?

DirkDiggles posted...

Who is going to play OJ's roll? Dwayne Johnson?

OJ again

Irony posted...

OJ again

Id laugh so hard. And if they kept making references to his history.

Ryven posted...

Id laugh so hard. And if they kept making references to his history.

After the credits are done rolling they just air a supercut of every time Norm Macdonald made an OJ murder joke on snl.

s0nicfan posted...

I wish my first exposure to Clue was in the movie theater where they supposedly only aired one of the endings at random at each viewing, rather than watching it on Comedy Central where they aired all the endings back to back. It must have been hilarious to the writers and producers on opening night watching all these people fight over how the movie ended before they realize they were each given a different ending.

Yeah that's a really brilliant idea back then. The first time I saw it was on VHS and they just showed all the different endings at well the end one after another. Don't remember anything about the movie though. I remember it being considered a comedy of sorts though it was played seriously.

Also I never liked any of those ____ movie's maybe I just couldn't lighten up enough back then but they all felt so try hard and I didn't find them remotely funny. I watched Not Another Teen Movie or some garbage like that and it was terrible. I even had a few beers back then that night and that couldn't even make it funny to me. I remember the company I was with seemingly thought it was fine. Gosh I just looked that one up and it was 2001.

Kamil posted...

I watched Not Another Teen Movie or some garbage like that and it was terrible.

Lies. NATM is great and has Captain America in a whipped cream bikini
>_>

s0nicfan posted...

I wish my first exposure to Clue was in the movie theater where they supposedly only aired one of the endings at random at each viewing, rather than watching it on Comedy Central where they aired all the endings back to back. It must have been hilarious to the writers and producers on opening night watching all these people fight over how the movie ended before they realize they were each given a different ending.

Same. First time I saw it was on VHS, where they show all the endings.

It was such a wild concept, and I'm kind of surprised no one has ever thought of replicating it.

Things like Epic Movie forever murdered the parody genre.

We'll see when Naked Gun..... 4 1/4th? comes out.