Principia Discordia

Principia Discordia => Think for Yourself, Schmuck! => Horrorology => Topic started by: Nephew Twiddleton on September 22, 2010, 05:32:05 PM

Title: Parody movies
Post by: Nephew Twiddleton on September 22, 2010, 05:32:05 PM
The art of parody is dead, and has been for a long time. This decade has been infested with a series of beyond lame movies with such a mutated sense of humor that it can't possibly count as comedy, just travesty.

A few minutes ago, a commercial came on for a movie called Underground Comedy Movie 2010, and I have absolutely no interest in seeing it. Is this the shit that people are watching these days? I know my own taste in movies may occasionally be questionable, but everytime one of these movies come out I get more and more incredulous at how easily entertained people are. If people just stop watching these retarded excuses for a film, people will stop making them.

That's the whole thing though, isn't it? People like this shit. They look forward to it. They must, otherwise they wouldn't keep seeing it. Why bother going through all the effort of writing something at least intelligent when you can mindlessly rehash meme after meme from another movie or group of movies, like the Friedberg and Seltzer duo. I am convinced that they are supervillains. Or at least overpaid trolls.

Perhaps there's something different going on here. Sure, the average monkey likes their shit as shitty as possible, but there's also the undeniable truth that people love shit they hate these days. This is a decade of cultural masochism. We wouldn't have it any other way, and I don't see this changing in the next couple of years either.

This endless string of witless parody films is precisely what this decade wanted and what it deserved.
Title: Re: Parody movies
Post by: Jasper on September 22, 2010, 06:21:35 PM
You know how I deal?  I learned to laugh in horror films.  You can do it.  You can train certain emotional reactions to different stimuli the way you train a dog.  I've come far with it.  Bring on the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  Add your own internal "Yakety Sax" for the chase scene.  Comedy films aren't funny enough, so we have to scavenge the funny from the places it's not supposed to be.
Title: Re: Parody movies
Post by: Nephew Twiddleton on September 22, 2010, 06:27:45 PM
Quote from: Sigmatic on September 22, 2010, 06:21:35 PM
You know how I deal?  I learned to laugh in horror films.  You can do it.  You can train certain emotional reactions to different stimuli the way you train a dog.  I've come far with it.  Bring on the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  Add your own internal "Yakety Sax" for the chase scene.  Comedy films aren't funny enough, so we have to scavenge the funny from the places it's not supposed to be.

I can see that- For example I ended up enjoying Nick Cage's remake of the Wicker Man because I went in with the idea that it would be nowhere near the original and unintentionally badfunny. I ended up thinking it was hysterical. I mean, freaking out over the dead girl, popping pills, drop kicking Lili Sobieski, dressing up as a bear, and, of course, having a hive of bees poured on your face. Genius from stupidity.

This is more of a commentary on the state of American tastes rather than me coping with the rapid decline in comedy quality, but thanks for the tip.  :)
Title: Re: Parody movies
Post by: Jasper on September 22, 2010, 06:45:16 PM
I think the problem is the genre itself.  A classic error in comedy is to say "And here's the punchline:"  It's such an old and obvious error that nobody notices the genre's very existence is the same error writ large.  I can't walk into a comedy film and be surprised by a joke.  It's not possible (or at least quite difficult).  And humor is supposed to be surprising; that's how it works in the brain anyway.

It does say a lot about western humor that "Not Another Teen Movie" even exists.  Some films like Jackass manage to be funny in a crass way because they surprise us by doing terrible things that wouldn't even occur to a well mind. 
Title: Re: Parody movies
Post by: Dysfunctional Cunt on September 22, 2010, 06:58:06 PM
I've liked most of the parody movies I've seen.  They are really clever a lot of the times in their making fun of other movies and events.  Vampires Suck for example was really stupid but I laughed a lot and we watched it twice because we missed a lot of subtle shit the first time around because we were laughing.

I don't go to movies or rent them for their "artistic statement/quality"  or "their political/world view statements" or anything like that, I go to be entertained.  They are entertaining.  Besides, coming from the era of the "Ernest" movies, I guess my taste in funny is a bit warped.....

Besides anything that can turn the complete stupidity of Scream or the Twilight series into even bad humor can't be too wrong! 

Title: Re: Parody movies
Post by: Nephew Twiddleton on September 22, 2010, 07:03:54 PM
Well, it always seemed to me prior that the genre of comedy film would have an overarching story that might have a funny ending to wrap everything up and that would be the punchline to the whole movie, with smaller jokes peppered throughout in order to keep the laughs coming. With the parody film though, it requires an original or several original movies as the set up and the movie itself is the punchline. Which is not bad every so often, but the parodies themselves are just not that good and rely on stupid jokes and cheap cgi tricks to get the point across.

And they just keep coming.

The comedy genre may be hit or miss on its own but when it gets flooded with inanity and self-reference, well, it seems a little telling about the state of our culture and entertainment. Which also has implications about, say, the average intelligence of the populace.
Title: Re: Parody movies
Post by: Nephew Twiddleton on September 22, 2010, 07:07:41 PM
Quote from: Kiaransalee on September 22, 2010, 06:58:06 PM
I've liked most of the parody movies I've seen.  They are really clever a lot of the times in their making fun of other movies and events.  Vampires Suck for example was really stupid but I laughed a lot and we watched it twice because we missed a lot of subtle shit the first time around because we were laughing.

I don't go to movies or rent them for their "artistic statement/quality"  or "their political/world view statements" or anything like that, I go to be entertained.  They are entertaining.  Besides, coming from the era of the "Ernest" movies, I guess my taste in funny is a bit warped.....

Besides anything that can turn the complete stupidity of Scream or the Twilight series into even bad humor can't be too wrong! 



There have been some parodies that I've enjoyed myself, but its the fact that they just keep producing them over and over that gets to me. Scary Movie has become a franchise parodying Scream, where Scream was intended as a parody itself. Twilight doesn't require a parody, since it stands on its own as an unintentional self-parody.
Title: Re: Parody movies
Post by: Jasper on September 22, 2010, 07:11:05 PM
Movies that everyone knows are bad should not be parodied as much as movies that did well.  For instance:  A twilight parody movie would have lots of obvious jokes, and not much to recommend it since everyone's been mocking twilight forever.

But imagine a parody movie of The Cove.
Title: Re: Parody movies
Post by: Nephew Twiddleton on September 22, 2010, 07:22:09 PM
Quote from: Sigmatic on September 22, 2010, 07:11:05 PM
Movies that everyone knows are bad should not be parodied as much as movies that did well.  For instance:  A twilight parody movie would have lots of obvious jokes, and not much to recommend it since everyone's been mocking twilight forever.

But imagine a parody movie of The Cove.

Had to look that up, but damn, that would be an unexpected one.

Sig, I think you hit on something that I was trying to put into words but was missing something. The standard parody film now is a rehash of jokes and memes that already exist outside the movie, so that it comes across as something that's already due for retirement.

Perhaps one of the inherent flaws is that if you're going for the medium of a movie and you want to parody a film and include dated jokes about, say, Britney Spears' meltdown and head shaving, by the time you get around to completing the script, pitching it to a studio, hiring the actors, filming, producing and releasing, the joke has been thoroughly killed already. Plus, you can never be sure what other memes you're including in your film is being elsewhere. I remember after the Matrix came out, there were about half a dozen movies that spoofed Neo's hang out in the air for a couple of minutes kick. The first reference I saw was funny, but each subsequent one got more annoying.
Title: Re: Parody movies
Post by: Jasper on September 22, 2010, 10:08:39 PM
Exactly.  If you insist on a parody film you have to use films that people take seriously.
Title: Re: Parody movies
Post by: BadBeast on September 26, 2010, 02:32:51 PM
Well, I hated Mel Gibson's parody of "Life of Brian". It wasn't even funny.
Title: Re: Parody movies
Post by: Triple Zero on September 26, 2010, 02:49:23 PM
Quote from: BadBeast on September 26, 2010, 02:32:51 PM
Well, I hated Mel Gibson's parody of "Life of Brian". It wasn't even funny.

:lol:
Title: Re: Parody movies
Post by: Cainad (dec.) on November 02, 2010, 03:59:44 AM
The writing duo of Seltzer and Friedberg (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeltzerAndFriedberg) can be blamed for a lot of this; the original Scary Movie was successful and they've been riding those coattails ever since.

Date Movie, Epic Movie, Meet The Spartans, and Disaster Movie are all their creations.
Title: Re: Parody movies
Post by: Triple Zero on November 02, 2010, 07:56:39 AM
Quote from: Liam on November 02, 2010, 03:26:13 AM
I agree with Docktor Blight. Probably Naked Gun was the last of the funny ones to me at least.

the prefix- Movie series needs to be killed with fire.

Needs to be killed with "Movie Movie Movie III: Movie Movie!"
Title: Re: Parody movies
Post by: BadBeast on November 02, 2010, 09:12:37 AM
Wasn't Brokeback Mountain a Parody of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"?
Title: Re: Parody movies
Post by: Nephew Twiddleton on November 02, 2010, 03:31:12 PM
Quote from: Cainad on November 02, 2010, 03:59:44 AM
The writing duo of Seltzer and Friedberg (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeltzerAndFriedberg) can be blamed for a lot of this; the original Scary Movie was successful and they've been riding those coattails ever since.

Date Movie, Epic Movie, Meet The Spartans, and Disaster Movie are all their creations.

I think it's funny that critics tear their hair out and say these people should be shot into the sun every time they come out with a new shit sandwich. That's probably the only funny thing that comes out of their writing.
Title: Re: Parody movies
Post by: Nephew Twiddleton on November 02, 2010, 03:33:34 PM
Quote from: Liam on November 02, 2010, 08:26:39 AM
(http://"Movie%20Movie%20Movie%20III:%20Movie%20Movie!")

Oh man this should be a poster. I'd stick it together, but that needs proper none blocky graphics :D I'm not the man for that job.

for me pixels never went out of fashion.



Actually that would be pretty good for Operation Mindfuck. Making posters for fake movies. Success will be determined by the speed and method of the demise of S & F's careers.
Title: Re: Parody movies
Post by: Chairman Risus on November 15, 2010, 05:31:05 PM
Quote from: Cainad on November 02, 2010, 03:59:44 AM
The writing duo of Seltzer and Friedberg (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeltzerAndFriedberg) can be blamed for a lot of this; the original Scary Movie was successful and they've been riding those coattails ever since.

Date Movie, Epic Movie, Meet The Spartans, and Disaster Movie are all their creations.

I can't decide if I can blame them for finding a way to make easy money. Write crapass movies, sell to the demanding public = cash. Maybe they've got the same philosophy we've seem espoused on the boards here? Take the money and run sound familiar?
I think the blame has to land on the people forking up the cash for these disasters.
Title: Re: Parody movies
Post by: BadBeast on November 15, 2010, 06:53:35 PM
Take the money and run, I can roll with. But take the money, then run all the way back to the Studio, make another equally "funny" Movie, to the same formula as "Airplane", then repeat until either Pavlov's Public unlearn how to get led around by the snout, (not anytime soon, I'll wager) with the promise of the same old laughs, the same old jokes, and the same old Actors, or all the electricity gets used up.

Badbeast; Super cynical today.
Title: Re: Parody movies
Post by: Cainad (dec.) on November 16, 2010, 02:27:39 AM
They are totally justified in milking a slack-jawed public for every penny they can get away with... and everyone else is justified in pointing out that the celluloid-based milking machines they call "movies" are utterly elephant tripe marinated in a savory shit sauce.
Title: Re: Parody movies
Post by: BadBeast on November 16, 2010, 02:45:34 AM
Quote from: Cainad on November 16, 2010, 02:27:39 AM
They are totally justified in milking a slack-jawed public for every penny they can get away with... and everyone else is justified in pointing out that the celluloid-based milking machines they call "movies" are utterly elephant tripe marinated in a savory shit sauce.
Well yeah, I kinda agree with this too. I'm quite fickle like that. And I'm still waiting for "Freddy got fingered II"