It’s hard to find any parody movies these days, let alone parodies that are timeless comedy classics like Airplane! and This is Spinal Tap. The comedy genre has slowly faded away, and spoof movies are dying with it.
In the 1970s, cinematic spoofs enjoyed something of a golden age. Monty Python took on Arthurian legend in Holy Grail and the Bible in Life of Brian. The Rocky Horror Picture Show became the mother of all cult classics. And, of course, Mel Brooks earned a reputation as a comedy legend with his feature-length satires of the horror, western, and suspense thriller genres.
Star Wars (1977)
Brooks usually parodied genres as opposed to specific movies, but Spaceballs is a direct spoof of the original Star Wars trilogy. Dark Helmet is a short, insecure parody of Darth Vader; Lone Starr is a brash, cocky amalgamation of Luke Skywalker and Han Solo; and half-man half-dog Barf is an affectionate homage to Han’s cuddly Wookiee sidekick Chewbacca.
When Spaceballs was released in 1987, four years after Return of the Jedi and a decade after the original Star Wars movie, some critics noted that it was too late for a Star Wars parody. More than three decades later, the endurance of both Star Wars and Spaceballs has proven those critics wrong.
The Wrong Man (1956)
One of Brooks’ most underrated spoofs, High Anxiety, satirizes the suspense-building techniques of Alfred Hitchcock. Throughout this movie, Brooks includes nods to just about every entry in Hitchcock’s filmography.
But the broad premise of a protagonist being accused of a crime he didn’t commit is taken from the Hitchcock docudrama noir classic The Wrong Man, starring Henry Fonda and Vera Miles.
Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves (1991)
While it wasn’t appreciated in its time, Robin Hood: Men in Tights has become a revered cult classic over the years. It’s a parody of the Robin Hood myth in general, but its plot primarily targets Kevin Costner’s then-recent blockbuster take on the lore, Prince of Thieves.
Brooks’ movie also has nods to a bunch of other Robin Hood adaptations, including Disney’s animated Robin Hood movie and Errol Flynn’s The Adventures of Robin Hood from the 1930s.
Psycho (1960)
One of the many Hitchcock masterpieces that Brooks lampooned in High Anxiety was his groundbreaking 1960 thriller Psycho. Widely regarded to be the first slasher film ever made, Psycho is noted for its shocking midpoint sequence in which the lead protagonist is stabbed to death in the shower.
There’s a spoof of this iconic scene in High Anxiety. Instead of being stabbed in the shower, Dr. Richard Thorndyke is beaten with a newspaper. The ink runs down the drain like blood.
Frankenstein (1931)
Brooks’ script for Young Frankenstein, co-written with Gene Wilder, is broadly a spot-on homage to black-and-white Universal Monsters classics. But according to Wilder’s DVD interview, it was inspired by a few Frankenstein movies in particular.
These include The Bride of Frankenstein, Son of Frankenstein, The Ghost of Frankenstein, and, of course, James Whale’s original 1931 Frankenstein movie starring Boris Karloff as the monster.
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
Despite spoofing just about every Hitchcockian thriller within its runtime, Brooks still found time to spoof a few non-Hitchcock movies in High Anxiety.
There’s a hilarious nod to the Roger Moore-starring James Bond classic The Spy Who Loved Me. The assassin sent after Dr. Thorndyke in High Anxiety, Braces, is an absurdist spoof of Jaws, the metal-teethed henchman that famously fought 007.
The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (1948)
On the whole, Blazing Saddles is a parody of the entire western genre – specifically its whitewashed mythmaking – but it has direct references to a few of the genre’s classics, including John Huston’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
Blazing Saddles’ misquote of the most famous line from Huston’s movie – “Badges? We don’t need no stinking badges!” – is now more commonly known than the actual quote from the original film.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Brooks’ anthology comedy History of the World: Part I is a hilarious movie constructed out of sketches covering the entirety of human history. In Ancient Rome, for example, Brooks plays a “stand-up philosopher” named Comicus.
The opening scene, narrated by Orson Welles, is a spoof of the “Dawn of Man” sequence from Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi epic 2001: A Space Odyssey, following the prehistoric birth of the human race.
Vertigo (1958)
Yet another Hitchcock classic spoofed in High Anxiety is the 1958 film noir masterpiece Vertigo. In the original movie, James Stewart’s onset of vertigo keeps him off the police force.
Dr. Thorndyke’s case of “high anxiety” is a parody of Stewart’s character. The fictional ailment in High Anxiety is a mixture of acrophobia and vertigo.
Alien (1979)
While Spaceballs is primarily a spoof of Star Wars, Brooks included nods to a few other sci-fi classics. There’s a great reference to Planet of the Apes with the Mega Maid crashed on a beach, while the ending has a hysterical spoof of Alien’s biggest jump scare.
John Hurt cameos as his Alien character Kane as another xenomorph baby bursts out of his chest and he cries out, “Not again!” Instead of growing eight feet and eating everybody, this alien baby belts out a rendition of “Hello! Ma Baby.”