The fall of spoof movies
Dimension Films
The spoof movie trend had played itself out by the end of the 1990s, as audiences gradually tired of the genre; a lot of spoofy slapstick was simply outside of the realm of popular taste. The fall of the genre began in earnest with what was, ironically, its third wave of popularity. In 2000, Keenan Ivory Wayans made a spoof of “Scream” called “Scary Movie” that was immensely popular, and passingly funny, but seemed to be missing the “zip” of the ultra-joke-dense heyday of the genre. “Scary Movie” spawned four sequels, and two of its writers, Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, went on to create a long series of successful and aggressively awful spoofs: “Epic Movie,” “Superhero Movie,” “Date Movie,” “Vampires Suck,” and “Meet the Spartans” are theirs.
These films, made for about $20 million apiece, each grossed over $80 million worldwide, leaving the world no choice but to produce more and more. Often Friedberg and Seltzer would base jokes on previews for upcoming films, write in references, produce the films in a hurry, and have spoofs playing in theaters alongside the films they were spoofing. Beyond a shock of recognition, however, Friedberg and Seltzer weren’t making a comment or doing a sendup. They merely compiled references. The spoof genre began to wither, and eventually, the third wave also died out: The 2015 film “Superfast!” was a bomb. Now, thanks to Disney+, some of the better films of the previous wave are available for rediscovery. Now it’s your job, dear reader, to push past the thicket of the animated Disney canon, push aside all that “Star Wars” nonsense, and find a film that features John Cryer describing a big glob of his own snot on a radar screen.
The Hot Shots! Movies Are Streaming On Disney+, And That Is Not An April Fools Joke
By Witney Seibold/April 1, 2022 2:40 pm EST
Odd, then, to discover that Jim Abrahams’ 1991 spoof movie “Hot Shots!” and its 1993 follow-up “Hot Shots! Part Deux” are now available on Disney+.
Following the success of David Zucker’s “The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!” in 1989, spoof movies briefly became big business again. Zucker, Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker codified the genre with their films “Airplane!” and “Top Secret!” in 1980 and 1984, and continued the trend with a long series of very funny movies that were released among a small army of imitators. “The Naked Gun” spawned two sequels: “The Naked Gun 2 1⁄2: The Smell of Fear” in 1991, and “Naked Gun 33 1⁄3: The Final Insult” in 1994. Also in this wave were “Wrongfully Accused,” “Spy Hard,” “Plump Fiction,” “National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1,” Mel Brooks’ “Robin Hood: Men in Tights,” “Fatal Instinct,” “Mafia!” and the impressively titled “Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood.” I also recommend the ignored Ezio Greggio masterpiece “The Silence of the Hams,” which is unbelievably stupid and infectiously funny. None of those are on Disney+, though. But the “Hot Shots!” films are.
Hot Shots! Parts Un et Deux
Spoof movies are designed to age poorly, as they typically tap into a lot of the pop iconography of the day; Reading old back issues of MAD Magazine will provide funny jokes, yes, but also a back-alley education as to the popular trends around the magazine’s publication date. A lot of the jokes in the “Hot Shots!” movies may require a lot of explanation to a younger viewer. But a savvy teen who has seen “Top Gun” will likely be on the film’s wavelength. So long as their attitude is also geared toward an attitude of general media deconstruction offered by a moribund genre.
The fall of spoof movies
Dimension Films
The spoof movie trend had played itself out by the end of the 1990s, as audiences gradually tired of the genre; a lot of spoofy slapstick was simply outside of the realm of popular taste. The fall of the genre began in earnest with what was, ironically, its third wave of popularity. In 2000, Keenan Ivory Wayans made a spoof of “Scream” called “Scary Movie” that was immensely popular, and passingly funny, but seemed to be missing the “zip” of the ultra-joke-dense heyday of the genre. “Scary Movie” spawned four sequels, and two of its writers, Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, went on to create a long series of successful and aggressively awful spoofs: “Epic Movie,” “Superhero Movie,” “Date Movie,” “Vampires Suck,” and “Meet the Spartans” are theirs.
These films, made for about $20 million apiece, each grossed over $80 million worldwide, leaving the world no choice but to produce more and more. Often Friedberg and Seltzer would base jokes on previews for upcoming films, write in references, produce the films in a hurry, and have spoofs playing in theaters alongside the films they were spoofing. Beyond a shock of recognition, however, Friedberg and Seltzer weren’t making a comment or doing a sendup. They merely compiled references. The spoof genre began to wither, and eventually, the third wave also died out: The 2015 film “Superfast!” was a bomb. Now, thanks to Disney+, some of the better films of the previous wave are available for rediscovery. Now it’s your job, dear reader, to push past the thicket of the animated Disney canon, push aside all that “Star Wars” nonsense, and find a film that features John Cryer describing a big glob of his own snot on a radar screen.
The fall of the genre began in earnest with what was, ironically, its third wave of popularity. In 2000, Keenan Ivory Wayans made a spoof of “Scream” called “Scary Movie” that was immensely popular, and passingly funny, but seemed to be missing the “zip” of the ultra-joke-dense heyday of the genre. “Scary Movie” spawned four sequels, and two of its writers, Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, went on to create a long series of successful and aggressively awful spoofs: “Epic Movie,” “Superhero Movie,” “Date Movie,” “Vampires Suck,” and “Meet the Spartans” are theirs.
These films, made for about $20 million apiece, each grossed over $80 million worldwide, leaving the world no choice but to produce more and more. Often Friedberg and Seltzer would base jokes on previews for upcoming films, write in references, produce the films in a hurry, and have spoofs playing in theaters alongside the films they were spoofing. Beyond a shock of recognition, however, Friedberg and Seltzer weren’t making a comment or doing a sendup. They merely compiled references. The spoof genre began to wither, and eventually, the third wave also died out: The 2015 film “Superfast!” was a bomb.
Now, thanks to Disney+, some of the better films of the previous wave are available for rediscovery. Now it’s your job, dear reader, to push past the thicket of the animated Disney canon, push aside all that “Star Wars” nonsense, and find a film that features John Cryer describing a big glob of his own snot on a radar screen.
