Recently, the trailer for Jim O’Hanlon’s Fakham Hall was released. Are Fakham Hall and Akiva Schaffer’s The Naked Gun, a legacy sequel to the classic Leslie Nielsen trilogy, bringing back spoof movies?
It can be argued that spoof movies started with Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones’ Monty Python and the Holy Grail. That and Terry Jones’s Monty Python’s Life of Brian were absurd spoofs of great public domain figures, King Arthur and Jesus, respectively. However, Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles both came out a year before Holy Grail, and they are spoofs of Frankenstein and westerns. However, the word “respectively” in these sentences can take on a double meaning, not only to refer to each one more easily, but also to refer to the fact that these are loving parodies.
However, Hollywood didn’t really catch on to the parody trend until 1980, when the world was introduced to the Zucker brothers, David and Jerry, and their friend Jim Abrams, who were collectively known as ZAZ. These men made the movie Airplane! which spoofed old disaster movies. More than that, it made the world realize that Leslie Nielsen, an actor mostly known for dramatic roles, could be good in comedy. Nielsen continued to star in spoof movies up until his death. Spoofs eventually declined in popularity in the 2000s and 2010s.
Spoof movies hit their head in the 70s and 80s, and there were also some standouts in the 90s. I have often felt that these movies are less plot-based. Some are more based on the jokes than on a plot outline, but so many of them have respect for their source material.
However, this year, we are seeing the return of the classic style spoof movies. Akiva Schaffer’s The Naked Gun cast Liam Neeson as who else but the son of a man he is very close to alphabetically, the original trilogy’s star, Leslie Nielsen.
So, what great spoof movies can you watch to accommodate this style well? You can watch the ZAZ collection of Airplane! and The Naked Gun trilogy. You can also watch a lot of the Mel Brooks filmography. I think the best spoofs to watch are Young Frankenstein, Robin Hood: Men In Tights, and Dracula: Dead And Loving It (which features Leslie Nielsen as the count). Of course, there is also the Bond spoof Austin Powers trilogy, but that is a bit problematic.
I think it’s safe to say: spoof movies are back.
