CROCK O' DULL DUMMEE

CROCODILE DUNDEE (1986)
dir: Peter Faiman

In the late eighties, the United States was hit with Australia mania. Suddenly pop culture from Australia was all the rage for about two years starting with this movie, followed by commercials with comedian Jacko, and movies with comedians such as Yahoo Serious, sales of Foster's beer, and then suddenly like a lot of fads in the U.S., it all disappeared.

Also in the late eighties, more households had VCRs, and sometimes people waited six months to a year for the release of a movie on video, bypassing seeing the theatrical release altogether. Six months to a year was also the lead time for a MAD movie parody, so that by the time the parody was printed, it was of a movie by then on video. Eventually it was in co-operation with the studios and they would get advance screeners. This is how things were presented until then.

CROCK O' DULL DUMMEE
MAD #273, September 1987
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Mort Drucker

American reporter Sue Charlton (Linda Kozlowski) has been sent to the wilds of Australia to cover a local celebrity, a crocodile hunter named Mick they call “Crocodile” Dundee (Paul Hogan). He and a guide take her on a tour of the outback. A bull blocks them on the road and he hypnotizes the bull to sleep. She spends the night with him (just to write about him, no funny business happens or is even hinted at). He also saves her life by killing other wild animals.

She goes swimming on her own (an excuse to show cheesecake in the movie) and he keeps an eye on her not thinking she can survive in the wilderness. He saves her life when she's attacked by a crocodile. Later, she watches him in an aboriginal ritual and photographs him.

Though it was advertised as the plot of the movie, the scenes of him in New York City only make up the second half. He's unaccustomed to the ways of the city. He sleeps on the floor of his hotel room, shaves with a bowie knife, climbs a traffic pole to avoid crowds, wards off muggers with his knife (in the oft-quoted line from the trailer that's now usually associated with Australians), meets “ladies of the evening” without realizing what they're there for, beats up their pimp, and almost goes home with a transvestite.



He also uses his throwing skills to knock out a thief in the middle of Times Square. Sue and her boyfriend take him to meet her father, owner of the newspaper she's covering her story about Dundee for, at his mansion. At dinner, the boyfriend proposes to her. Dundee pretends not to be upset, but leaves early.

The next day, he goes on a “walkabout”, deciding to leave the city and embarking on his own. Sue catches up with him at a subway station, tells him he really doesn't love her boyfriend, has broken off the engagement and goes to him. Fade to black.

The jealous man in the foreground at the top was the star of the then-popular cop show called The Equalizer.


The parody didn't make the cover of this particular issue, but did for the British edition.

Same for Mexico.

Cracked didn't directly parody the movie, but did an article about what sequels would be like, in an article that would have even been considered out of date even for 1987.

FUTURE CROCODILE DUNDEE MOVIES
Cracked #228, July 1987
w: George Gladir
a: Gray Morrow

An episode of The Simpsons satirized an event that was controversial at the time, where a tourist in Singapore was forced to stay there and face their punishment, in an episode where the family goes to Australia and Bart can't get sanctuary for crimes has to undergo a public booting, making the show into a fictionalized version of the country.

UPDATE:
Cover for Australian MAD. I'm sure Crocodile Dundee was much more popular over there.