A-Z GUIDE TO MOVIES AND TV SHOWS PARODIED BY MAD, CRACKED, CRAZY, ETC. UP TO 1996. THEY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS. SPOILERS AND OTHER NON-SEQUITURS, TOO. SOMETIMES THESE THINGS HAVE WORDS OR SITUATIONS WE DON'T USE ANYMORE. YOU KNOW, 'CAUSE THEY'RE OLD.
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THE ELEPHINK MAN
Crazy #74, May 1981
w: Paul Kupperberg
a: Bob Camp
The sequence of events isn't quite the same as was in the movie, but no bother.
John Merrick (John Hurt) a/k/a The Elephant Man is kept captive and exhibited in a circus freakshow by Mr. Bytes (Freddie Jones).
Dr. Treves (Anthony Hopkins) discovers him and pays to bring him to his hospital for study, teaches him to speak.
Treves brings him in.
Dr. Gomm (John Gielgud) initially doesn't approve of Merrick's stay, as he is incurable and scaring the nurses (not shown: the doctors approve once the queen sends a note congratulating them for what they're doing). Treves brings Merrick home to meet his wife (Hannah Gordon). Mr. Bytes comes to take him back (Not shown: He is part of a group of bargoers and prostitutes the night porter [Michael Elphinck] brings in to stare at Merrick and defile him.)
Mrs. Kendal (Anne Bancroft), an actress, comes to meet Mr. Merrick, and invites him to see her in a play.
He has been making a model of a cathedral he sees from his window.
He is not taken away by Bytes at the end but in the last act. He escapes and runs to the train station and is discovered by the hospital and returned. He does not wear a sack over his head except at the beginning.
UPDATE:
THE ELEPHONETIC MAN
MAD UK #236, December 1981
w: Neil Bailey
a: Dave Stoten
Often the foreign editions of MAD have original content, but it's odd for the British version to do a parody of an American film.
Patrick Moore was an astronomer who often appeared on TV known for self-parody, sort of the Neil DeGrasse Tyson of England.
Nicholas Parsons was another British TV personality.
Blue Peter is a long-running childrens' television program.
John Collier is a clothing retailer. Billy Smart was a circus performer. The reference to Hannibal is to the one who crossed the Alps. It's only a coincidence that Anthony Hopkins' most famous role happens to have the same name. Leyland manufactures buses.
EIGHT IS TOO ROUGH
MAD #201, September 1978
w: Lou Silverstone
a: Angelo Torres
Dramedy about a family that, as you can guess from the title, has eight kids. The father is Tom Bradford (Dick Van Patten) and in this parody he is married to his second wife Abby (Betty Buckley). One of his daughters is Elizabeth (Connie Newton) and his youngest son is Nicholas (Adam Rich)
Abby is studying for her PhD. It was not Tommy (Willie Aames) that replaced the role Mark Hamill had in the pilot (that was the Star Wars joke), but older brother David (Grant Goodeve).
Tom Bradford was a columnist for the local paper. The older brother mentioned before has his own apartment.
A recurring character was Dr. Maxwell (Michael Thoma) and his wife (Virginia Vincent). The parody has the same punchline as their Jeffersons parody a year earlier.
The actress that played Susan on the show was one of MAD's celebrities of the month.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
Cracked #153, September 1978
a: John Severin
Laurie Walters=Joanie
Lani O'Grady=Mary
EIGHT? ENOUGH! ENOUGH!
Crazy #45, December 1978
w: Paul Kupperberg
a: John Reiner
DEADWOOD SCISSORSHAM
MAD #304, July 1991
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Angelo Torres
Starts with Wynona Ryder in old-age makeup telling the story of Edward Scissorhands to her granddaughter. Edward (Johnny Depp) is the creation of an inventor (Vincent Price), who is here in the splash, but we actually don't see him at the beginning of the movie.
Peg (Dianne Wiest) is an Avon representative who comes across a mansion while making her rounds and discovers Edward to be its sole resident and takes him in. The nosy and horny neighbors in their housing development see she has a new boarder and are curious about him.
At dinner with Peg's family, he has trouble using a knife and fork with his hands. While helping with the barbecue, an electric can opener brings flashbacks to life with the inventor. (He dies from a heart attack before getting a chance to give Edward human hands, not from being impaled). At the picnic, he becomes a hit when he gives he housewives and their their dogs new haircuts.
One of the housewives here is Sinead O'Connor
He becomes an overnight sensation in the town and appears on a talk show. The host here is drawn as Geraldo Rivera. Peg's daughter Kim (Wynona Ryder) and her boyfriend Jim (Anthony Michael Hall) take advantage of Edward's ability to pick locks with his hands to break into the part of Jim's house where his father hides his money, but the alarm system traps Edward, who is wrongfully arrested and too timid to do anything about it.
Kim sees Edward's vulnerable side and falls in love with him. The town doesn't, and turns against him. (Left out: He and one of the neighbors plan to open a hair salon together, but when he doesn't read her sexual advances, she feels scorned and joins the mob). Edward retreats to his mansion, Kim follows, Jim finds them and they fight, leading to Jim's accidental death. Kim leaves Edward, never to see him again, and as she exits the mansion convinces the crowd that Edward is dead in addition to Jim.
The cops in Edward's arrest are Depp's co-stars from 21 Jump Street.
EDWARD SCISSORHANDY
Cracked #263, July 1991
a: Frank Borth
Cracked did this one-page parody.
This was in the issue before that one.
Here was the cover for the Australian edition. They didn't actually have 304 issues, they just kept their numbering in sync with the home version.
I think there was more than one porn parody called Edward Penishands.
YouTube has almost no clips of Sullivan himself, just clips of the acts from his show.
THE ED SUVILLAN SHOW
MAD #26, April 1956
w: Harvey Kurtzman
a: Will Elder
Entertainment columnist that had a long-running variety show that introduced several music and comedy acts to the public.
When you see reruns, you only see the performers that are still known today, but there were plenty of forgotten acts and forgotten kinds of acts on the show.
What can I say? This is what America thought of Africa back then.
Celebrities in the audience being introduced is also something never shown in reruns.
Ed Sullivan is one of those people who is often imitated by people who don't actually know who he is and have never seen him. When they do an imitation of him, they are actually imitating the imitators. The "really big shew" impression was created by Will Jordan, who has been used to play Ed Sullivan in movie versions of him.
THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW
Cracked #38, August 1964
a: John Severin
The cannibal motif lasted until the late 80s or early 90s at least. Where did it originally come from? Don't say racism, we know that already.
Cracked did a bunch of smaller gags too. This was from an article called Casual Format, in #10, August 1959, illustrated by Angelo Torres. Based on the idea of the talk show format being used on other programs.
From Russian TV Shows in Cracked #19, April 1961, by Paul Laikin and John Severin
From Monsters in Everything in #43, May 1965, drawn by John Severin
One-pager from #61, July 1967, art by John Langton
From Talking Animals Take Over TV in #91, March 1971, art by John Severin
A HAND-Y CONVERSATION GUIDE TO JACKIE MASON AND ED SULLIVAN
Sick #35, March 1965
When a comedian does their act on TV, there's usually someone off-stage gesturing with their fingers how many minutes they have left. One night when Jackie Mason (who we just lost this weekend. Another one for the Rated Ecch curse) was performing, he commented on it and made gestures back. This apparently made Sullivan really angry and he chewed out Mason backstage after the show. Accounts differ as to what actually happened and what was said, I can't find footage, people claim to know the real story and it has been greatly exaggerated over time, but regardless of the truth there were no obscene gestures on the air and nobody was fired.
I'm not sure the exact issues of Sick these are from. I think they were drawn by Angelo Torres.
The show was best known for introducing the Beatles to America, bringing in the 60s.
UPDATE:
From TV Scenes That Make More Sense in Sick #47, September 1966, by Angelo Torres.
