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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Saturday, July 31, 2021
THE ELEPHINK MAN
THE ELEPHANT MAN
dir: David Lynch
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.
I'm not 100% sure of this, because all I have to go on is the contents page, but I think the Mexican edition of Mad did their own parody of this movie (vol. 1, #40). Theirs was titled El Hombre Pedante.
In the splash page of the Mad parody, the woman at the bottom-left who's the butt of the makeup joke is Bette Midler.
ReplyDeleteOn page 2, panel 5, the questioning is patterned on the quiz show Mastermind.
At the end of page 5, the "magic feather" is a reference to Dumbo.
I'm not 100% sure of this, because all I have to go on is the contents page, but I think the Mexican edition of Mad did their own parody of this movie (vol. 1, #40). Theirs was titled El Hombre Pedante.
ReplyDelete