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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Monday, November 8, 2021
GROSSBUSTERS II
GHOSTBUSTERS II (1989)
dir: Ivan Reitman
GROSSBUSTERS II
MAD #290, October 1989
w: Stan Hart
a: Mort Drucker
Five years after the Ghostbusters were lauded as heroes for saving the city and given a parade in the last movie, they are all has-beens and have lost their business due to damage and injuries they caused. Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) and Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) now entertain childrens' parties, Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) has a TV talk show about psychics, and Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) experiments with human behavior at a laboratory. Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) and Peter Venkman got together at the end of the first movie, but have since broken up, she has been married and divorced and is now a single mom working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art restoring paintings. This splash panel has nothing to do with any of this.
Slime has seeped through the sidewalk and Dana's baby buggy has come in contact with it unbeknownst to her, causing the buggy to let loose out into the streets. Any movie viewer should know that since Battleship Potemkin any baby buggy in a movie will always be in peril. Dana seeks the aid of the Ghostbusters to investigate strange goings-on and they go to the mayor's office to ask his permission (he's drawn here as then-mayor Ed Koch) to operate again.
A painting at the upcoming exhibit of historical figure Vigo the Carpathian (drawn here as Iran leader Ayatollah Khomeini) is haunted and is using Dana's boss (Peter MacNicol) to get to her child, so that he can have a host and live again. The Ghostbusters, back in business unlawfully, have drilled through the street and discovered goo in the city's sewers, and have inadvertently cut off the power to the city doing this, and are put on trial. Louis (Rick Moranis), from the previous movie, is their lawyer.
Just as the judge is about to declare the Ghostbusters guilty, the ooze that was used as evidence lets ghosts of criminals the judge put in the chair loose in the courtroom and now the city needs them. The ghosts also come loose in Dana's apartment trying to take her baby, and they flee to Peter's apartment. They rekindle their relationship, go out on a date, and the Ghostbusters' secretary Jeanine (Annie Potts) babysits with Louis joining her. It isn't used in the parody, but when the other three Ghostbusters without Peter investigate the ooze and discover it contains evil, they find where Peter is on his date and interrupt him at the restaurant covered in ooze. They all get kicked out of the restaurant and the mayor's assistant (here it's the mayor) has them committed. Meanwhile, Vigo, still in painting form, is still using Dana's boss to try to get her baby.
Ghosts are causing chaos in many ways, including bringing the wreck of the Titanic into the city. The ooze has formed a shell around the city and the only way to keep Manhattan from turning evil is for the Ghostbusters to bring positive energy in. They had been performing experiments earlier making inanimate objects sentient and use it to bring in the Statue of Liberty.
There's another subplot not used either where it's not really the Statue of Liberty that brings positivity to the city after all. It's New Years Eve and the city is happy anyway, breaking the ooze and sending Vigo back to the painting. Louis is outside, trying to be the hero, and has found a spare Ghostbuster suit and equipment in the office, thinking he was the one to save everyone.
GHOSTBUGGERS II
Cracked #250, December 1989
w: Vic Bianco (Lou Silverstone)
a: Walter Brogan
-The mayor is drawn as Ed Koch here, too.
-Bernhard Goetz was a one-time subway vigilante and symbol for white rage in the 80s.
The baby was named Oscar.
UPDATE:
From Cracked #249, November 1989, art by Rurik Tyler.
In the Mad story, the reporter with Kathie Lee Gifford (and Regis Philbin?) is Mad writer Dick DeBartolo.
In Cracked, that's director Ivan Reitman at the bottom of page 4.
I can get most of the NY celebs at the end of the Cracked parody. Ed Koch (again), Donald Trump, John Gotti (I think), Mike Tyson, Don King, and (cut off by the scan on the right edge of the page) Leona Helmsley. But who's the guy saying "Help me, mommy"?
It took some doing, but I think I figured out that last guy. I think it's Ron Lauder, who ran for mayor that year. He ran to the right of Rudy Giuliani in the Republican primary, and got beat 2 to 1; dauntless, he tried competing in the general election on the Conservative party ticket, and got half a percent of the vote. Obtaining these dismal results cost him a whopping $14 million, but he could afford it: he's the son of billionaire cosmetics tycoon Estee Lauder, and that's why Cracked has him saying "Help me, mommy!"
Giuliani lost narrowly to Democrat David Dinkins, but would turn the tables in the next election. Lauder continues to be a major conservative donor.
Oh, and this one is obvious, but I managed to miss it completely until just now: in the Cracked parody, the villain in the painting is Prince. (In my defense, it's not a good Prince.)
In the Mad story, the reporter with Kathie Lee Gifford (and Regis Philbin?) is Mad writer Dick DeBartolo.
ReplyDeleteIn Cracked, that's director Ivan Reitman at the bottom of page 4.
I can get most of the NY celebs at the end of the Cracked parody. Ed Koch (again), Donald Trump, John Gotti (I think), Mike Tyson, Don King, and (cut off by the scan on the right edge of the page) Leona Helmsley. But who's the guy saying "Help me, mommy"?
It took some doing, but I think I figured out that last guy. I think it's Ron Lauder, who ran for mayor that year. He ran to the right of Rudy Giuliani in the Republican primary, and got beat 2 to 1; dauntless, he tried competing in the general election on the Conservative party ticket, and got half a percent of the vote. Obtaining these dismal results cost him a whopping $14 million, but he could afford it: he's the son of billionaire cosmetics tycoon Estee Lauder, and that's why Cracked has him saying "Help me, mommy!"
DeleteGiuliani lost narrowly to Democrat David Dinkins, but would turn the tables in the next election. Lauder continues to be a major conservative donor.
Oh, and this one is obvious, but I managed to miss it completely until just now: in the Cracked parody, the villain in the painting is Prince. (In my defense, it's not a good Prince.)
Delete