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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Tuesday, March 29, 2022
IT'S DEPENDS DAY
INDEPENDENCE DAY a/k/a/ ID4 (1996)
dir: Roland Emmerich
IT”S DEPENDS DAY
MAD #350, October 1996
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Angelo Torres
Government scientists notice something in the skies and the White House staff decides what to do about it. They include President Whitmore (Bill Pullman), General Grey (Robert Loggia), Secretary of Defense Nimzicki (James Rebhorne), and Press Secretary Constance Spano (Margaret Colin). The first lady (Mary McDonnell) is not actually in the room and the button she's wearing is about how she dies later in the film. I'm not sure if the joke she's making is a sexist one about how “first ladies should know their place” or one about how Bill Clinton slept around.
Wolf Blitzer is not in the movie or on any of the news broadcasts that are in the background.
The subplots mentioned in the first panel are ones that actually were in the movie but aren't depicted and involve Randy Quaid, Will Smith, and Vivica A. Fox. Maybe not enough people knew who Will Smith was when this came out but as of two days ago, nobody will shut up about him. Marty (Harvey Fierstein) and David (Jeff Goldblum) were two lab scientists and Judd Hirsch was David's father who was there for comedy relief. References are made to Hirsch being in the Broadway production of I'm Not Rappoport and his TV series Taxi.
President Whitmore is informed about the secret Area 51 conspiracy and somewhat upset it was covered up for him. Below at Area 51, he meets Dr. Okun (Brent Spiner).
The ships invading earth have a force field around them and David (Goldblum) says a virus can disrupt the force field and uses a Coke can in a demonstration to show how the mother ship can still be shot down but only in a certain time frame.
Darth Vader in the last panel is a reference to how James Earl Jones also voiced the ID for CNN.
IN DEPENDS DAY
Cracked #311, October 1996
w: Lou Silverstone
a: Walter Brogan
Having an average readership a year or two younger, Cracked stuck to the actual plot more often in their movie parodies.
Jim Carrey as The Cable Guy reference in this as well. His T-shirt refers to how he got $20 million for per motion picture. Goldblum's character wore glasses in the movie and Judd Hirsch had a beard.
There was friction between David and the President alluded to, including Constance having been married to David and leaving him for her career.
Steven (Will Smith) is engaged to Jasmine (Vivica A. Fox). He's the one who becomes a hot-shot fighter pilot, she's on the run and rescues the first lady.
Something about Jasmine being a stripper and rednecks trying to hijack her truck in this fugitive caravan. Sometimes it's hard to tell what's going on in these Walter Brogan parodies.
“Don't ask, don't tell” was the government's policy that was a way of trying to appease both sides of the debate on gays in the military when that was still an issue.
Prominent politicians of the day (some of whom are still around) were Kenneth Starr, Newt Gingrich, Pat Buchanan, Al Sharpton, and Bob Dole.
UPDATE:
A CRACKED INTERVIEW WITH "THE ALIEN"
Cracked Monster Party #34, Winter 1996
w: Lou Silverstone
a: Walter Brogan
Stephen King interviews the alien. The car mentioned is his book Christine. In the background is the witch from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Even though The Shining is considered one of the greatest horror movies of all time, King hated the way it was adapted and had it remade for TV.
A couple tiny corrections: in the Mad splash, the first lady's button isn't about the plot. It's about how, according to a book by Bob Woodward, Hillary Clinton would hold imaginary conversations with Eleanor Roosevelt. And at the end of the Cracked parody, that's not Ken Starr; it's Sen. Al D'Amato.
Also in that last Cracked panel is Gort from The Day The Earth Stood Still. Maybe Brogan wanted to show that he knew what at least one alien invader from a movie actually looked like.
"I'm not sure if the joke she's making is a sexist one about how “first ladies should know their place”"
Hilary Clinton led the Task Force on National Health Care Reform in 1993. The proposed national Health Care plan was one of the things that led to Republican takeover of Congress in 1994.
A couple tiny corrections: in the Mad splash, the first lady's button isn't about the plot. It's about how, according to a book by Bob Woodward, Hillary Clinton would hold imaginary conversations with Eleanor Roosevelt. And at the end of the Cracked parody, that's not Ken Starr; it's Sen. Al D'Amato.
ReplyDeleteAlso in that last Cracked panel is Gort from The Day The Earth Stood Still. Maybe Brogan wanted to show that he knew what at least one alien invader from a movie actually looked like.
"I'm not sure if the joke she's making is a sexist one about how “first ladies should know their place”"
ReplyDeleteHilary Clinton led the Task Force on National Health Care Reform in 1993. The proposed national Health Care plan was one of the things that led to Republican takeover of Congress in 1994.