dir: George Cukor
My Fair Lady has been parodied several times, particularly by MAD. First a Broadway musical, but most famously a movie, it's based on the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, which itself is based on several British plays, which were based on the Greek figure of the same name. The formula has inspired modern versions such as Trading Places. My Fair Lady uses the same names and setting as Pygmalion, though.
The plot, in a nutshell, has Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison) and Col. Pickering (Wilfrid Hyde-White) as phonetics professors, teaching common Cockney girl Eliza Doolitle (Audrey Hepburn) proper diction. They make a bet that Henry can do it. He hates women but she wins him over.
MY FAIR AD-MAN
MAD #54, April 1960
w: Nick Megliola
a: Mort Drucker
His Wikipedia page and Times obituary don't reveal Nick Meglin's real name which is weird. Unless there are two different people but that's way too much of a coincidence. That's neither here nor there, though.
Freddy Einsford, a nobleman with a crush on Ms. Doolittle, is drawn here as Dean Martin. The BBD&O mascots are Harry and Bert Piel (Piel's Beer, voiced by Bob & Ray), Mr. Clean, Old Gold, Johnny Philip Morris, Tony the Tiger, Speedy Alka-Seltzer, Swanson Birds-Eye (triplets), Greyhound (dog), Mobil Oil (pegasus), Bufferin (body diagram), Peter Pain (Ben-Gay), Johnnie Walker Red, Elsie Borden, and one of the Campbell's kids. Henry Higgins and Col. Pickering are Cary Grant and Charles Laughton. Eliza Doolittle is Frank Sinatra.
None of these have the songs in the proper order or have the same characters singing them but they're just a way to parody the songs.
HELLO, LYNDON or MY FAIR LADY BIRD
MAD #107, December 1966
w: Larry Siegel
a: Mort Drucker
The title parodies the name Hello, Dolly but only the title. Lady Bird was LBJ's nickname for his wife. His daughters were Lynda and Luci
LBJ was known for lobbying congressmen while on the toilet but MAD probably couldn't show that.
w: Frank Jacobs
a: Mort Drucker
Here Henry Higgins snd Col. Pickering are drawn as Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan, and the Eliza Doolittle role is Burt Reynolds.
From Future Singing TV Commercials by Frank Jacobs and Jack Rickard in MAD #84, January 1964.
MORE COMBINED MOVIES
Cracked #133, July 1976
a: John Severin
MOVIE SPOOF:MY FAIR LADY
Sick #49, December 1966
w: Bill Majeski
MY FAIR SADIE
Humbug #2, September 1957
w: Harvey Kurtzman
a: Jack Davis
In "My Fair Ad-Man", in the first panel of page 4, the beatnik who's smoking a cigarette is Peter Ustinov. I'm not sure why - maybe it refers to some of the sketch comedy he did on TV.
ReplyDeleteIn the last panel of page 2, George Bernard Shaw is in the audience, probably with other famous folk. And in the last panel of the story, the man in the audience holding his ticket stub is Rex Harrison.
On the last page of "My Fair Laddie", in the second panel, there's a woman looking out at the reader with her fist raised. I can't confirm this, but I have the feeling that she may be one of Mort Drucker's own daughters.
Forbidden Broadway has used plenty of songs from My Fair Lady in their parodies. Here's one mocking Julie Andrews, who originated the role of Eliza Doolittle on Broadway, for her performance at the 1991 Tonys.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX8cUdlHyZI
There's also some guy next to Ustinov that kind of looks like Arnold Stang. He's probably someone.
DeleteThe fact that MAD had no women on its staff except the occasional contribution every few years makes me think they considered feminism a joke. There's also something in THE MAD WORLD OF WILLIAM GAINES that said Mort Drucker was the only one who didn't go on the annual staff vacations because it was all men. So it probably was a daughter or family member.