THE SHINER

THE SHINING
dir: Stanley Kubrick

MAD #221, March 1981
w: Larry Siegel
a: Angelo Torres

It all begins with Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) taking a job as caretaker at the Overlook Hotel in Colorado in the middle of nowhere while it's closed for the winter. The isolation will help with his writing and do good for his family.

With all the cameos from iconic horror characters, they missed the most obvious one. Norman Bates is right there.

After the owner, Mr. Ullman (Barry Nelson) sees he qualifies, he returns with his wife Wendy (Shelly Duvall) and son Danny (Danny Lloyd). He's not put off by rumors of the hotel being haunted.

McLean Stevenson was used as a punchline when they needed shorthand for unbankable star. He had several TV shows that flopped, including Hello, Larry, spinoff of Diff'rent Strokes, parodied within MAD's parody of that show

In the background you can see a reference to A Clockwork Orange, one of Kubrick's previous films. There are later background gags that mention Barry Lyndon, Dr. Strangelove, and 2001. MAD was always trying to get the objects of their parodies to notice them but as far as I know never got Stanley Kubrick's attention.

Danny talks to his imaginary friend Tony through his finger, which they're assured by a psychologist is nothing to worry about. They're given a tour of the hotel when they arrive by the management before it closes, the management including cook Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers). Dick and Danny turn out to share a psychic link and he's warned not to go into Room 237 (here they call it “Room 238”, in case you don't get the pun). The family is told by management not to worry about caretaker Delbert Grady (Philip Stone) who was a caretaker there that murdered his family years earlier.

The hotel's maze becomes exposition for later in the movie. While riding through the hotel on his tricycle, he gets hints that the hotel is haunted and meets twins from the Grady family. Jack has been mild mannered all along, and it's established earlier that his recovering alcoholism is under control, but his anger starts to break through.

The 'Redrum' graffito, 'murder' spelled backwards, isn't revealed until later, and Danny doesn't see the haunted barroom, but—hey--artistic license.

Jack assures Danny there's nothing to worry about when he's around, though his creepy demeanor is suspect. He says Room 237 isn't really haunted, but when he sees it actually is, lies and tells Danny it's not. Jack goes to the hotel bar, reverts to his alcoholism, and sees ghosts from back when the murders were cmmitted there decades earlier.

”Serutan spelled backwards is Natures” was the slogan of a laxative once.

Jack runs into the spirit of Delbert Grady (literally) which seemingly takes possession of him, passing on the tradition of killing your family with an axe. Trying to find them. Wendy sees what Jack has been writing, which turns out to be hundred of pages that just say “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. Jack finds his family and chases them while wendy tries to defend herself with a baseball bat. Dick has a premonition something is wrong and flies out to Colorado from his off-season Miami home.

”Marvelous Marv” Thornberry was player for the New York Mets, then the McLean Stevenson of baseball teams.

Jack kills Dick with his axe, then goes back after his family. Danny runs through the previously-exposited maze, and he and Wendy successfully escape him. We don't know what happened after that. Jack freezes to death.

Stephen King never found the movie to be a faithful adaptation, but that didn't stop him from representing it in a letter to MAD.

The German version used the parody for their cover. If they were going to use written text for the toilet paper, the “All work and no play” manuscript would have been a perfect gag, or would that be a spoiler?

This is the cover for the Portuguese edition.

And here's the South American one.

There was another trailer for the movie, but I didn't have it at the top because it didn't show any of the actors or story.

THE SIGNING
Crazy #69, December 1981
w: Paul Kupperberg
a: Steve Smallwood

Here's the Norman Bates reference. Though being a bachelor was an essential part of his character. Here's a John Denver appearance too.

Reference in the third panel to Room 222, TV show about a 'hip' schoolteacher.

Stanley Kubrick is on the wall in the last panel.

Mark Trail was and may still be a newspaper strip that teaches readers about wildlife. The ending refers to 2001: A Space Odyssey, about an astronaut named Dave destroying HAL 9000, an A.I. Computer which has overtaken his spaceship.

The movie's been spoofed many times on The Simpsons, including on one of their halloween specials.
The Simpsons has always done gags that are well-known references and I've talked to younger people that don't know of the actual source material. Ex:“Being forced to watch movies wearing headgear that has clamps that keep your eyes open? You mean like they did on The Simpsons once?” I've mentioned this several times, but I've always wondered whether younger people think “Here's Johnny” was written especially for The Shining and don't know it's a quote from The Tonight Show.

SHERMLOCK SHOMES AND THE HOUND OF THE BASKETBALLS

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (1939)
dir: Sidnet Landfield

SHERMLOCK SHOMES IN THE HOUND OF THE BASKETBALLS
MAD #16, October 1954
w: Harvey Kurtzman
a: Bill Elder

This one story of Sherlock Holmes has been adapted to film several times. The one closest to this MAD parody would have been the 1939 version, part of a regular series from Universal with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.

The plot involves Henry, the last of the Baskervilles, consulting Holmes for a believed curse on the family. This version takes much artistic license.

SHAKY'S MASHING

SHARKY'S MACHINE (1981)
dir: Burt Reynolds

SHAKY'S MASHING
Crazy #89, August 1982
w: Murad Gumen
a: Kent Gamble

Tom Sharkey (Burt Reynolds) is an Atlanta cop who has been demoted to vic squad in the basement after chasing a drug dealer onto a city bus and shooting him, but not following proper procedure. He gets adjusted to his new surroundings under Lt. Friscoe (Charles Durning), his new supervisor.

During the arrest of a prostitute, Sharkey finds the clues in a notebook lead to a bigger prostitution ring, and with the aid of fellow officers Papa (Brian Keith) , Arch (Bernie Casey), and surveillance expert Nosh (Richard Libertini), they investigate head prostitute Dominoe (Rachel Ward).

Dominoe goes under the guise of professional dancer. She is having an affair with a local politician. As she is being surveilled, She is murdered by pimp Victor (Vittorio Gassman), and Sharkey is bawled out by Lt. Friscoe for not turning the case to homicide.

Victor only thinks he has killed Dominoe, but has killed Tiffany, another prostitute who occasionally works out of Dominoe's apartment. She turns up alive and Shakey recommends it would be safe to hide out at his apartment. There she discovers he has been keeping photos of her from his skateouts and a relationship ensues. He finds out where Victor lives, and goes to get Victor to bring him to justice. Victor thinks he has destroyed evidence against him by having Dominoe killed only to find out she's still alive, and sends his men after Sharkey.

Sharkey's men (his machine) attempt to pursue Victor's right-hand man Billy Score (Henry Silva) and he decides he'd rather jump out a window than be shot by Sharky.

Commentary is made about Burt Reynolds going from actor to director.

SANE

SHANE (1953)
dir: George Stevens

SANE
MAD #10, April 1954
w: Harvey Kurtzman
a: John Severin
This was John Severin's last piece for MAD. He was one of the “usual gang of idiots” for the first few issues but Kurtzman decided early on he wasn't quite right for them. He was perfect for western, war, and adventure stories in the other Kurtzman titles, but not for humor. Though years later he became Cracked's main artist, and his photorealism came in handy when they relied on Happy Days and M*A*S*H every issue. Here's his Shane parody in MAD, which kinda sorta worked since Westerns were still the dominant genre for movie the same way superheros are now.

A stranger, Shane (Alan Ladd) comes into town, Happening upon the land of homesteaders Joe Starrett (Van Heflin), his wife Marian (Jean Arthur) and their son Joey (Brandon DeWilde). A band of tough guys constantly terrorizes the Starretts and all the other homesteaders, trying to run them off their land.

Joey looks up to Shane, seeing another adult figure who will hopefully help him with fightin' and shootin'. Joe recognizes that Shane is a good guy and offers him a place to stay.

The “I'm a-leavin'/I'm a-stayin'” bit comes fom their earlier High Noon parody.

Shane goes to the general store to get local supplies where he gets harrassed by the posse of tough guys, particularly for ordering a non-alcoholic drink at the bar. One guy, Jack tries to pick a fight with Shane, and Shane fights back. The locals later decide to go to the store together since every time they go they're harassed by the tough posse and this time there's more likely to be safety in numbers.

The tough cattlemen go after the settlers, one tough guy, Jack Wilson (Jack Palance), is especially tough, and a fight ensues at the store. Joey hides but knows Shane will do something about it.

The settlers are chased away, one is shot by Wilson.

The settlers want to leave, deciding their land isn't worth fighting for, Shane takes the ranchers on and wins, then goes on his way. Joey's immortal quote “Shane, come back!” comes at the end.

STRAIN
Get Lost #1, March 1954
w & a: Ross Andru & Michael Esposito

The Van Heflin character and the other homesteaders aren't even used here.

SANE Nuts! 2, May 1954
artist and writer unknown

The Jean Arthur character of Marian Starrett is drawn as either a Daisy Mae-type or granny in these other parodies but she is just a mid-thirties housewife.