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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Thursday, September 28, 2023
STAR ROARS
STAR WARS (1977)
dir: George Lucas
STAR ROARS
MAD #196, January 1978
w: Larry Siegel & Dick DeBartolo
a: Harry North, Esq.
After two weeks of showing every known Star Trek parody, here's the other “Star” franchise. Don't blame me, it's how the alphabet works. The movie that's changed the way all movies are made to this day. This is from when it was considered the first one when it came out, it's since become the fourth part and retitled A New Hope. This blog has already shown the parodies of its two sequels, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Here's the first of three posts with MAD's parodies of the original Star Wars. I'm sure everyone reading this knows the movie by heart, but I'll try to tell the plot in a nutshell.
The Rebel Alliance has the plans for the Empire's Death Star, which they are trying to get, and only Princess Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) of Alderaan knoes where they are. She is kidnapped by Empire leader Darth Vader (David Prowse/James Earl Jones) but before she does she hides them inside R2D2 (Kenny Baker), who flees to Tattoine with fellow droid C3PO (Anthony Daniels).
On Tattoine, C3PO and R2D2 are sold by the Jawas to Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and his family.
When this was first published, kids my age were surprised to find a slur in MAD, though we didn't know one of the co-writers was gay himself. The article has been reprinted several times, and the slur has since been replaced with “gay robot” for contemporary audiences, and not those in a galaxy far, far away.
Luke finds the recording inside R2D2 of Leia begging for help from Obi-Wan “Ben” Kenobi (Alec Guiness), who Luke's late father fought with in the past. They find Ben, who travels with them to Alderaan to rescue the princess. Ben says Luke must learn the Force to guide him through future travels. He uses the force to hypnotize stormtroopers at a checkpoint.
At the Cantina bar, Ben and Luke look for a pilot that can take them to Alderaan, and find Han Solo (Harrison Ford), who, with his pet Wookie Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) take them on the Millenium Falcon for a price. Luke practices using the Force, which involves fighting a flying target blindfolded.
Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing), Darth Vader's second-in-command, is interrogating Princess Leia, who still won't talk. The Millenium Falcon is sucked into the Death Star, and Han Solo and the gang hide in compartments to avoid capture. They disguise themselves as stormtroopers (which isn't shown here) to get through, while Ben fends everyone off by fighting Darth Vader, who was once a student of his that turned evil.
Han and Luke find the captured Princess, about to be executed, rescue her, and end up in the system's trash disposal unit in order to escape storm troopers. C3PO rescues them at the last minute. Ben Kenobi fights Darth Vader but is defeated.
The Rebels, now at war with the Empire, and Luke, using the Force, is able to blow up the Death Star, with the aid of Han Solo, who previously was only in it for the money, but had a change of heart at the last minute. Both are rewarded after all is done.
Here was how Sergio Aragones parodied it in the next issue, including a take on Darth Vader using the Force that woudn't be accepted by modern audiences,
Cover for the Mexican MAD.
And two German covers
The Fold-In in #199, June 1978
MAD #203, December 1978
After plans were announced for several sequels, MAD published this in #230, April 1982. After I cut the pages, I realized I did it the wrong way, but it shouldn't matter.
Tomorrow, a look at all the parodies Cracked did, and the day after that, all the rest.
1) The "Force gives you power over weak minds" gag is the funniest gag ever in MAD magazine (or top 5 anyway). My brother and I would always do this gag to each other when we watched Star Wars on the TV. 2) The MAD 282 came after Empire; thus all the jokes about "character X is character Y's uncle!" 3) In the days of the prequels, some super fans would go "It was always supposed to be six episodes!" I used the 282 article as proof that they were full of beans. 4) The punchline of "The Force is Luke's father" was kind of a plot point of Episode I where it was implied that Anakin Skywalker had a virgin birth from the Force.
In the Mad parody, at the top of page 5, the guy from the electric company is George Lucas.
ReplyDelete1) The "Force gives you power over weak minds" gag is the funniest gag ever in MAD magazine (or top 5 anyway). My brother and I would always do this gag to each other when we watched Star Wars on the TV.
ReplyDelete2) The MAD 282 came after Empire; thus all the jokes about "character X is character Y's uncle!"
3) In the days of the prequels, some super fans would go "It was always supposed to be six episodes!" I used the 282 article as proof that they were full of beans.
4) The punchline of "The Force is Luke's father" was kind of a plot point of Episode I where it was implied that Anakin Skywalker had a virgin birth from the Force.
Also in the German Star Wars disco cover, do we know who the guy is between Vader and Chewbacca?
ReplyDeleteAccording to madmag.de, he's a rock star named Udo Lindenberg.
Delete