STUPORMAN ZZZ

SUPERMAN III (1983)
dir: Richard Lester

STUPORMAN ZZZ
MAD #243, December 1983
w: Stan Hart
a: Mort Drucker

In a series of movies, one is usually the comedy. This was theirs, and it was made clear at the beginning as the movie opened with a series of sight gags. A series of disasters ends with Superman (Christopher Reeve) saving a drowning victim. Meanwhile, Gus Gorman (Richard Pryor) finds himself no longer eligible for unemployment benefits, and takes a job as a computer programmer.

Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) only appears at the beginning and end.

At the Daily Planet, Clark Kent pitches an article to his boss (Jackie Cooper) about attending his high school reunion. On his way to his hometown, he spots a chemical fire on a bus, He gets off and turns into Superman, putting out the fire by freezing a nearby lake, picking it up, and throwingit over the burning factory. At Websco, where Gus Gorman works, he's figured out a way to program his computer so it takes a fraction of a cent from everyone else's salary, gives it to himself. and it adds up to thousands of dollars. He's caught and called in by the owner of Websco, Ross Webster (Robert Vaughn). Instead of being fired, Mr. Webster wants Gus to using his programming genius to help with other schemes. Clark is now at his high school reunion and reunited with Lana Lang (Annette O'Toole).

Ross has Gus control the weather in Colombia so he can coner the coffee market. In Smallville, Clark and Lana's hometown, they are having a picnic which is soon interrupted when Clark sense's Lana's son is in a field somewhere in trouble, and Clark must rush off to turn into Superman and rescue him. Ross wants to control the oil market next, but Gus informs him he can't because Superman will avert all natural disasters. They find a way to recreate Kryponite to hopefully kill him. Gus' formula doesn't quite duplicate it, but is enough to weaken him. At a rally for Superman in Smallville, Gus shows up posing as a general and presents Superman with a gift, which is this Kryponite.

The new Superman doesn't care about anything anymore, gets horny and goes on a drunken rampage. Gus will only help Ross further on the condition he gets an ultimate computer that can do anything. As part of Ross' plan for world domination, he uses his girlfriend Lorelei (Pamela Stephenson) to seduce Superman.

Superman and Clark Kent fight it out in a junkyard in a sympolic fight over good versus evil. Ross has built the super-computer at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and lured Superman into his trap.

James Watt was the Secretary of the Interior under Reagan.

With the super-computer, Ross sets off missiles, tries to destroy Superman with Kryptonite, then it gets a life of its own and eats up the entire power grid of the United States. Gus sabotages it, saving Superman from death. Realizing Gus was really a patsy this whole time, Superman brings him to a coal mine and gets him a job there. He then returns to work as Clark Kent, where Lana Lang works after moving to Metropolis.

The joke on Richard Pryor's button is about his coke problem, which led to him disappearing from the public for a year after an accident where he lit himself on fire while freebasing and ran into the streets of Los Angeles.

Two scenes that werent in MAD's main parody:
  -Gus is fooling around on his boss' faux swiss chalet rooftop and falls off into the streets.
  -During Superman's drunken rampage, he breaks an oil tanker open, then when he becomes good again, he seals it back up.

Cover of Panic. There were lots of things called Panic, this was the German humor magazine.