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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KOOKOON: THE REHASH
#287, June 1989
w:Dick DeBartolo
a: Jack Davis
Sequel to the movie Cocoon (see previous post). Everybody that went ito the planet Antares earlier comes back to earth to rescue the life forms they didn't get to the first time around. About half the film is about the escapades of the humans seeing friends and family. The parody doesn't get into that much, since they only have four pages, putting their story arcs into the introductions in the splash panel. Probably just as well because when you're twelve you just want to see the science fiction stuff.
Missing from the parody is the plotline where they get their friend Bernie (Jack Gilford) to get over his dead wife and fix him up with the woman who runs the hotel they're all staying at (Elaine Stritch).
They all come back to see Bernie but don't tell him they're only there for a few days. Ben (Wilford Brimley) tells his grandson (Barrett Oliver) he's coming back through the TV even though the mother (Linda Harrison) doesn't believe him. Jack (Steve Guttenberg), who owns the boat, is now giving tours and selling knick-knacks, and helps the aliens when they return. His romance with Kitty (Tahnee Welch) continues. Meanwhile, Ben teaches his grandson how to hit a ball. One of the cocoons they're trying to rescue is taken by a local maritime institute for study, and they discover a body inside.
Alma (Jessica Tandy) passes the playground of a daycare center, and heals a bruised child with her alien powers, then does so well with all the children there she's offered and considers a job there. Young'uns give the old men a hard time so the men challenge them to a basketball game and win. Jack and Kitty go on a proper date and she loses control at the restaurant in a sequel to the alien sex scene from the previous movie.
Alma is hit by a car while while working at the daycare center and is unconscious in the hospital. Her husband Joe (Hume Cronyn) hasn't told her that his leukemia has gone into remission since he's become mortal again. Since he will die soon anyway, he gives his life through his healing power to save hers. They all sneak into the institute to get the body that was taken from them before they have to go back into space.
The staff knows something's going on but a sympathetic doctor (Courteney Cox) lets them escape. Brian Dennehy's character shows up at the end.
In the parody, Ben his wife go back, though in the movie they stay behind so they can see their grandson grow. Art and Bess (Gwen Verdon) go back because she has become pregnant and they want their child to live forever like them.
KOOKOON
MAD #260, January 1986
w: Arnie Kogen
a: Mort Drucker
At a rest home in St. Petersburg, FL, three residents are constantly sneaking into a nearby abandoned mansion to use their swimming pool. Meanwhile, Jack (Steve Guttenberg) rents a fishing boat to tourists in town and some rich strangers (Brian Dennehy, Tahnee Welch) pay him to use it so they can fish some rocks out of the ocean.
They've also rented the house with the pool and are using it to store the stones. The old folks go to the pool and see the stones and just go about their business swimming. The pool makes them feel more alive than they have been in a long time. They all get horny. Meanwhile, back at the boat, Jack is fixing something and watches the woman strip through a hole (?).
While Jack is spying on the woman he sees her peel her skin off. The aliens admit to him that they're from the planet Antarea and the pods they've been taking from the ocean are their people that they've come to return them to their planet.
The three men (Hume Cronyn, Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley), who trespass, let a fourth friend Bernie (Jack Gilford) in on their secret. He's hesitant to actually go into the pool and sees the Antareans coming with more pods. Since the residents can't hide and the Antareans can't keep secret what they're doing, they let the residents use the pool on the condition they continue not to tell anyone else about the pool and don't touch the rocks.
Jack, and Kitty from the boat get romantically involved. She shows him how Antareans make love. The male residents, with their new found youth, have a night on the town with their wives.
Word gets out about the pool and everybody at the rest home breaks in and uses it. Some of them pick up one of the pods, killing the life form inside, and therefore the whole race. The entire mission is now all for naught.
From the movie not in the parody: Bernie's wife dies and he goes to the pool to try to revive her. It's too late. The three home residents feel bad about what they did and see what they can do to save the mission. If they put all the pods back into the ocean, they can save all the unhatched beings which can be rescued another time. The Antareans are thankful for this and invite thirty of the residents to come back with them.
Ben tells his grandson what will happen who spills the beans to his mother. She's concerned and calls the police who call the coast guard. The Antareans and senior citizens escape into the spaceship before anything can be done and Jack is compensated amply for use of his boat.
This movie wasn't worthy of the cover in the United States but they decided to use it for the Mexican edition.
They did in Great Britain too.
Stray thoughts: Wilford Brimley was only 50 when he did this. I'm the same age. Last year I had a zit on the back of my neck. He was 44 when he did China Syndrome. He must have been one of those guys that was born old.
In the parody, Steve Guttenberg makes a joke about the female passenger being “built like Raquel Welch”. Not sure if the joke was referring to the actress being Raquel Welch's daughter or if it was just a coincidence.
Am I the only one that thought it was weird that Steve Guttenberg was peeping on Tahnee Welch? I'm not virtue signaling or anything, things in fiction don't offend me, but it just seems weird that a guy in his twenties or thirties spying on women taking their clothes off is passed off as something normal that anyone would do. Maybe it was the only thing they could think of to advance the plot?
I've said before that artists in other magazines copy from Mort Drucker caricatures instead of using their own photo reference. But I think even Drucker sometimes got his caricatures from other caricatures too. His portrayal of Hume Cronyn looks more like Al Hirschfeld's style than his own. Since Cronyn was primarily a theater actor it's possible he didn't have any photo reference at all.
