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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YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN—UNSEEN
Sick # 102, February 1975
a: Jerry Grandenetti
How do you do a parody of a parody? Sick thought of a novel way to do it. Their solution: you don't. This is just a parody of the Frankenstein legend. I've pointed out that in some of these magazines they do a spoof without ever having seen the target, here they admit it. They don't even try to make the characters look like Gene Wilder or Peter Boyle, or even have the monster be bald. It's even possible they may have had an article already and added the name to cash in on the release of the movie.
From If Movies Were Combined in Cracked #131, March 1976, art by John Severin
Crazy often used stock photos in their subscription ads. Here they used a still from Young Frankenstein.
WKRAP IN CINCINNATTI
MAD #218, October 1981
w: Arnie Kogen
a: Angelo Torres
Sitcom about a radio station converting to a rock & roll format in their quest to climb from their spot as the lowest rated station in Cincinatti. It was managed by Arthur Carlson (Gordon Jump), who brought in Andy Travis (Gary Sandy) to be the new programming director. Their secretary Jennifer Marlowe (Loni Anderson) was lusted after by everyone else in the office. She was the smartest and highest paid person there despite doing the least amount of work and having several conditions.
The two disc jockeys at the station were Dr. Johnny Fever (Howard Hesseman) and Venus Flytrap ((Tim Reid). Andy's assistant was Bailey Quarters (Jan Smithers). Two holdovers from the station's earlier format were ad salesman Herb Tarlek (Frank Bonner) and news reporter Les Nessman (Richard Sanders).
Les Nessman upset that he didn't have his own office was one of their recurring features.
Mary Tyler Moore, Ted Knight, Ed Asner, and Gavin MacLeod were all in the cast of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and co-incidentally WKRP was from her production company.
WARP IN CINCINUTTY
Crazy #71, February 1981
w: Murad Gumen
a: Kent Gamble
John Travolta was in Urban Cowboy around then.
WKRAP IN SINSINNATTI
Sick #13o, December 1979
w: Arnold Drake
a: Jack Sparling
And if you're still with us, here's a TV Guide cover by Jack Davis.
Bananas did WKLOD in Cincinatti which I used to have somewhere but can't seem to find. But remember, the senator, while insisting he was not intoxicated, could not explain his nudity.
The Wizard of Oz is one of those things in everyone's DNA that everyone knows the story of, characters, situations, songs, lines, and phrases are part of the international lexicon. I probably haven't even seen it in nearly forty years and would recognize any reference, so would you. Therefore, I need not sum it up.
Oh, all right... In a nutshell, Dorothy (Judy Garland) is bored of her existence on a farm in Kansas, a tornado uproots her home, and she ends up in the land of Oz. Her house has landed on the Wicked Witch of the East, liberating all the citizens of Oz. She wants to get back home, and she's told by the Munchkins there that if she follows the yellow brick road she will meet the wizard (Frank Morgan), who will help her. Along the way, she meets the Tin Man (Jack Haley), Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), and the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr) who are seeking a heart, brain, and courage, respectively. They join Dorothy on her quest. The Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton), keeps trying to stop them every step of the way. They finally meet the wizard who acts all powerful and Dorothy's dog Toto, who was with Dorothy all along, rips a curtain to reveal the wizard is just a con man. He tells everybody what they've been looking for has been inside them all along. Dorothy repeats the mantra “There's no place like home” and wakes up on her farm. It was all a dream and the characters in her dream were all weird forms of farm hands and neighbors...
There, you happy now?
From Scenes We'd Like to See, back cover of MAD #123, December 1968, by Don Edwing and Jack Rickard.
MAD #128, July 1969
In this version, Auntie Em is Tiny Tim and Dorothy is Liza Minelli, who happened to be the real-life daughter of Judy Garland.
Aah, the old banana hoax. I learned about it from MAD. I don't know if they believed it or were in or it. Basically, while there were all kinds of rumors and conspiracy theories about what hippies did, they created one of their own. They said that you can get high by grinding the inside of the skins into a powder and smoking it. I also don't know if that's what they thought you did or you held a whole unpeeled banana up to your mouth and lit it, then inhaled it, like it was a cigarette or joint.
The main munchkin is Dustin Hoffman while others are Simon & Garfunkel.
Pat Boone is the Scarecrow.
George Hamilton is the Tin Man and Michael J. Pollard is the Cowardly Lion.
Ed Sullivan is the Guru. There's no poppy field barricade to his castle.
MAD #157, March 1973
Here's some variations on the yellow-brick road theme.
The shock one experiences when leaping through time is always funny to me. If I woke up in the world of 2024 having been in a coma since 1994, sure things would be hard to adjust to. So much would be completely different and I'd be surprised by a lot of changes. I might be surprised we have no World Trade Center and things cost twice as much but it's not like I'd be completely lost like characters in movies seem to be. Except maybe if I was left loose in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. But still, I'll run into people I haven't seen since the nineties and we'll talk as if no time has passed. And I still have some of the same clothes and furniture I've had since 2000. And people still bring up a prank I pulled in 1991 as if it still has repercussions (it hardly had any back then).
THE WIZARD OF ODDS
MAD #300, January 1991
w: Frank Jacobs
a: Sam Viviano
The Good Witch is Vanna White. The Wicked Witch of the East is meant to be Leona Helmsley, a New York City real estate mogul. Among the Yupkins are Michael J. Fox, Ted Turner and Jane Fonda (in her Barbarella costume), Meryl Streep, and Sam Viviano. Imelda Marcos was first lady of Phillipines who had hundred of shoes.
The first panel has Reagan's budget director David Stockman and Michael Douglas and Charlie Sheen of Wall Street. In the middle are Richard Gere and Julia Roberts as their characters from Pretty Woman.
The Witch of the South is Tammy Fake Bakker, wife of an indicted televangelist mocked for her excessive make-up. The wizard is a guy named Donald Trump, a millionaire with a big ego who was everywhere in the eighties and nineties. He seems to have disappeared from the public eye and nobody knows where he is now.
Cover to the British edition.
From Cracked's Sequels to Classic Movies, #180, September 1981, art by John Severin.
This article was longer ago now than this movie was then, so suck on that.
There was an updated musical called The Wiz with an all-black cast. It looks like the cover was commisioned far ahead of the interior and afterwards they figured it wasn't big enough for an interior parody.
THE WHITE, SHADOWED
MAD #216, July 1980
w: Lou Silverstone
a: Angelo Torres
Ken Reeves (Ken Howard) is a former professional basketball player who once worked for the Chicago Bulls but now works as a coach at Carver High School in Los Angeles.
In these days of politicians swearing left and right, it's hard to believe it was once a big scandal when Jimmy Carter once said “I'll whip his ass” about Ted Kennedy.
Some of the players were Jackson (Erik Kilpatrick), Goldstein (Ken Michelman), Gomez (Ira Augustain), and Coolidge (Byron Stewart). The vice-principal was Sybil Buchanan (Joan Pringle) and the principal was Jim Willis (Ed Bernard).
”Lookit me, I'm dee-ancin'... I'm dee-ancin” was the way any comical Brooklyn character once mocked who they saw as a high-brow adult.
Some other players were “Salami” Pettrino (Timothy Van Patten), Hayward (Thomas Carter), and Thorpe (Kevin Hooks).
The last panel is a parody of Bobby Knight.
The obligatory stars' reaction to their parody.
From The MAD TV Coroners' Report in #227, December 1981
THE NOT-SO-BRIGHT SHADOW
Cracked #170, May 1980
a: John Severin
In the later seasons, there was a player named Vitaglia (John Menghatti)
This was the era of Cracked where, if they weren't able to do a Diff'rent Strokes parody or an If Gary Coleman did [X] kind of article, they would find a way to fit him in somehow.
THE WHITE SHALLOW
Crazy #66, September 1980
w: Murad Gumen
a: Murad Gumen & Alan Kupperberg
