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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Fred Rogers has always been the epitome of niceness and innocence. The persona he used on his show for more than two generations was not just a character, though. Herewith are a few examples of how he was used.
MR. ROGERS PACIFIES THE UNIVERSE
Crazy #65, August 1980
w & a: Dave Morris
The man running the show is supposed to be music producer Don Kirschner. The audience is all adults for some reason, though if Mr. Rogers were still alive now and doing shows like this he would have an adult audience, but they'd be there for nostalgic reasons.
When Carter (who was the Mister Rogers of Presidents) was President, comedians liked to joke about his family.
'Spa Fon' and 'Squa Tront' were originally used words by aliens in EC comics and have since been borrowed by at least three generations of cartoonists.
From Kustom Kars of the Stars also by Dave Morris, in Crazy #63, June 1980.
MR. JOLLY ROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD VISITS A LOCAL BANK
MAD #227, December 1986
w: Larry Siegel
a: Angelo Torres
Uncle Floyd was more of a parody of a childrens' show in the way Pee-Wee Herman was. The framed picture on his wall was called the 'Picture Picture' because it was also used to show movies. In the bottom two panels are Mr. Rogers puppets Lady Elaine Fairchild and King Friday XIII. On his show there was a trolley that would take viewers from his house to the Neighborhood of Make-Believe.
X the Owl was another of Mr. Rogers' puppets.
A poster on the wall refers to Mr. McFeely, a postman from Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.
Eddie Murphy had a recurring character on Saturday Night Live called Mister Robinson's Neighborhood. Though the sketches pushed the limits of what was allowed on television and Mr. Rogers was a known voice of morality, he said publicly more than once he enjoyed these sketches. Rationale was that unlike other parodies where the joke was that the Mr. Rogers persona was all an act, Eddie Murphy got what the show was about and was just doing the show in a different context.
THE ELEVENTH HOUR SPECIAL
Crazy #63-69, June-December 1980
w: David Allikas
a: Walter Brogan, Dave Morris
Midnight Special was a series on Fridays after The Tonight Show comprised mostly of live musical acts. The Eleventh Hour Special was a regular feature in Crazy comprised of song parodies. The show had rotating hosts, often Wolfman Jack.
This first page had a parody of “In the Navy” by the Village People.
“Dream Police” by Cheap Trick and “My Sharona” by The Knack. It must have just been a co-incidence that Weird Al Yankovic's parody was also about bologna.
The Eagles- “Heartache Tonight”
Donna Summer & Barbara Streisand- “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)”
The Ramones- “Do You Remember Rock'n'Roll Radio?”
Pink Floyd- “The Wall”
Blondie “Call Me”
Billy Joel- “You May Be Right”
Linda Rondstadt- “That'll Be the Day”, cover of a Buddy Holly song.
The Pretenders- “Stop Your Sobbing”
Rondstadt was dating California governor and Presidential candidate Jerry Brown. Chrissie Hynde is wearing a button that says “We're English” even though she's from Ohio.
Kenny Rogers- “The Gambler”
Blues Brothers- “Gimme Some Lovin'”
Paul McCartney & Wings- “Comin' Up”
MAD #229, March 1982
w: Arnie Kogen
a: Mort Drucker
James Bond (Roger Moore) is mourning his wife right before the mini-adventure they always have right before the credits.
Blofeld has had the pilot in Bond's helicopter killed and left Bond dangling from it while he controls it remotely. bond manages to get back in the helicopter and get back control of it, now he can grab Blofeld and push him down a factory chimney. This is where the credits start and the main story begins.
Bond is briefed on his mission by M.
The ATAC machine, a device used to locate submarines, was on a recently destroyed ship, which a marine biologist named Sir Havelock (Jack Hedley) was assigned to locate before the enemy does. He and his wife were assassinated by Hector Gonzales, a hitman, and Bond has been assigned to track Gonzales down.
While Bond is on his mission, Gonzales is shot by Melinda Havelock (Carole Bouquet), on a mission of her own to avenge the death of her parents. The two of them escape the criminals in her car.
At the office of MI6, James Bond with the aid of Q (Desmond Llewellyn) uses state-of -the-art (for 1981) computer imagery to identify one of the men who was with Gonzales. He is Emile Locque (Michael Kostalos). Bond then goes to find Locque in Italy and gets information from a businessman named Ari Kristatos (Julian Glover), supervising ice skater Bibi (Lynn-Holly Johnson) who becomes infatuated with him.
The parody has Bond sleeping with Bibi, even though he resists her advances in the movie. The parody also references Britt Ekland in The Man with the Golden Gun and Ursula Andress in Dr. No. While escorting Bibi, Bond meets biathlon skier Eric Kriegler (John Wyman)...
...leading to a chase scene on the ski slopes and bobsled track, which they say is derivative of The Spy Who Loved Me and On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Later, he sees druglord Milos Colombo (Topol), who he hopes to be his connection to Locque. Bond uses Columbo's date (Cassandra Harris) to get to him, and there's a sex scene, then she's killed on the beach the next morning.
There's confusion (for me, anyway) about who's on who's side, but now Colombo is an ally, Kristatos is the one responsible for the death of the Havelocks, Locque was chasing Bond in a car until Bond knocked his car off a cliff, and there's an underwater scene similar to Thunderball. The ATAC machine is in the hands of the enemy, who's about to kill James Bond and Melinda Havelock.
Reference is made to Topol being in Fiddler on the Roof just like in the Flash Gordon spoof I posted last week. He only seemed to be in movies that began with F.
After James Bond and his group rescue the ATAC machine at the top of St. Cyril's, the Russians come and get it, and he throws it off the mountain so nobody gets it. Then the love scene all Bond movies end with.
A couple issues later, in The MAD Academy Award Show, written by Stan Hart and also drawn by Drucker, they had these two panels in the category of "Aging Bulls", older actors who feel they can still go the distance. Moore was the same age as me then.
Cover of the German edition.
Cracked did A Cracked Look at 007 in #216
FOR YOUR EYES, BALONEY
Crazy #82, January 1983
w: Murad Gumen
a: Dave Morris
THE BLOOZE BROTHERS
Crazy #71, February 1981
w: Paul Kupperberg
a: Dave Morris
I think Dave Morris may be a pseudonym, only because I never saw his art anywhere other than Crazy, there was nothing particularly memorable about his style, and they used other artists with pseudonyms.
Jake (John Belushi) has just been released from prison and his brother Elwood (Dan Aykroyd) has just come to pick him up in a used police car. Jake is disappointed that it's not the Cadillac they used to own. He's also disappointed that Elwood no longer legally has a driver's license, so the first thing that happens when he's sprung is they're chased by cops.
Their first stop is to visit the orphanage they were raised in, which they find out is being shut down since they can't pay their property tax. They go to a nearby church and Jake has an inspiration—if they get their old band back together they can have a concert to raise money to save the orphanage. First they have to lose the cops chasing them and drive through a mall.
They go to Elwood's home for the night, which is a room in a run down hotel. An assassin (Carrie Fisher) is after them. The next morning, they get the band back together (“We're on a mission from Gaaahd”, Dan Aykroyd keeps saying in his Chicago accent). Some of the former members are a lounge act now and agree to come back. One is a maitre d' at a restaurant who refuses to rejoin until Jake and Elwood continue to embarrass him.
The last two remaining members are now a cook and dishwasher at a diner.
They go to a music store and get instruments from the owner (Ray Charles) who hesitantly gives them on credit.
Another scene not used is them posing as from a country band and taking their gig from them.
Now that they have all the pieces together, they've organized the concert, but now have to get into the venue while eluding all the people after them—the police, the woman shooting at them, the country band they impersonated, and some Nazis who had a march they plowed through.
It's not revealed in the parody, but the assassin is an ex-fiancee of Jake who he left at the altar, which means Jake and Elwood aren't related by blood, because otherwise he'd know.
After performing, they have to get to the county clerk office early in the morning in time to save the orphanage with everyone chasing after them before they're arrested. What happens in the last few minutes is a combination of an extravagant car chase and travelogue for Chicago.
In the parody, They're sent back to Saturday Night Live, where The Blues Brothers started as a recurring sketch.
