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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NUT GALLERY
Spoof #5, May 1973
w: Stu Schwartzberg
a: Marie Severin & Herb Trimpe
Rod Serling's follow-up to Twilight Zone, where he hosted a trio of science-fiction or horror stories, introducing them in a night gallery, where each story was told through a painting.
Not only are Pat Boone, Joe Namath, and Woody Allen all still alive as of this writing, and Woody still wears the same fishing hat fifty years later.
Yesterday saw the first part of the Kung Fu parodies I know of, here's the second half.
KUNG FOOEY
Crazy #1, October 1973
w: Stu Schwartzberg
a: Mike Ploog
TV series about Kwai Chiang Caine (David Carradine), a fugitive from justice in China, that now must flee in the American West in the late nineteenth century and stay one step ahead of his captors, and each time he came to a new town, there was a problem he would help the locals with. Each week he was in a different town with a different cast.
Caine always had flashback to his training as a Shaolin monk and learning the martial arts under the tutelage of Master Po (Keye Luke)
The next to last panel is a quote from The Desiderata, a poem that became a new-age self-help guide in the 70s
“Grasshopper” was Po's nickname for Caine.
Caine didn't believe in violence, but had to use kung-fu for self-defense, and it was the “money shot” in each episode.
KUNG FOOEY
Crazy #7, October 1974
w: Marv Wolfman
a: Marie Severin & Herb Trimpe
This issue was supposedly articles rejected from previous issues of Crazy. The photo is of Marv Wolfman (who was also the editor).
Each show would begin with Caine as a child being told by Master Po he would finish his training once he was able to grab a pebble from Po's hands.
The man eating is portrayed is Frank Cannon, a TV detective who was a gourmet, which translates here to just being a glutton. Like in yesterday's Cracked parody, John Wayne also makes an appearance because it was the West.
“It's not nice to fool Mother Nature” was an ad campaign for Chiffon margarine.
The man at the end here is Fred Williamson.
From What Today's TV Programs Would Look Like If They Appeared in 2001 A. D. in Cracked #132, May 1976.
KUNG FOOEY
Sick #96, December 1973
w: Fred Wolfe (Paul Laikin)
Not a parody of the show, but of the kung-fu craze in motion pictures at the time, and included here because it was printed to make readers think it was a parody of the TV show.
“No tickee, no shirtee” and “an hour later, you're hungry again” were two of the racist tropes used in comedy at that time.
Sketch from The Carol Burnett Show which had lots of MAD's writers on staff. Some of them may have worked on this, who knows?
UPDATE:
From If TV Characters Aged While Their Shows Stayed the Same, art by Sururi Gumen, in Cracked #128, October 1975
F-F-FROGS!
Spoof #3, January 1973
w: Stu Schwatzberg
a: Marie Severin, Herb Trimpe
Pickett Smith is taking photographs of a swamp, particularly its pollution, for a magazine. Coming back, his canoe is hit and overturned by Clint and Karen Crockett (Adam Roarke, Joan Van Ark) in their motorboat.
They apologize for hitting him and let him stay at their estate for a while, which is led by wealthy patriarch Jason Crockett (Ray Milland) who's probably responsible for much of the pollution. As they all meet frogs keep approaching the island and multiplying in the background.
A handyman assigned to kill the frogs with pesticide is killed. Pickett warns there may be a problem but Jason will not let it stop his birthday celebration.
Another worker (David Gilliam) is killed by tarantulas while checking a phone line. One of the Crocketts (Nicholas Cortland) goes to the greenhouse to get flowers for Jason's birthday party and is asphyxiated when lizards he doesn't see knock over bottles of chemicals.
Snakes, lizards, frogs, and other wildlife are conspiring to kill all humans off one by one. Clint takes the maid and butler in his boat and disappears.
Pickett and Karen decide to evacuate right away with her kids. They try to get Jason to come with them but he insists on staying. They make it safely back to the mainland but Jason, staying behind, is helpless when he falls out of his wheelchair and is attacked by the plague of frogs and assorted reptiles.
THE BOOB RUBE STORY
Crazy #4, May 1974
w: Stuart Schwartzberg
a: Marie Severin
Parody of the type of sports biopic of the past, particularly The Babe Ruth Story
THE MOE JAYMOUTH STORY
w: Marv Wolfman
a: Marie Severin & Herb Trimpe
This was followed by how a sports biopic would be in the present (the present being 1974), with sports stars being more celebrities than athletes. This was a parody of Joe Namath.
(Namath was known for being a ladies' man. The father here is a caricature of Marlon Brando as The Godfather.)
The sportscaster is Howard Cosell.
The others on the panel with Johnny Carson are Henry Kissinger and Sandy Dennis.
