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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MAD #194, October 1977
w:Stan Hart
a: Mort Drucker
Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) is an average fighter in his south Philadelphia neighborhood, as he calls himself, a “ham and eggs” fighter. Winning some fights, losing some. His best friend is Pauly (Burt Young) and he has his eye on Pauly's sister Adrian (Talia Shire). Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) is the national heavyweight champion Rocky boxes. Mickey (Burgess Meredith) runs the local gym where Rocky practices and initially has no faith in him.
Rocky lives alone in his small apatment with his tutles and goldfish. Every day he goes to the pet store and tries to flirt with Adrian, the shy and homely clerk there, who doesn't respond.
In his day job, he collects for a loan shark and gets in hot water for being too easy on clients. At the gym he finds he has his locker taken from him. Meanwhile, Apollo's challenger had to pull out of his big match because of an injury, and he's figured it would be good for publicity for the upcoming Bicentennial that he give a local unknown fighter somewhere a shot at the championship.
Apollo decides on Rocky, “The Italian Stallion”. Pauly wants Rocky to get him a job with the loanshark and agrees to fix Rocky up with his sister on Thanksgiving at the house they live in. She's too shy too meet with him and locks herself in her room. Pauly gets angry and throws the Thanksgiving turkey out the window. Adrian finally gives in and Rocky takes her to an ice rink, which is closed, but agrees to open a few minutes for them.
Rocky takes Adrian up to his apartment and they officially begin dating. He meets with Apollo Creed's management and agrees to the fight. Mickey becomes his trainer, puts him on a strict schedule requiring him to get up early in the day and eat raw eggs.
Part of his training is using raw meat at Pauly's store for a punching bag, which gets him on the local news. He has to withdraw from sex to be a mean fighter. Pauly is too much of a hothead for Adrian to live with and she moves in with Rocky. On the day of the fight, Apollo shows up in patriotic garb.
”I coulda been a contender” comes from Marlon Brando's monologue in On the Waterfront. Peter Finch posthumously beat Sylvester Stallone in Best Actor category in Network in 1976, though Rocky won the Oscar for Best Picture
It's a split decision Rocky and Apollo as both have gone the distance and have there have been no knockouts, Apollo is declared the winner, though, for winning the most rounds. Adrian runs into the ring and they profess their love for each other, it assumed they get married. Do they? There were four sequels so surely we'll find out what happened in one of them.
Muhammad Ali as the heavyweight champion in the U.S. was known in Germany as well.
ROCKEY
Cracked #143. August 1977
a: John Severin
Rocky doesn't make much boxing since he has so many fees deducted for use of the equipment.
John Severin always put a sign from Krimson in the background in his parodies. Probably his son's band.
Mr. Jergens was Apollo's agent.
Twice it says “God Bless Anita Bryant” in the background. Probably serious, since she was a known homophobe activist often used in these parodies and Severin was always sneaking right-wing messages into the background.
Around this time, there was a big King Kong blockbuster and Cracked was always trying to put him in every issue just like they would with The Fonz.
IF ROCKEY APPEARED IN OTHER MOVIES AND TV SPOTS
Cracked #145, October 1977
a: Bill Ward (John Severin)
The Mary Tyler Moore Show with Lou Grant (Ed Asner), Murray Slaughter (Gavin McLeod), and Ted Baxter (Ted Knight)
Cracked artists often signed the names of other Cracked artists to their work, making it look like they knew each other. “God bless John Wayne” was definitely meant to be taken seriously.
Wild Kingdom with Marlin Perkins.
In Jaws, Sheriff Brody (Roy Scheider), marine biologist Matt (Richard Dreyfuss), and hunter Quint (Robert Shaw) teamed up to kill the shark that was menacing the town.
Welcome Back, Kotter with Arnold Horshack (Ron Pallilo), Juan Epstein (Robert Hegyes), Vinnie Barbarino (John Travolta), Freddy Washington (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs) and Principal Woodman (John Sylvester White)
ROOKY
Crazy #31, November 1977
w: Sara Arthur
a: Kent Gamble
Kent Gamble often swiped caricatures from Mort Drucker, but I can't find where the Jackie Gleason caricature is taken from. Maybe he came up with it on his own. The Rocky one is from one of Dustin Hoffman in a parody of The Graduate, though. (????)
And Burgess Meredith is LBJ. Swiping caricatures—I'm hard on people who do it, but I'd probably do the same thing if I were just starting out or wasn't paid much. But using people who look nothing like each other—I don't get.
SLOCKY
Sick #115, June 1977
w: Joe Gill
a: Dave Manak
THE ACADEMY AWARDS a/k/a OSCARS
1929-present, various
THE ACADEMY AWARDS SHOW
Cracked #134, August 1976
a: John Severin
MAD did Academy Awards spoofs too, some of which I've posted excerpts from, plus tons of articles that were Academy Awards For Teachers, For Lawyers, For Parents, etc. that were basically framing devices for a series of gags but featured no celebrities or movie clips. This was one that was a direct parody of the actual Oscar ceremony.
The show is always hosted by a famous actor, comedian, or TV personality. This is hosted by Katherine Hepburn. Peter Falk, Ed McMahon and Clint Eastwood can be seen in the background.
Bob Hope was often the host when the Academy Awards first became televised. Bruce was the name for the mechanical shark in Jaws. Burt Reynolds can be seen in the foreground of the fourth panel. Robert Redford is the next presenter.
That year, Faye Dunaway was in Day of the Locust, Karen Black was in Nashville, and Barbara Streisand in Funny Lady. The only thing I can see Natalie Wood was in that year was Peeper, which sounds nothing like The Tupperware Story. In the background are Telly Savalas, Tom Laughlin, Lee Majors, John Wayne, and Muhammad Ali
The nude body in the second panel is a reference to someone streaking a couple years earlier (see video clip below). Karl Malden is being dismissed by Michael Douglas, his co-star of The Streaks... I mean... The Streets of San Francisco.
The bartender in Jawz is Charlie Tuna.
This was the cover to the issue of MAD I've been posting excerpts from (see “Academy Awards” sidebar). Pictured are Michael Caine, Brooke Shields, Charles Grodin, Burt Lancaster, Faye Dunaway, Sylvester Stallone. Julie Andrews, Paul Newman, Gary Coleman, Mel Brooks, and Robert Blake.
I posted Bananas Movie Awards already last month but took it down and am putting it here because it seems more appropriate.
BANANAS MOVIE AWARDS
Bananas #69, c. 1983
w: Jovial Bob Stine
a: Sam Viviano
Hey, Lighten Up was a recurring feature in Bananas similar to Shut-Ups in Cracked, where a person would mention their problem and the guy here would interrupt and mention the brighter side of it.
John Travolta starred in Stayin' Alive that year, a sequel to Saturday Night Fever, both of which were parodied by in many places and will be posted here eventually.
Jennifer Beals, in Flashdance, had a double do all her dancing. The others in the audience are characters by John Holmstrom, Alyse Newman, Bruce Day, Bob Taylor, and Howard Cruse from the Comix section of the magazine. Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) were [spoiler!] revealed to be siblings in Return of the Jedi.
Eddie Murphy was known for being profane and had been in Trading Places that year.
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With the successes of the first two movies, the first one then being the highest-grossing movie of all time behind Star Wars and later E. T., and Jaws 2 being the highest grossing sequel at that point, it was inevitable there'd be a third one. None of the people from the first two were involved, it didn't even take place in the same location for that matter, and was shot in 3-D to cash in on the 3-D revival that was being used then, most notably for “threequels” (Friday the 13th Part 3-D, Amityville 3-D).
This is similar to Cracked's Godfather, Part 2 parody of a few years earlier, which parodies the idea of movies having sequels more than the actual plot, and uses the same number.
THE MAKING OF JAWZ #23
Cracked #198, October 1983
a: John Severin
Nanny Dickering was the reporter for the magazine. Originally she looked like however the artist who drew her depicted her, then when pin-up artist Bill Ward drew her looking all dolled up like all his women, that's how she looked thereafter.
This version used an old Sheriff Brody (Roy Scheider) even though the franchise moved on from the character by then.
They just reprinted their Godfather mash-up from a few years earlier.
An older Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) is used as well.
SICK TAKES YOU ON THE SET OF JAWS 3
Sick Special #1, 1980
a: Bill Burke
Jaws 3 was originally meant to be a comedy and titled Jaws 3, People 0, produced by National Lampoon, written by John Hughes, and directed by Joe Dante, about a real shark attack on the set of a Jaws sequel. After Animal House became the biggest comedy of all time, Universal thought this would be a sure thing, but apparently didn't want to risk it and pulled the plug. Sometimes you can find the script online, but the studio often finds it and gets it taken down. Judging from the next two movies National Lampoon made (one closed after a week, the other went direct-to-video three years later with twenty minutes cut), who knows if it would have been any good?
Another Land-Shark sketch from Saturday Night Live.
