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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ECCCH-MEN
MAD #327, May 1994
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Sam Viviano
MAD rarely did parodies of Saturday Morning cartoons, but I guess this was one of the cases where they made an exception. X-Men has existed in many forms since, but before the movies, this cartoon based on the comic was the only other one. The main pupils of Charles Xavier's School for the Gifted were Storm, Jubilee, Cyclops, Wolverine, Rogue, Gambit, and Beast, led by Charles Xavier a/k/a Professor X. The students were selected as “gifted children” but are mutants with special powers. The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants is led by Magneto, Professor X's longtime frenemy. Other enemies are the Sentinels and Morph.
Beast is drawn here as one of Maurice Sendak's Wild Things. Sam Viviano and Dick DeBartolo are in the lower right corner of this splash page, as are MAD staffers Charlie Kadau, Nick Meglin, John Ficarra, and Len Brenner.
Jean Grey/Phoenix was another of the X-Men.
And this was a parody of the earlier comic from the sixties.
THE ECHHS-MEN
Not Brand Ecch #8, June 1968
w: Gary Friedrich
a: Tom Sutton
Jean Grey was originally Marvel Girl, Beast didn't have hair, and other members were The Angel and Iceman. They practiced their powers in the danger room at the academy.
Forbush-Man is a parody of Peter Parker, always desperate to join some superhero group.
Toad was one of the original members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Quicksiver was a former mutant on the good side who joined the Avengers.
Magneto wore a helmet to shield his magnetic powers. Scarlet Witch was Quicksilver's sister who also became an Avenger.
MMMS was the Merry Marvel Marching Society, a fan club for readers.
WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? (1988)
dir: Robert Zemeckis
WHO DE-FAMED ROBBER RABBIT?
MAD #284, January 1989
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Angelo Torres
Film noir that was a big hit for its many cameo appearances by characters from cartoons from the 30s-50s from different studios. It took place in 1947, with detective Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) reluctantly taking the case of animation studio head R. K. Maroon (Alan Tilvern) who suspects the reason for his star performer Roger Rabbit (Charles Fleischer)'s poor performance is that his wife Jessica (Kathleen Turner) is having an affair with Marvin Acme (Stubby Kaye). Eddie photographs the evidence, submits it to Roger, the next day Marvin is murdered. Roger has been set up and goes to Eddie to clear his name and this leads a plot by Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd) of Toontown, the town where all the cartoon characters live, to destroy the area to make room for a freeway. Eddie, who previously hated 'toons', learns to appreciate them.
The MAD parody is about what was supposed to have happened after the story ended.
The character sitting on the curb is Baby Herman, Roger Rabbit's co-star, who acts like a baby on film, but is a talking adult who smokes when off the set. George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis were the main Presidential candidates of 1988.
'Patty cake' was what Jessica and Marvin were caught doing and literally that, not any actual sexual act. “I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way” was Jessica's tagline in the movie.
Benny, also voiced by Charles Fleischer, was Roger's taxi in the movie's big chase scene. Alfred Hitchcock is always shorthand for “movie director” when it's not Erich Von Stroheim. Mommie Dearest was a book written by Joan Crawford's daughter about how cruel she apparently was.
Howard the Duck, one of the first movies based on a Marvel character before the Marvel Universe was conceived for Hollywood, was considered one of the biggest flops of the 80s. I never saw it. Maybe in retrospect it wasn't as bad as people say it was.
WHEN ROGER RABBIT TECHNOLOGY TAKES OVER ALL OF HOLLYWOOD'S FILMS
MAD #285, March 1989
w: Stan Hart
a: Bob Clarke
As we all know, animation and live action has been done several times since the 80s, then there's CGI and deepfakes, and soon A.I. Will replace all of us.
THE GREAT TOON SURPLUS SALE
MAD #292, March 1990
w: Larry Siegel
a: Angelo Torres
The lower left has Fox and the Crow which had few cartoons in the series and was already discontinued 40 years before this. There was a long-running comic book adaptation of it but even that was over long before most readers of this would have been born.
The weasel with the steamroller was one of Judge Doom's minions in the movie. Magilla Gorilla, next to Mickey and Donald, might be known by some.
German cover.
WHO FWAMED ROGER WABBIT?
Cracked #241, December 1988
w: Rick Kriegel (Lou Silverstone)
a: Walter Brogan
Elmer Fudd narrates the parody. Steven Spielberg wasn't the director. He may not even have been on the set. He was executive producer which could mean a lot of things.
Eddie spent a lot of time at a bar. The waitress was Joanna Cassidy.
Judge Doom had a solution called Dip, which was essentially ink remover, that he planned to execute Roger with.
Eddie hates Toons because one killed his brother. As he's about to be killed, Judge Doom reveals that he was that Toon, which is all Eddie needs to snap out of his hatred, turn the tables, and regain his sense of humor.
Disney release a few Roger Rabbit cartoons with their full-length movies in their attempt to bring cartoons back to theaters.
CRACKED INTERVIEWS ROGER WABBIT
Cracked #245, July 1989
w: Vic Bianco (Lou Silverstone)
a: John Severin
Cher, Morton Downey Jr., and Mel Blanc are the big Lakers fans.
Here are some parodies of movies from a few days ago that were also parodied by Cracked. One because it was the only issue I didn't have when I was assembling material last year, the other because it was past the cutoff point I established. Click 'previous' a few times to see the trailers and summaries and who the actors are. Enjoy.
TWISTED
Cracked #312, November 1996
w: Lou Silverstone
a: Walter Brogan
Spielberg wasn't the director for Twister. It was only produced by his company.
TWITS
Cracked #245, July 1989
a: Walter Brogan
PLATOON (1986)
dir: Oliver Stone
PLA-TOONS
Cracked #245
w: Matthew Sweeney
a: Walter Brogan
This parody doesn't require having seen Platoon, it just made for a good pun.
The end has Charlie Sheen and Kevin Dillon from Platoon, as well as Christopher Walken in The Deer Hunter and Sylvester Stallone as Rambo. If they were going to use actors from other films about Vietnam, they missed out on they opportunity to use Charlie Sheen's real life father Martin Sheen of Apocalypse Now.
The reason Charlie Sheen's helmet says 'Estevez' is because it's his real last name.
LOONEY GOONS
Australian MAD #305, September 1991
w & a: Steve Lopes
In Australia, the Warner Brothers cartoons were packaged in a show called The Bugs Bunny Show hosted by Sophie Lee, similar to Toon In With Me on MeTV.
