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.
Updated daily. There's posts besides this one archived in the sidebar on the right, you clods!
if you're at a laptop or desktop, right-click and open link on pages and they'll be clearer and legible in a new window.
ZERRO, THE GAY BLADE
MAD #231, June 1981
w: Stan Hart
a: Mort Drucker
Zorro has existed since early last century from pulps to Saturday matinees to early television. He was a swashbuckler in Mexico famous for marking his victims with a Z with his sword. A movie was made with George Hamilton in which he had to choose between either passing the torch to his son or his brother, who he also played. George Hamilton had previously been in the Dracula spoof Love at First Bite.
The following was from MAD's Academy Awards Show
ED ZORROW CALLS ON MORRO
This Magazine Is Crazy #6, September 1958
a: Tony Couch?
Zorro was an early segment on TV's Disneyland. This comic parodies Person to Person, an interview show hosted by newscaster Edward R. Murrow.
All TV shows and movies mentioned in this post have also been parodied and are featured here.
ZAPPING
MAD #258, October 1985
w: Arnie Kogen
a: Mort Drucker
In Zapped!, Scott Baio and Willie Aames play two teenagers who obtain telekenetic powers that make them able to take off womens' clothes. From Academy Awards for Teenage Films. That's right, they call them “films” and not “movies”.
YOUNG SURESCHLOCK HOMELY
MAD #263, June 1986
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Mort Drucker
The origin of Sherlock Holmes (Nicholas Rowe), how he met Watson (Alan Cox), and their first major case.
The prologue to the movie has someone shot with a blowdart and being injected with a poison that makes them hallucinate, part of the case they end up breaking. John Watson enrolls in Brompton boarding school where he meets Sherlock Holmes, who guesses his name and identity based on his clothing and belongings, a foreshadowing of the deductions we know him for. At the beginning of the film, Sherlock is challenged by a classmate to find a hidden trophy, which he concludes is inside an antique vase based on clues he discovers while looking for it. He's expelled from the school for cheating by schoolmaster Rathe (Anthony Higgins) who is also his friend and fencing instructor. Rupert Waxflatter (Nigel Stock), a former professor of Sherlock's and eccentric inventor, kills himself while the victim of the same mysterious blowdart perpetrator. Dr. Waxflatter's niece is Elizabeth (Sophie Ward) is Sherlock's girlfriend, and with Watson they decide to solve the case and find what happened.
Sherlock seeks the aid of Lt. LeStrade of Scotland Yard (Roger Ashton-Griffiths) who refuses to help. In their search for what's been happening in town, Sherlock and Watson come across an Egyptianh sacrificial cult, who has just kidnapped Elizabeth.
They find Rathe has been the leader of the cult all along and create a distraction to destroy the temple while saving Elizabeth. Sherlock challenges Rathe to a duel and wins. Elizabeth is shot in all this. The case is solved and Sherlock Holmes goes home for the year, promising Watson that some day they'll meet again.
A CRACKED LOOK AT YOUNG SCHLOCK HOLMES
Cracked #220, July 1986
w: Joe Catalano
a: Walter Brogan
It would be better to see more of this style from Walter Brogan than the Mort Drucker swipes they usually printed but I guess it's what they wanted. It would also be nice if I got some of these gags. But if “ifs and buts” were candy and nuts...
THE YOUNG BUMS
MAD UK #270, October 1984
w: Robert Seaville
a: David Stoten
Surreal sitcom from Britain that was a huge hit in the US when rerun on MTV, about four college students and their landlord. Rick (Rik Mayall) was the student who went through his leftist politics and anarchy phase and thought he was better than everyone, but secretly into mainstream entertainment like Cliff Richard (The Young Ones was named after an earlier movie and song of his). Vivian (Ade Edmondson) was the violent metal punk with a pet hamster named Special Patrol Group , Neil (Nigel Planer) was a hippie that was always ignored by the group, Mike The Cool Guy (Christopher Ryan) was publicly a ladies man and straight man of the group (he wasn't in the comedy circle the rest of them were part of). Jerzy Bulofsky (Alexei Sayle) was the landlord who dropped in time to time, drifting in and out of a Russian accent, and usually doing monologues from his stand-up routine.
Coincidentally, Bottom was the name of a show some of them did later on.
Neil was responsible for doing the cooking in the house, usually making things with lentils.
Rik Mayall was also one of the writers for the show.
Every week, there were two minutes with a musical guest, the reason it was rerun on MTV in the eighties.
The show would often be interrupted by talking animals and objects that had nothing to do with the plot. At the end is an appearance by Cliff Richard himself.
THE WRONG LIONS
MAD #41, September 1958
a: Mort Drucker
A movie about World War II based on a book by Irwin Shaw, with Marlon Brando as Christian Dietsl, Dean Martin as Michael Whiteacre, and Montgomery Clift as Noah Ackerman.
YOUNG EISTRAIN
Australian MAD #287, April 1989
w & a: Warren Brown
His real name is Greg Pead, which is actually funnier than his stage name.
Showcase for Yahoo Serious, a comedian who had his fifteen minutes of fame here in the U.S. during our brief period of Ozploitation in the late eighties. Young Einstein concerns the exploits of Albert Einstein as a youth. How he developed carbonated beer and went to the city to patent his formula, had it stolen and thus in danger of having the bubbles create the nuclear bomb, and along the way he invented surfing and rock & roll, and had a romance with Marie Curie (Odile LeClezio).
MENTL
MAD #248, July 1984
w: Arnie Kogen
a: Mort Drucker
Yentl (Barbara Streisand) is a young Ashkenazi woman living in a shtetl in Europe interested in studying the Talmud. Law and religion forbid woman from doing so, but she does anyway. Booksellers come to town attempting to steer her away from Talmudic texts and encourage her to read picture books instead, refusing to sell her books for men until she lies and says they're for someone else. Others in the community whisper concern among themselves that Yentl does not have a husband.
Yentl secretly studies the Talmud under her father. When he dies, she decides to travel to a Yeshiva and in order to do so disguises herself as a man.
Victor/Victoria was a comedy about a cross-dresser that came out around the same time
On her way to be accepted to the Yeshiva, Yentl meets Avigdor (Mandy Patinkin) and takes the identity of her brother Anshel. They are both accepted and she moves in with his family. She has to share a bed with Avigdor while living with him, fooling them into thinking he is Anshel while developing feelings for him.
Avigdor is engaged to Hadass (Amy Irving). The guys all skinny dip and invite Yentl/Anshel along which she refuses to do lest she give up her ruse. Hadass's family calls off her marriage to Avigdor and believe “Anshel” to be a better suitor. “Anshel” goes through with it so she can be near Avigdor. She's gone in way over her head and continues to delay consummation of the marriage. It's complicated.
Nicky Arnstein was the name of the husband in Funny Girl. Isaac Bashevis Singer was the author of the story Yentl is based on.
“Anshel” teaches Hadass to be more liberated and gets her to go back to Avigdor. She reveals herself to really be Yentl before going off to the New World.
The song in the panel where Yentl strips down is a parody of the song from The Way We Were
YELLOWSTREAK
MAD UK #247, November 1982
a: Dave Stoten
A lot of TV detective spoofs of the seventies put all the detectives together, usually because the premise was the detective had some kind of gimmick or trait. This is supposed to by about this premise taken to its most absurd conclusion as a detective called Yellowstreak, who's supposed to be Orson Welles as all their traits combined.
This article seems to pre-date right-wing rancor against “woke” by forty years, lamenting how detectives used to be like Sam Spade, then TV made them disabled (Ironside, Raymond Burr), black (Shaft, Richard Roundtree), female (Police Woman, Angie Dickinson), fat (Cannon, William Conrad), streetsmart (Columbo, Peter Falk), and old (Barnaby Jones, Eddie Albert). McCloud is in the background of the splash panel as well.
Winifred Atwell was a jazz/ragtime musician. I have no idea why she's referenced here.
There are appearances by Quincy, Efrem Zimbalist and Roger Smith from 77 Sunset Strip, and Starsky & Hutch. There seems to be a picture of James Garner in Quincy's lab. In the last panel Orson Welles looks more like Tim Curry.
I'm familar with Karl Malden and Michael Douglas from Street of San Francisco and Robert Wagner from Hart to Hart, but I must say I'm stumped by the two in the same panel as with Kojak. They must be the only non-American detectives.
CORN-VOY
Game Volume 4 #9, circa 1978
w & a: Pete Davidson (?)
Not the comedian and Saturday Night Live cast member, unless he went back in time 20 years and moved to England.
As the blog comes to a close, it's inevitable a few odds and ends will trickle in. After I end with ZPG in a few weeks I'll be returning with things like this. First up is something from a British nudie magazine called Game.
Convoy was released at the height of the CB radio craze and the 'good old boy' film genre, and based on an earlier song. The movie is about about Rubber Duck (Kris Kristofferson) on the run from the law, fleeing across the country with Melissa (Ali McGraw) accompanied by an increasingly larger crowd of allies. A convoy, if you will.
You can tell they never saw the movie by how the actors' appearances are drawn from stock shots in other movies. Ali McGraw has short hair in the movie.
Steve McQueen wasn't in this. He was married to Ali McGraw in real life.
Jimmy Carter's mother Lillian a/k/a “Miss Lillian” was prominent in his presidential tenure.
This next one was a parody in Esquire's parody of MAD in their August 1964 issue.
M (1931)
dir: Fritz Lang
There's no byline for this MAD parody. Rumor has it that Harvey Kurtzman wrote it under a pseudonym. While it tracks that he was a frequent contributor to Esquire and upset about what happened to his creation, the angle seems to be that MAD is creating a generation of delinquents with its satire. Kurtzman's take would have been more of “not funny as it once was”, since even if he saw MAD after him as a watered-down version, he'd acknowledge it still had the same intent.
And the film here is about a child predator (Peter Lorre) pursued by police and the public. Alfred Kinsey, Charles DeGaulle, Liberace, Al Capone, and Tom Dewey weren't in it.
YECCH! OR WHAT A WASTE!
MAD #164, January 1974
w: Lou Silverstone
a: Don Martin
MAD's take on what we'd expect to see from monster movies soon. The issue of pollution was much more of a concern them. The EPA had only been around for three years so its impact hadn't fully taken effect yet.
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.
