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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TOMMY-ROT
Crazy #13, October 1975
w: Steve Skeates & Lark Russell
a: Marie Severin
This had been a stage play and album before becoming a movie. The line for the movie in the splash is similar to the cult following the character of Tommy had in the climax of the movie. The girl with the scar is a reference to a musical number about a groupie who is injured trying to meet him. “The Entwhistle” refers to John Entwhistle, bassist for The Who.
Tommy's father (Robert Powell) is shot down in World War II and the mother (Ann-Margret), pregnant with their child, later remarries Frank (Oliver Reed). When the father returns home after being assumed dead, Frank kills him. Tommy witnesses this. His mother and father tell him he did not really see what just happened and it renders him deaf, blind, and mute.
Years later, Tommy (Roger Daltrey) is fully grown and his mother attempts to cure him of his illness at a faith healer (Eric Clapton) who runs a church where Jesus is Marilyn Monroe. They take him to a brothel where the Acid Queen (Tina Turner) takes his virginity.
It is uncertain whether it is a symbolic sex scene or she is literally injecting him with drugs, but either way, he's still a vegetable. When the mother and stepfather go out, they leave him in what they think are safe hands, first with a sadomasochistic cousin (Paul Nicholas) and then a perverted uncle (Keith Moon)
Tommy, in his catatonic state, wanders off into a junkyard and discovers a pinball machine, becoming pinball champion of the world and making his parents rich. There's a musical number with Elton John. (see below).
The mother takes Tommy to a doctor (Jack Nicholson) who can't cure him but lusts after her. She's upset that she can't enjoy all her riches because of his condition and throws him through a mirror in frustration, which cures him, and the first thing he tells her is to give up her material possessions.
Jack Nicholson makes a reference to his movie Five Easy Pieces and the movie he and Ann-Margret were in together was Carnal Knowledge.
Tommy is now a celebrity and opens up a series of Holiday Camps like Frank ran at the beginning, and lets his followers move in with him, and everything is groovy.
TALES FROM THE CREEP
Spoof #2, November 1972
w: Marv Wolfman
a: Marie Severin & Jon Costa
Anthology film from Amicus, a British production company that released dozens of horror films, based on the EC comic book from the 50s. The movie adapted five of the stories used in the comic, this parody used three.
The movie has five people who find themselves wondering where they are. They are in the Crypt of Terror and each one is revealed the reason they are there in a story told to them by the Crypt Keeper (Ralph Richardson) about how they will die.
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and Willard were two horror movies.
In the first story a woman (Joan Collins) has killed her husband for the insurance on Christmas Eve. She also hears a report that a homicidal maniac dressed as Santa Claus is on the loose, and finds herself trying to dispose of her husband's body and hide from the killer at the same time. Her daughter, who she thought she'd put to sleep, wakes up thinking the killer actually is Santa Claus and invites him in.
The next story is a retelling of The Monkey's Paw. A man (Richard Greene) is financially ruined, but his wife (Barbara Murray) discovers a statue and wishes for more money. The couple comes into money and upon going to get it, he dies in a car crash. She wishes he were still alive and he comes back badly mutilated.
The final story in the movie is about a man who runs a home for the blind and lives in luxury with his German shepherd while the residents all keep getting increasing financial cuts in meals and heat, which leads to one of their deaths. They get revenge by first luring his dog into the basement, thenthrowing him into a room next door. They eventually let him out but to exit he has to get through a series of mazes which include walls covered with razors and a hallyway with his dog that has been starving for two days.
Here he's portrayed as Hitler running a concentration camp that's actually a camp. The real story is in the video below.
The Crypt Keeper reveals they're all in the afterlife.
HBO 1989-1995
TALES FROM THE CREEP
Cracked #250, December 1989
w: Archie Falbo (Lou Silverstone)
a: Bill Wray
It later became a series on HBO, also using the same pool of stories from the comic book.
This comic is about the rivalry between MAD and Cracked. Before MAD, Bill Gaines had been publisher of Tales from the Crypt. Cracked was aware of his business practices in keeping and hoarding original art and though paying well, earning dollars on every penny the creator made. It was a coup for Cracked when they were able to poach long-time MAD contributor Don Martin, luring him by allowing him copyrights on his material and giving back his art. MAD writer Lou Silverstone was writing for Cracked simultaneously under a pen name before eventually becoming editor himself, and Bill Wray became one of the regulars at MAD.
The signature parodies “Ghastly”, the way Graham Ingels signed his work.
This also parodies the story And All Through the House that was used in the movie. (original story below) The Crypt Keeper is portrayed as Gaines. Jack Davis' signature is parodied in the upper left, while the story mimics the art of Johnny Craig.
It started as a series of bandes desinees (Belgian for comics) in the fifties called Les Schtroumpfs, was also a big hit here as a line of toys and merchandising juggernaut, latter a couple movies, but this is just about the Saturday morning cartoon.
HAS AMERICA GONE SNURF CRAZY?
Bananas #68, circa 1983
w: Jovial Bob Stine
a: Sam Viviano
They were all a few inches tall and lived in the forest, Gargamel and his cat Azreal were trying to destroy them. And they would use the word 'Smurf' in place of regular words. Instead of names there was a different type of every Smurf. Papa Smurf was the only adult and Smurfette was the only woman.
SMURPHS
Crazy #94, April 1983
w: Stu Schwartzberg
a: Marie Severin
SATURDAYS
National Lampoon #147, June 1982
w: Al Jean, Ted Mann, Michael Reiss
Done during the time when there were two late-night comedy shows on the air, Saturday Night Live, which still exists today, and Fridays, a short-lived imitation out of the West Coast. I don't count SCTV in the same category. It was not performed in front of a live audience, everything they did existed in one single reality, and some seasons didn't have laughtracks.
National Lampoon was always dissing it for being just another TV comedy show, but they were really jealous that their writers and cast members from their records and radio shows were being poached.
MAD had a few references to the show. This is from The Lighter Side of The Idiot Box in #215, June 1980 by who else—Dave Berg.
From MAD's Plan to Make the Congressional TV Show More Entertaining in #216, July 1980, by Lou Silverstone and Jack Davis. One of the correspondents on SNL was Roseanne Roseannadanna (Gilda Radner).
Marvel Team-Up was their showcase title, teaming Spider-Man with new or secondary Marvel characters. This particular issue, that didn't team him up with Marvel characters, is never used in reprint collections for licensing reasons.
LIVE FROM NEW YORK, IT'S SATURDAY NIGHT
Marvel Team-Up #74, October 1978
w: Chris Claremont
a: Bob Hall & Marie Severin
John Belushi's Samurai was one of the recurring characters.
The general public would never have heard of most of the Marvel characters then, though many were used in a superhero sketch (see below).
George Carlin hosted the first Saturday Night Live and Chevy Chase was one of the original cast members. College used to be where most comedians did their act because students were more socially conscious, but now the social conscience of students is the reason they won't.
Here's a cover Jack Davis did for TV Guide.
SCTV did their parody Thursday Night Live. If you look at the other sketches, you can see why I feel the two shows are different.
