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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BATMAN
ABC 1966-1968 BATMAN (1989)
dir: Tim Burton
Every generation has their own version of Batman, there were the movie serials in the 40s up to the dark remakes now. These are more pages from 1989 that both parody and cash in on the then-upcoming 1989 Batman movie based on what they knew from the 1966 TV show. You can find the other versions MAD and Cracked had of that movie and the earlier TV show here.
Cover of Taiwan edition of MAD.
Swedish edition
Norwegian edition
In the eighties and nineties Cracked often dedicated an issue to articles about a movie before devoting the next issue to the actual parody. In 1989, most of an issue was devoted to the upcoming movie they hadn't yet seen and knowledge of the comics character made a part of the national vocabulary from the 60s TV program.
BATTY-WEAPONS THAT DIDN'T QUITE MAKE IT TO THE UTILITY BELT
Cracked #248, October 1989
w: George Gladir
a: John Severin
WHAT'S HOT AND WHAT'S NOT
a: Gary Fields
BADTMAN
a: Pat Boyette
Bob Kane was the person who created, or rather, took credit for and signed the strip.
THE SOUNDS OF BATTYMAN
a: Don Martin
A CRACKED LOOK AT BATMAN
w: Roger Brown
a: Mike Ricigliano
WHAT IF BRUISE PAYNE DIDN'T BECOME BATMAN?
w: George Gladir
a: Ron Wagner
THEM BATTYMAN SEQUELS WE'RE SURE TO SEE
w: George Gladir
a: John Severin
puns on Rutger Hauer, Bette Midler, Farrah Fawcett, Burt Reynolds, and Claude Raines
George Burns, Treat Williams, Rhonda Fleming, George C. Scott
Telly Savalas, Carol Channing, Tab Hunter, Rob Reiner
Terence Stamp, Nick Nolte, Frank Converse, Judd Nelson, Benny Hill
CRACKED INTERVIEW WITH RABID THE WONDER BOY
w: Rich Kriegel (Lou Silverstone)
a: John Severin
In Batman Forever, it was acknowledged that Robin was part of a family circus troop called the Flying Graysons.
FORM & FUNCTION LOOKS AT THE NEW GEAR
a: Rurik Tyler
SHUT-UPS
a: Don Orehek
Inside back cover
Back cover (artist unknown, border by Bill Wray)
Back to MAD
VILLAINS AWAITING BATMAN'S RETURN TO TV
MAD #298, October 1990
w: Charlie Kadau & Joe Raiola
a: Rick Tulka
Jackie Mason had a sitcom co-starring Lynn Redgrave called Chicken Soup.
Bob Guccione used more than one Miss America winner for his Penthouse magazine. Joe Piscopo had left the cast of Saturday Night Live by then but was doing his characters and impressions for Lite Beer commercials.
CRACKED INTERVIEWS THE JERKER
Cracked #250, December 1989
w: Rich Kriegel (Lou Silverstone)
a: Walter Brogan
“Heeeere's Johnny”, while initially Johnny Carson's tagline, may be better known as a line by Jack Nicholson from The Shining.
Eddie Murphy hadn't been a cast member of Saturday Night Live for years at that point. Robin Willians, Steve Martin, and Jay Leno never were.
Looks like we have another royal flush (Mad, Cracked, Crazy, and Sick). Let us proceed, shall we?
MAD #212, Jan. 1980
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Mort Drucker
The crew of the spaceship Nostromo (Noisy Roamer) awakes from their deep sleep and we are introduced to Dallas (Tom Skerritt), Lambert (Veronica Cartwright), Brett (Harry Dean Stanton), Kane (John Hurt), Ash (Ian Holm), Parker (Yaphet Kotto), and of course Ripley (Sigourney Weaver).
After waking up from their coma, they check in with the mother computer (using the same joke basis from their 2001 parody).
They receive a distress signal and land on the moon to investigate it. They discover a group of eggs.
One of the aliens has hatched from the egg and affixed itself to Kane's face and has acidic blood.
They decide Kane is okay but another alien suddenly bursts through his chest.
When Brett goes looking for the cat (who must have also been in suspended animation, which I wondered when I was nine), he is also killed by the alien, which is now loose in the ship.
The remaining crew finds Ash is a traitor who's been ordered to bring the alien back with them. He gets in a fight with Ripley and they discover he is a robot.
With only three left (plus the cat) and the alien on the loose, they have no choice but to escape. It gets Parker and Lambert before they're able to get out, leaving Ripley the only one remaining.
In Germany, they put it on the cover.
Now let's see how Cracked looked at it.
ALLIEN
Cracked #164, November 1979
a: John Severin
Their take was that Alien had too much gore and this was a guide for where it was. This was a gimmick used a few years earlier for the movie Cannibal Girls.
Repeat gag of “mother ship” being someone's actual mother.
They give away the part about Ash being a robot at the beginning.
The face-clinging...
...and its removal, then the blood acid scene
Chest-bursting, then the scene where Brett is killed looking for the cat.
Ash decapitated
Parker and Lambert are killed getting rations.
AILIN'
Crazy #59, February 1980
w: Murad Gumen
a: John Reiner
This was from something they did called Shorty Cinema Satires which also parodied Moonraker and Rocky II.
AILIEN
Sick #130, December 1979
w & a: Dave Manak
The movie alludes to the fact that there are no sounds in space with the tagline “In space, no one can hear you scream.”
Bananas had UGH-Lien which I don't have. Spaceballs has always been my least favorite Mel Brooks film. In addition to lacking the repertory company of his previous movies, the spoof genre was starting to die out by then. Airplane! had started a different style without comedians and a deadpan delivery. What also made Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles work is that Mel Brooks and his collaborators had the tropes of monster movies and westerns embedded in their brains, having grown up on them. He was 51 when Star Wars came out. Spaceballs had one or two funny lines, but that's only because I always find something in even the worst comedies.
Why do I bring this up? Because towards the end it pays tribute to the famous chest-bursting scene from Alien using the same actor. UPDATE:
The tagline for the movie was “In space,no one can hear you scream”. From the British edition of MAD. There was no cover art for the domestic one.
From the Norwegian edition of MAD. It says Alien singular even though it came out after the sequel, but I'm going to guess it's for the first one.
UPDATE 2:
UGH! LIEN
Bananas #31, c. 1979
w: Jovial Bob Stine
a: Sam Viviano
