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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The show was about a guy named Jack Tripper (John Ritter) who moved in with three women, Janet (Joyce DeWitt) and Chrissy (Suzanne Sommers) to split the rent, but in order for their landlord to believe nothing was going on between them, Jack had to pretend he was gay.
Suzanne Somers was fired from the show for demanding equal pay and replaced by Cindy (Jenilee Harrison), who was Chrissy's cousin, which only lasted a couple seasons before being replaced by Terri (Priscilla Barnes). The Ropers were the original landlords who left to do a spinoff and were replaced by Mr. Furley (Don Knotts). Jack's friend Larry (Richard Kline) was also added.
THREE'SA COMPANY
Cracked #186, May 1982
a: Samuel B. Whitehead
Eventually, they got rid of the conceit of Jack pretending to be gay. There was a character named Lana that got top billing for a few episodes, a cougar that chased after Jack, but they dropped her since they almost never used her.
TREE'S COMPANY
Cracked #201, January 1984
a: John Severin
3'S COMFY
Bananas #70, circa 1983
w: Jovial Bob Stine
a: Sam Viviano
And this was the porno movie parodying the series.
The earlier incarnation of the show was posted yesterday. Click "older post".
GHOST-DUSTERS
MAD #253, March 1985
w: Arnie Kogen
a: Sam Viviano
Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), and Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) are three science professors asked by the New York Public Library to investigate paranormal activity. When they return to the university where they work, they are terminated for practicing bogus science and start business for themselves as Ghostbusters in an abandoned firehouse. Their first job is to look at a something haunting a hotel.
With their equipment they find the ghost, and after it slimes them and they trash the hotel, they catch and trap it. Meanwhile, Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver), a resident in a building overlooking Central Park, notices strange goings-on in her apartment and consults the Ghostbusters. Peter Venkman investigates while also making moves on her. Later, she agrees to a date with him and when he meets her she becomes possessed by a spirit in the building and claims to be the Gatekeeper seeking the Keymaster. Louis Tully (Rick Moranis) is her neighbor across the hall who has a crush on her, and he too becomes possessed by a spirit and claims to be the Keymaster.
The main plot point, is not used in this parody, in which an agent from the EPA shuts their business down, also shutting down the machine where they trap all the ghosts they've caught throughout the movie, letting them all loose throughout the city. The Ghostbusters are arrested for having a fraudulent business, and while in jail study a map of the Central Park building. They discover it was designed as a conduit for Gozer, master of the Gatekeeper and Keymaster that were possessing Dana and Louis, and the one wreaking havoc on the city with ghosts. The Ghostbusters are eventually sprung by the city as the only hope of retrapping the ghosts. Gozer has now taken the form of corporate mascot the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man which is 200 feet tall and attacking the city ala Godzilla.
Also not used are Annie Potts as their secretary and Ernie Hudson, who gets hired later as the fourth Ghostbuster.
This was not used on the cover in the U.S. but was for the German edition.
THE GUEST-DUSTERS
Cracked #249, November 1989
w & a: Pat Boyette
The logo was just as popular as the movie. Newsweek parodied it on their cover, for one example.
Harvey Comics tried to sue, claiming their logo was appropriating their character Fatso.
You don't think the porn industry would ignore a successful movie, do you?
FAIREST SHLUMP
MAD #332, December 1994
w: Arnie Kogen
a: Mort Drucker
Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks), the story of a simple man who tells his life story to anyone else waiting at his bus stop in Savannah, GA, and they all politely listen.
Zelig was another movie from years earlier that was also about a man who was present throughout significant moments in the twentieth century. And Hanks did win the Academy Award for best actor in this.
Forrest is not smart enough to get into a regular public school until his mother (Sally Field) has sex with the principal to get him in. She runs a boarding house, and one of the guests is Elvis Presley, who uses Forrest's wobbly stance as his trademark hip-shaking act. When he goes to school, nobody will share a seat on the bus except Jenny (Robin Wright), who ends up being his friend for life. Later, when he's being picked on by other children for being disabled, he runs from them, out of his leg braces, and onto a football field. The coach is so impresses by his running they make him a football star, despite him not knowing how to play the game.
Not shown: When he wins the football championship, he gets to meet JFK and has had so many sodas all he can say is that he has to pee.
He goes to a high school Gov. George Wallace has tried to segregate and ends up on the news in the background. Jenny tries to take his virginity before he goes off to Vietnam. At Vietnam, his best friend is Bubba Blue (Mykelti Williamson), an equally simple man who he plans to go into the shrimp business with. Their commanding officer is Lt. Dan (Gary Sinise), whose life he saves even though Dan wanted to die with honor. When Forrest gets out of the army, he finds Jenny is a stripper and beats up guys who make unwanted sexual advances, which she tells him she can handle herself. In Washington, he ends up in a line with vets against the war and is invited to speak for them. He has no idea what it's about, and as he's about to deliver a speech to a mass audience, military men cut off his mic and we don't hear what he really says. He's also reunited with Jenny after many years.
They also cut out the part where as a war hero, he gets the medal of freedom from President Johnson and shows his butt to show where he was wounded, probably a nod to LBJ showing everyone his surgical scar. They leave out the best parts.
Forrest has a talent for ping-pong and the military continues to use him as the ping-pong champion. He gets reunited with Lt. Dan and ends up living with him in a seedy Times Square hotel, though Dan initially hates him for rescuing him in Vietnam and leaving him legless. Forrest buys a shrimping boat to honor Bubba, who he lost in the war, and Dan joins him because he promised to, thinking Forrest would never follow through with it. They catch nothing, then a storm wrecks every boat but theirs, making them the only remaining and therefore most successful shrimp company in the world. Then Forrest's mother dies.
Jenny comes back into his life and comes to live with him, and finally taking his virginity. She leaves again while he's sleeping and when he notices she's gone, he runs across the country to find her and becomes a prominent long-distance runner, picking up a large following.
For the sake of a punchline, they don't include the real ending of Jenny coming back in his life and revealing they have a son, they get married, she dies of an illness, and life goes on with him raising the son.
"Weird Al" Yankovic did a parody of The Presidents of the United States of America's Lump as Gump, making it a twofer parody.
There was a porno parody of this movie, appropriately titled Forrest Hump.
UPDATE: MAD INTERVIEWS THE TOBACCO EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR
MAD #341, December 1995
w: Chris Hart
a: Mort Drucker
Usually the people doing interviews were celebrities who weren't necessarily actors, and they never were the roles they played, but I guess Forrest Gump was popular that year.
THE FORREST GUMP SCRAPBOOK
Cracked #296, January 1995
w: Mike Mikula
a: Randy Jones
FLUSH GORGON
Crazy #75, June 1981
w: Paul Kupperberg
a: Bob Camp
Based on the comic strip, which had inspired an earlier radio show and movie serial.
The tagline for the movie was "Puny earthlings... Who will save you now?"
We begin with Ming the Merciless (Max Von Sydow), emperor of the planet Mongo, causing disasters on Earth just because he can. On Earth, Flash (Sam J. Jones) is a Jets football player flying a plane with Dale Ardor (Melody Anderson) and they have crashed into a meteor. When they notice the pilots have been lost, Flash tries to land the plane and crashes into the laboratory of Dr. Hans Zarkov (Topol). This is where our parody begins.
Zarkov's assistant has refused to come aboard his spaceship where he plans to investigate these disasters, so when Flash and Dale conveniently crash land into his lab, he forces them to come with him.
Flash Pilots the ship and lands on Mongo...
...where they are captured by Ming.
The first panel refers to Topol's role as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, the MAD parody of which we printed pages from last week.
Ming has forced Dale to marry him. Flash has been rescued by Ming's daughter, Princess Aura (Ornella Muti).
Flash is forced by Vultan of the Hawk-men (Brian Blessed) to fight Prince Barin of Arboria (Timothy Dalton) in a death match, but after Flash saves Barin from falling into a deadly pit they all form an alliance to overthrow Ming.
Ming is about to blow up the Earth and marry Dale but Flash, with the help of the Hawk-men and Prince Barin's army, who feature prominently in the movie but not as much here, swoops in and stops both. He has saved the universe, but him and Dale plan to go back to New York.
The Flash Gordon strip was probably best known for the Buster Crabbe Saturday matinee it was adapted into...
There was a recurring bit on the National Lampoon Radio Hour called Flash Bazbo, Space Explorer. This one you can tell was actor Christopher Guest improvising.
There was a porn version of the classic movie serials. Pornographic for 1974 at least. I saw it in high school but I bet if I looked at it now it would be a hard R at most.
UPDATE: FOUR-FLUSH GORDON: ACE OF SPACE
Get Lost #1, March 1954
a: Ross Andru & Mike Esposito
