Parody

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In case you haven't realized it by now, this is a parody of Highlander. —Robot Chicken

A parody is a twisted imitation of another artistic work. Some aspects may be exaggerated, and others downplayed. Parodies are usually comedic, but are not always; a dark parody is a common method of Deconstruction. An intentional mockery, though often a loving one. Imitates the style of the original in order to puncture its mistakes and point out its flaws. Can be sublime, or worse than the original. Sometimes an Homage or Shout-Out doubles as a parody. And sometimes the entire work gets parodied.

Lack of respect for the source material is the most common danger of parody. Not all parody is Satire. As satire is usually pursuing an intellectual point, we expect it to be critical. On the other hand, most parodies are watched by people who liked the original stories, so pointing out too loudly that something is stupid (or that it broadly seems to defy the premise) can subconsciously insult the viewer. In fact, many successful parodies still use the situation or design that they mock. They simply point out that it doesn't make sense, but let the appeal be in the eye of the beholder.

Another danger is the assumption that the audience is familiar with the subject matter being parodied; extensive parodies have multiple layers of comic gold. This can be shaky ground, depending on the age of your audience, and writers sometimes resign themselves to broad, widely known characters and situations. The problem is that such things have probably already been parodied to death. Enough parodies can cause a shift to that version of the character into becoming the archetype, leading to later subversions of subversions.

The most basic idea is, of course, that a parody is essentially something you've seen before in a different form. Your audience hopes you bring something new to the table, and will not be impressed if all you do is regurgitate tropes.

The nature of parody can lead to unfortunate Misaimed Fandom.

See also Satire, Pastiche, Farce, Meta Trope Intro, Parodied Trope (spoofing a trope).

For a list of tropes used in parodies, see Parody Tropes.

Examples of Parody include:

Comic Books

• The Dork Tower comic regularly features covers (and sometimes entire issues) that parody some aspect of geek or pop culture, often with some relationship to the story inside. Subjects have included Understanding Comics, Rice Krispies cereal, A Brief History of Time, Harvey Comics, Pink Floyd...

Film

• The Scary Movie series contains countless send-ups of contemporary horror and sci-fi movies, among other films. A few of the creators have also produced similar genre-spoof movies with self-descriptive titles, like Date Movie, Epic Movie and Disaster Movie. Despite their names, they seem to spoof the trailers of the respective year's hyped films instead.
  • Not Another Teen Movie, a parody of teen films in general and She's All That in particular, was also written by two (different) members of the same team of creators.
  • And Seltzer and Friedberg's Meet the Spartans and Vampires Suck is, you've guessed it, a parody of the ~300~ film and the Twilight series.
• A grand Italian tradition is that of redubbing, which consists in gag dubs of movies ranging from the sketches to full-length movies that may not share the film's plot or premise at all (sometimes with extensive new footage shot). Started with Star Trek II way way back in the 1980s, making the gag dub Older Than They Think. Lots of parodies can be found here (naturally in Italian, and many of which strictly in local dialects.)
  • A recurring gag in a Gag Dub is to use the original dialogue of certain characters. By simply changing the other dialogue around it, what they said makes them look even stupider than if their dialogue had been changed.
    • Occasionally, lampshades may be hung on the use of original lines. Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series is fond of a flashing * ACTUAL 4KIDS DIALOG* label on the bottom of the screen.
• Beverly Hills Ninja is a parody of Mighty Whitey ninja films. It features a tribe of ninjas adopting an orphan Caucasian boy whom they think will be their clan's long-prophesized "Great White Hope." Unfortunately for them, the boy grows up to be a clumsy, uncoordinated adult (played by Chris Farley) and the only way he can save the day is with the secret assistance of the ninja tribe's best Japanese member.
• Spaceballs was a parody of Star Wars.
  • Mel Brooks loves parodies, and he has sent up several other popular films and characters.
• James Bond was actually intended to be a parody of espionage films, but, ironically enough, it turned out to be held as the quintessential spy series; even getting its own parodies in the form of films such as Spy Hard, Austin Powers and Get Smart.
• Big Money Hustlas, produced by Insane Clown Posse's label, Psychopathic Records, is a parody of '70s exploitation flicks. Its follow-up, Big Money Rustlas, is a parody of westerns.
• Mystery Team is this for amateur sleuth stories.
• The New Zealand comedy Tongan Ninja is a spoof of martial arts films in general, and Bruce Lee's Way of the Dragon in particular.

Literature

• The Dragaera novels include a subseries called the Khaavren Romances that parody Alexandre Dumas.
• Lord of the Flies is a dark parody of Jules Verne's Two Years Vacation - both involve groups of upper-class schoolboys being marooned on a desert island in similar circumstances, but where Verne's kids Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence, Golding's descend into primitive savagery.
  • It's also taking on R. M. Ballantyne's Coral Island (Lampshaded by the end).
• The Harvard Lampoon's Bored of the Rings rather viciously skewers The Lord of the Rings.
• Barry Trotter parodies... oh, go on, guess.
• The ancient Greek Batrachomyomachia makes this Older Than Feudalism, since the 300-line poem parodies the epic genre by using epic conventions for a rather non-heroic story: a battle between mice and frogs.

Live Action TV

• Sledge Hammer! is an over-the-top parody of the Cowboy Cop.
  • At least in the first season. Then it became too whiny and Rom Com-ish, attempting satire and/or deconstruction where none were necessary.
• Similarly, Police Squad!! was a parody of 1960s- and 1970s-vintage Police Procedural shows, particularly the output of Quinn Martin Productions, and specifically M Squad.
• The Daily Show uses the parody news format to make satirical points. Its Spin-Off, The Colbert Report, does satire as well, but parodies blowhard opinion shows like The O'Reilly Factor instead of straight news.
• Brass Eye parodied the shock-obsessed news media by lifting their style.
• iCarly: The fake movie trailers. Kelly Cooper: Terrible Movie is about cliched teen chick movies, and The Blowing pokes fun on disaster films.
• The Oceanic Six: A Conspiracy of Lies is a mockumentary on the Lost season 4 DVD. Presented as an in-universe documentary, the film is an obvious parody of Loose Change, from the music, voiceovers, interviews with questionably qualified scientists, anonymous interviews, wild accusations, and claims of a government coverup in regards to the crash of Oceanic flight 815 and the subsequent rescuing of six passengers. The irony, of course, is that the documentary is right that the official story is a lie...but its explanation is hilariously wrong (one word: cannabalism).
• My Life in Film, a little-known BBC comedy about a slightly delusional scriptwriter that took place in worlds that were parodies of popular films.

Magazines

• Mad Magazine specializes in parodies, particularly those of movies and TV shows. Some also have satirical elements...but for some reason the magazine refers to all of them as satires, not parodies, so it's no wonder Keanu Reeves got confused.

Music

• "Weird Al" Yankovic has made a career out of parody songs.
• Also Bohemian Parody, which covers parodies of Bohemian Rhapsody.

Radio

• The Howard Stern Show used to and sometimes still will parody television shows and movies, although more frequently song parodies are featured, many of which, sent in by fans, are about being sexually attracted to news anchor Robin Quivers. Literally thousands of these exist, and one or two are always played before her news segment.
• The BBC Radio 4 series Hordes of the Things, by A.P.R. Marshall (Andrew Marshall of Two Point Four Children) and J.H.W. Lloyd (John Lloyd of Hitchhikers Guide and Blackadder) was a parody of The Lord of the Rings. It's notable because it was broadcast six months before the Radio 4 adaptation of LOTR, and manages to predict some of the voice characterization to a spooky degree. (Or they heard about it in the canteen.)
• "The Further Adventures Of Nick Danger, Third Eye" by the Firesign Theatre is an extended parody of Film Noir.
• Dave Hollins: Space Cadet was a parody of 2001: A Space Odyssey in which the titular character was left as the sole survivor of his ship's crew. The premise of this would later be followed up with a Spiritual Successor in Red Dwarf.

Video Games

• Each Destroy All Humans!! game is basically parody of Sci-Fi Alien Invasion and the ENTIRE DECADE the game takes place in.
• Conkers Bad Fur Day and its remake are mostly based on parodies of famous movies and videogames.
• The name of the game Parodius says it all, period (parody of Gradius)!
• Homestar Runner's "fake" and now Defictionalized Videlectrix had been producing parody games long before Telltale Games Strong Bads Cool Game for Attractive People. Since point-and-click adventures had become self-parodying since their early years, it was a natural format.

Web Comics

• Devil Bear is full of parodies. Especially in the teddy bears that end up going to Hell. Parodies of Winnie the Pooh , Kiss , and Pokémon to name a few.
• Kick The Football, Chuck is a parody of Charles Schulz' "Peanuts" where all of the classic gags (kicking the football, talking on the brick wall, flying a kite, Lucy's "psychiatric booth..ect) are portrayed in light of Charlie Brown's caner.
• Wizard School is a parody of Harry Potter, with the cliche magical child as "Chosen One," replaced with a drunken jerk with a tattoo on his forehead.
• Greg parodied movies in the early stages of the comic, including Green Lantern and Transformers 3.

Web Original

• Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series and its various spin-offs and imitators are notable for taking up only a third of the time and containing twice the plot of the shows they parody.
• Sailor Nothing is a dark parody of Sailor Moon and, by extension, a Pastiche of Magical Girl shows in general.
• Docfuture's Let's Play of Sonic 2: Special Edition for Sega CD 32X is a parody of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, its development, and Updated Rereleases in general.
• This video and many, many others parody Lady Gaga's song Bad Romance. Others are parodied, but that song has the most.
• This madlib parodies certain Paranormal Romance stories.
• Next Time on Lonny is a Deconstructive Parody of reality shows.
• This video is a parody of unboxing videos.

Western Animation

• The Family Guy Star Wars special parodies various moments in the sci-fi film but does not satirise it.
• Animaniacs was MADE of parodies. They did everything from The Sound of Music to Godzilla to Barney to Star Wars to Power Rangers to...
• Pretty much the entire point of Robot Chicken. They'll do an original sketch at least once an episode, but the rest is typically all parodies. They've even made three Star Wars parody episodes.
• Yin Yang Yo makes various parodies to other cartoons outside their original networks.
• American Dad has a whole episode parodying the plot of James Bond movies, Stan as the agent, Steve as the inventions man, Hayley as the secretary, Roger as the villain, Claus as the evil minion, and Francine as the one that falls for the agent.