What Happened to the Spoof?

This last couple of days, my son and I have been renting all the Star Wars movies when all of a sudden, my son asks me, "What's this?"

He had picked up the movie "Space Balls". I couldn't believe I had let seven years of his life go by without seeing the all time greatest movie spoof of all time! I righted that wrong imediately. This started me thinking about all the great spoofs that have come and gone, and what the hell happened to them. The first I remember seeing was "Blazing Saddles". Mel Brooks comedic take on the speghetti western. Great film. Also at the time, you had the TV show Police Squad. Leslie Neilson at his finest. That show spawned the one of the only truly great spoof franchises, "The Naked Gun". You can also throw "Police Academy" in the mix as a cop, spoof-ish franchise, but when you make something close to ten movies (when there's only about two or three that people acually liked)... well, let's just say that instead of it making the jokes, it has become the joke.

Okay, back on track. We all know what the good ones are, but just in case you don't, here's a short list: Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, Police Squad (the enitre series is pure gold), Airplane, The Naked Gun, the first couple of Police Academy movies, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Dragnet (the movie with Tom Hanks and Dan Aykroyd), The Princess Bride, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Austin Powers, the first two Scary Movies, Shrek, and to a certain degree, Shaun of the Dead, and Hot Fuzz.

Now, if you'll look at my list, the only real modern movies I have on my list are Austin Powers and the first two Scary Movies. There's a reason for that: they suck. Hard. The Austin Powers series as a whole is okay. The first one was just briliant. Same with Scary Movie. After the second instalment, the Scary franchise started to spoof things that weren't even in the genre. That's the problem I have with spoofs nowadays. Why the hell was elements of 8 Mile in a horror film spoof? It's like they ran out of material and said, "I got nothing... lets just slap shit together".

It's the formula that a lot of the newer spoofs have taken. That and dumbing them down to the point of mild retardation. Most of the jokes perpetrated in the newer spoofs would leave a ten year old in stitches when it's clearly for grown ups, yet leave the adult crowd scrathing there head, saying, "really?"

The last spoof I tried watching was "Date Movie". I've seen shittier movies, but I can't remember any off the top of my head at this moment. That's when I just about gave up. I think there's a ton of great material out there to spoof. As a matter of fact, they have (like super hero stuff), but the actual efort they put into it is shamefull.

Maybe one of these days we'll see a rebirth of the once mighty comedy called the spoof. And when that day comes, I'll be holding out for Space Balls II: The Search For More Money.