When I first saw Young Frankenstein on HBO in the early 80s I had never heard of the song Puttin’ on the Ritz, so I had absolutely no clue what it was that Peter Boyle’s monster was mumbling during the chorus*!* Also, I think the first time I did actually hear the song was a few years later when the freakazoid band Taco did their remake of it.
Again in a Mel Brooks/Gene Wilder film, I had no idea the “We don’t need no stinking badges!” line in Blazing Saddles was a parody from the old, classic film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
Still thought both were pretty funny on their own…
For many people of a certain age outside of Japan, Sailor Moon was their introduction to anime - they wouldn’t have realized that it was conceived as a lighthearted parody of something (the Magical Girl genre).
Don Quixote is arguably a parody, and rather obviously so, of the whole genre of chivalric romances, very popular in Cervantes’ time, less so today (who has read Amadis of Gaul?)
The TV series Soap was aired on Swedish television from 1978, before the broad public had any knowledge of the concept of soap opera. Nevertheless, it became very popular. I was one of the kids eagerly watching it, having no idea that it was actually a parody!
Which parodies of his would you say are better known than the originals? I’m not the biggest Weird Al fan, though I’d say I’m familiar with his biggest hits, and with the exception of “I Lost on Jeopardy!”, I don’t think I’d have any trouble naming the originals.
Quite a few people know Tom Lehrer’s song “The Elements” (it was featured on The Big Bang Theory, and Daniel Radcliffe sang it on a talk show), but few have probably heard the Danny Kaye routine, “Tchaikovsky,” it was parodying.
Really? It’s to the tune of I Am The Very Model Of A Modern Major General, another patter song by Gilbert & Sullivan that appeared in The Pirates of Penzance.
Who’s more well known might be a split decision right now with the new tv series and the flop of the most recent movie, but many people aren’t aware that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles started out as a parody of Daredevil.
You sure you guys aren’t thinking of Tom Lehrer’s “Lobachevsky,” a parody of Danny Kaye’s song about Russian actor Constantin Stanislavski? Although I don’t think either of those are particularly well known.
This surely counts. Even those of us who have read Fraser have surely no more than skimmed Hughes.
Except that I’m not sure I’d describe Fraser as a “parody” of Hughes. The Flashman novels are more of an “anti-riff” on him rather than a detailed parody. Fraser was running with elements of Hughes, but, more importantly, was satirising other elements of Victorian culture. Hughes was only the starting point.
Northanger Abbey is in part a parody of Gothic novels. It isn’t Jane Austen’s most famous work, but it’s probably more famous than the novels it parodies, like The Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole and The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) by Ann Radcliffe.
Weird Al to George Harrison: “You know, I do song parodies, but you’ve been doing them a lot longer, haven’t you? I mean, didn’t you do that great parody of ‘He’s So Fine’?”
For a long time I would have said Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but I realize Daredevil is increasing in popularity. Still more famous than the gritty comics they were parodying, though.