# Artists who parodied their own work **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 6, 2022, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-parodied-their-own-work/957323 "2022-01-06T14:02:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2022, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-parodied-their-own-work/957323/21 "2022-01-06T19:16:45Z")
Not sure if this counts, but comedian Jim Breuer did a skit were he parodied Brian Johnson of AC/DC. Johnson was so amused by it that he once teamed up with Breuer on stage, where (I think) they both did the Hokey Pokey in the style of AC/DC. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2022, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-parodied-their-own-work/957323/22 "2022-01-06T19:20:14Z")
The reverse example might be the Finnish rock band Leningrad Cowboys, which started with a mockumentary about a rock band touring America and is now a bona fide act (and has been for years). Similarly Spinal Tap, who released an album with their hits from the film fans has, AFAIK, a few gigs together. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2022, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-parodied-their-own-work/957323/23 "2022-01-06T19:35:18Z")
Roger Moore also parodied himself in _North Sea Hijack_ (aka _ffolkes_). It was not a comedy, but his character was the Anti-Bond. His performance as Inspector Clouseau in _Curse of the Pink Panther_ was also a parody of his Hollywood image. And then there was his appearance on _The Muppet Show_. Pierce Brosnan played an Anti-Bond in _The Tailor of Panama_. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2022, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-parodied-their-own-work/957323/24 "2022-01-06T19:35:24Z")
If you see the new Matrix movie, Resurrections, you’ll definitely get a taste of this kind of parody. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2022, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-parodied-their-own-work/957323/25 "2022-01-06T20:00:18Z")
I don’t know if they willingly parodied their earlier work, or if the studio forced them to do it, but Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney,Jr., and Vincent Price appeared in various Abbott and Costello movies. Fabio became famous as a model. Another, much-less-fit guy started parodying him as “Flabio”. Fabio’s lawyer asked if he wanted to sue. Fabio laughed and said, “Let’s do a calendar together!” ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2022, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-parodied-their-own-work/957323/26 "2022-01-06T21:22:36Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > I don’t know if they willingly parodied their earlier work, or if the studio forced them to do it, but Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney,Jr., and Vincent Price appeared in various Abbott and Costello movies. In a similar fashion, the October 26, 1962 episode of the TV show _Route 66_ – “Lizard’s Leg and Owlet’s Wing” – broadcast not coincidentally just before Halloween featured Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney, Jr., and Peter Lorre reprising their old roles. > **["Route 66" Lizard's Leg and Owlet's Wing (TV Episode 1962) ⭐ 7.8 | Adventure,...](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0690468/)** > > 50m | TV-Y7 …and the October 28, 1987 episode of _Highway to Heaven_ was brilliantly entitled “I was a Middle-Aged Werewolf”. The series starred Michael Landon, who had starred in the cheapie _I was a Teenage Werewolf_ back in 1957. Clips of Landon appear on TVs throughout the episode > **["Highway to Heaven" I Was a Middle Aged Werewolf (TV Episode 1987) ⭐ 7.7 |...](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0601559/)** > > 44m | Not Rated . ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2022, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-parodied-their-own-work/957323/27 "2022-01-06T21:27:03Z")
Weird Al Yankovic has done parodies of Weird Al parodies on The Simpsons and 30 Rock. ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2022, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-parodied-their-own-work/957323/28 "2022-01-06T21:29:22Z")
> [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](#): > > In [The Cannonball Run](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082136/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0), Roger Moore plays a character ostensibly named Seymour Goldfarb I’ll have to look that one up. It sounds like someone was referring to that “so bad it’s — just bad” spy movie “John Goldfarb Please Come Home.” (1965) (18% on Rotten Tomatoes) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-parodied-their-own-work/957323/29 "2022-01-10T14:44:25Z")
Edgar Rice Burroughs was obviously displeased with Hollywood’s treatment of Tarzan, his Ape Man, especially then then-new Johnny Weissmuller movies (with its grunting, illiterate ‘Me Tarzan, you Jane’ characterization. Burroughs’ Tarzan was a self-taught literate and spoke several languages), so he wrote **Tarzan and the Lion Man** in 1933, a year after Weissmuller’s _Tarzan the Ape Man_ was released. In the book, a Hollywood actor goes to Africa to film a Tarzan movie and screws up in multiple ways (the real Tarzan never swung on a vine. The Hollywood ape-man can’t even climb a tree). At the end of the book, Tarzan himself tries out for the role, and is rejected as “not the type”. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Donald Westlake, under the pseudonym of Richard Stark, wrote grim, gritty, dark thrillers about a criminal who went only by the name of Parker. They were big hits and led to multiple movies. > > Under his real name he wrote light comic caper tales. > > One day he was writing a Parker book and it kept coming out funny. So he wrote it as a parody with a gang of incompetent crooks lead by John Dortmunder. That was such a hit that he dropped the Parker series and wrote about a dozen bestselling Dortmunder novels and led to multiple movies. Sort of like this, but in reverse – John Gardner (the “Profesor Moriarty” Jognb Gardner, not the “Grendel” john Gardner) wrote a series of spy spoofs about a coward named Boysie Oakes who gets reluctantly recruited into a spy agency, sorta like Cary Grant in _North by Northwest_. He appeared in eight novels, some short stories, and one movie. Then they approached him to take over writing James Bond novels (there hadn’t been a new one since Kingsley Amis’ _Colonel Sun_ in 1968 and Christopher Wood’s two abysmal movie novelizations in 1977 and 1979). So he wrote 14 original novels and two novelizations of movies between 1981 and 1996. None of Gardner’s novels were filmed, although I think they were thinking about doing his first, _Licence Renewed_, but ended up doing a completely different plot for the film _Licence to Kill_ ---
**Author:** ![Orville\_mogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/aeb1de/32.png) [@Orville\_mogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orville_mogul)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-parodied-their-own-work/957323/30 "2022-01-10T18:01:59Z")
Here is Chris Squire’s parody of his 1981 Christmas single with fellow Yes member Alan White: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/xphvUojQn9k/hqdefault.jpg "A New Pair of Socks") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xphvUojQn9k) ---
**Author:** ![Boycott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boycott/32/6741_2.png) [@Boycott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boycott)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-parodied-their-own-work/957323/31 "2022-01-10T18:14:16Z")
George Lazenby as JB in 1983 and 0070 in 2019 [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/1WIXI4AfbwA/maxresdefault.jpg "George Lazenby in The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WIXI4AfbwA) https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=224&width=400&href=https://www.facebook.com/georgelazenbyofficial/videos/george-lazenby-returns-as-007/299944580886211/ ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2022, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-parodied-their-own-work/957323/32 "2022-01-10T22:52:11Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > That actor is voiced by Adam West, who of course had been hopelessly typecast and unable to get any other serious acting work after playing Batman. Did you ever see [Lookwell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lookwell), a pilot that wasn’t picked up. The plot was Adam West as a has-been actor who thinks he’s a detective, and tries to help police investigations, but his deductions are all stupid. I thought it was pretty good, but I don’t know if it could have sustained a whole ser8ies. Mark Knopfler and Guy Fletcher played on Weird Al’s parody of Money For Nothing. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/0WPzFnZkZmI/maxresdefault.jpg "WIERD AL YANKOVIC - Money For Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies (Official HD Video)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WPzFnZkZmI) And Sting recorded a parody of Every Breath You Take for 80’s satirical show Spitting Image. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/PlvhHIzOEpU/hqdefault.jpg "The Police/Spitting Image - "Every Bomb You Make" [Audio] Best-quality") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlvhHIzOEpU) ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-parodied-their-own-work/957323/33 "2022-01-11T00:15:41Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I’ll bet most people on the Board won’t recognize **Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse** Are you kidding? I watched a lot of CC&MM. I still remember one of the first things I laughed at that wasn’t a joke… from an episode where they go to Paris, where the head _Inspecteur_ says (avec l’accent cartoonée): “Ah, you are Courageous Cat, no?” _“I am Courageous Cat, yes!”_ My tiny little brain thought “I can’t wait to use that line on someone!” Wellll, it’s now sixty years later and I’ve never had anyone end a question to me with “…no?” ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-parodied-their-own-work/957323/34 "2022-01-11T01:40:47Z")
Then you’ve had a wasted life, no? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-parodied-their-own-work/957323/35 "2022-01-11T02:37:27Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > Part parody, part tribute, I suppose: An episode of _Batman: The Animated Series_ featured a fictitious TV series about a superhero called “The Gray Ghost,” which Bruce Wayne supposedly watched when he was a kid. Today, the actor who played the Gray Ghost, having been hopelessly typecast and unable to get any other serious acting work, is now unemployed, mostly forgotten, and living in poverty. > > That actor is voiced by Adam West, who of course had been hopelessly typecast and unable to get any other serious acting work after playing Batman. The show _Once a Hero_ had West playing a TV actor who was strongly identified with the hero Captain Justice and was frustrated with not being able to get other roles. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-parodied-their-own-work/957323/36 "2022-01-11T02:59:14Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The show _Once a Hero_ had West playing a TV actor who was strongly identified with the hero Captain Justice and was frustrated with not being able to get other roles. I have to think that WEst eventually came to terms with his typecasting and ran with it. In addition to the roles mentioned here, he voiced Catman/Adam West on _The Fairly Odd Parents_, voiced Young Mermaid Man on _Spongebob Squarepants_, played the villain Breathtaker (and Dr. Phoenix) on the superhero series _Black Scorpion_, and numerous other superhero/villain parts. He certainly didn’t lack for work. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-parodied-their-own-work/957323/37 "2022-01-11T03:41:55Z")
Yeah, and to be honest, I think his character in Johnny Bravo/Family Guy may have been his best work. Just deliciously absurdist. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-parodied-their-own-work/957323/38 "2022-01-11T03:59:58Z")
> [@digs](#): > > “Ah, you are Courageous Cat, no?” > _“I am Courageous Cat, yes!”_ > > My tiny little brain thought “I can’t wait to use that line on someone!” Wellll, it’s now sixty years later and I’ve never had anyone end a question to me with “…no?” > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Then you’ve had a wasted life, no? Then I’ve had a wasted life, yes. . THANK YOU! Seriously. Now that that’s done, I can get on with my life! Where’s that Course Catalog, and the jazz bagpipe tutorials, and that Emigrating to Costa Rica thread? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-parodied-their-own-work/957323/39 "2022-01-11T04:09:35Z")
Jim Davis doing the Silver Surfer and Galactus as John and Garfield. > **[Garfield Creator Draws Galactus in Squirrel Girl Zine Issue](https://www.cbr.com/garfield-jim-davis-galactus-squirrel-girl-26-marvel/)** > > It's Garfield meets Galactus in Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #26, featuring Jim Davis collaborating with Ryan North for the special "zine" issue. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-parodied-their-own-work/957323/40 "2022-01-11T07:09:31Z")
Marlon Brando was in the movie _The Freshman_ with Matthew Broderick, almost-parodying his Godfather role. [![](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNzRhMDU0M2MtZWIwNy00Y2MzLTg0MDItYjQ1MTdjOTM4ODZiXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyOTc5MDI5NjE@.jpg) ](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNzRhMDU0M2MtZWIwNy00Y2MzLTg0MDItYjQ1MTdjOTM4ODZiXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyOTc5MDI5NjE@.jpg) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-parodied-their-own-work/957323.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-parodied-their-own-work/957323.md?page=3)