# Cases where the parody are more well known than the Original **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 18, 2016, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465 "2016-02-18T17:52:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/41 "2016-02-19T01:45:23Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Carol Burnett descending the steps, wearing the drapes. Probably more people have seen that, than _Gone with the Wind._ I have my doubts when looking at the box office numbers for _GWTW_, including its several re-releases when it was making more money than many new films. The Carol Burnett sketch was shortly after _GWTW_ was televised for the first time in 1976, which made _GWTW_ available to people who hadn’t been born when it was first released. Possibly now that much of the original 1939 audience has died off, Carol Burnett might be getting close, but it’s not a sure thing. Worldwide, it might be a conservative guess that ~400 million people saw _GWTW_. Give it another few decades for old age to thin out that number a little more. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/42 "2016-02-19T01:53:54Z")
> [@bonzer](#): > > This surely counts. Even those of us who have read Fraser have surely no more than skimmed Hughes. Many of us who have Read Hughes (Tom Browns Schooldays) have no more than skimmed Hughes… ---
**Author:** ![lew\_cody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e274bd/32.png) [@lew\_cody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lew_cody)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/43 "2016-02-19T02:13:40Z")
I don’t know how familiar Spike Jones is today, but his mid-1940s parody of “Cocktails for Two” is probably more famous than any of the original recordings of the song (which was introduced as a perfectly straight ballad in the 1934 film _Murder at the Vanities_). ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/44 "2016-02-19T02:26:18Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I have my doubts when looking at the box office numbers for _GWTW_, including its several re-releases when it was making more money than many new films. The Carol Burnett sketch was shortly after _GWTW_ was televised for the first time in 1976, which made _GWTW_ available to people who hadn’t been born when it was first released. > > Possibly now that much of the original 1939 audience has died off, Carol Burnett might be getting close, but it’s not a sure thing. Worldwide, it might be a conservative guess that ~400 million people saw _GWTW_. Give it another few decades for old age to thin out that number a little more. A better example might be her “Nora Desmond” character. A lot of the younger audience who watched the show was probably not familiar with the film _Sunset Boulevard_. I’m sure a lot of people just thought she was playing a generic aging film star; and, FWIW, the “Nora Desmond” sketches do hold up on their own with that in mind. It’s not exactly what the OP is looking for, but it keeps coming into my head: most people who see \*The Wizard of Oz \*don’t realize that the musical numbers the Scarecrow, Tinman and Lion do are pretty straight-up Vaudeville softshoe numbers, and much of the dialogue among those characters is Vaudeville patter. My father was old enough to remember Vaudeville, and he always loved the movie for that reason. Also, not parodies strictly, but ever since TV commercials started using classic songs, slightly altered, for jingles, millions of young people are more familiar with the jingle. The oldest example I can personally think of is a broker, or something, named Duane Dow, in Indiana (or maybe it was national, but I have a specific memory of hearing it when I visited my cousins), who used the song from\* Bye, Bye Birdie\*, to come up with “We love you Duane Dow, of yes we do,” etc. My brother also remembers “It’s Gonna be a Great Day” not as a religious song, but as a jingle for a kitchen cleaner, or Windex, or something. We actually had a conversation about this a couple years ago, because he had just heard the original song for the first time. Oh, and Jewish kids learn the “Batman Smells” version of “Jingle Bells” before they learn the original. ---
**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:** [February 19, 2016, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/45 "2016-02-19T02:30:25Z")
[Barbe Rouge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redbeard_%28comics%29)is a series of Pirate adventure comics that ran in [Pilote](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilote)comic along with the adventures of Asterix the Gaul. It’s little known outside France and Belgium. However, the red bearded pirate that Asterix sinks in most books has achieved international fame. ---
**Author:** ![Chihuahua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dec6dc/32.png) [@Chihuahua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chihuahua)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/46 "2016-02-19T02:54:28Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > 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. Maybe it’s just me, but I’d wager more people remember Weird Al’s “Jurassic Park” song than the original “MacArthur Park.” And honestly, “MacArthur Park’s” lyrics are so weird to begin with that you might not be able to tell which is the original and which the parody. ---
**Author:** ![Chihuahua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dec6dc/32.png) [@Chihuahua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chihuahua)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/47 "2016-02-19T03:00:33Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > The #1 movie in the country right now is DEADPOOL, aka Wade Wilson. > > How well-known is Deathstroke, aka Slade Wilson? Ah! Beat me to it! Thousands of Deadpool virgins people are getting their first exposure to the character this week and probably none of them realize he is a parody of a DC character. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/48 "2016-02-19T03:03:21Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#): > > How many people have seen _Zero Hour_? Zero Hour? What is it?! ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/49 "2016-02-19T03:08:16Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#): > > How many people have seen _Zero Hour_? I have. It was a very strange experience. ---
**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:** [February 19, 2016, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/50 "2016-02-19T03:14:49Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > Zero Hour? What is it?! It’s a movie, but that’s not important right now. Surely you know that. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/51 "2016-02-19T03:35:48Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > It’s a movie, but that’s not important right now. Surely you know that. Don’t call me Shirley! Most young’uns now are probably more familiar with “Monty Python’s Holy Grail” than they are with the actual Arthurian legends or the knights of the round table. Not quite what the OP had in mind, but I’d bet most people nowadays are much more familiar with the campy “Mommy Dearest” than they are with any of Joan Crawford’s actual movies. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/52 "2016-02-19T03:45:00Z")
Actor Kenny Delmar’s blowhard Southern politician {“Eliminate the North! Make the whole country South!”} [Beauregard Claghorn](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi_X4BFpvnY) was a popular character on Fred Allen’s 40s radio show, but has almost been forgotten now. Foghorn Leghorn, however, the cartoon rooster who began life as a parody of Claghorn, has lived on in fame and gone on to eclipse his progenitor. ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/53 "2016-02-19T03:57:33Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > 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. > > [Lobachevsky (song) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobachevsky_%28song%29) He copied that from Danny Kaye too. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/54 "2016-02-19T03:58:09Z")
Anybody that’s known me for less than 15 years knows the _Parody That Is My Life_ more than the original. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/55 "2016-02-19T04:53:41Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > That’s mostly because he’s an untalented hack. Someone either really hates pouches, or really likes feet… :dubious: But seriously, like half his Youngblood characters were ripoffs of his own New Mutants/X-Force characters. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/56 "2016-02-19T08:13:07Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#): > > How many people have seen _Zero Hour_? Here! ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/57 "2016-02-19T08:20:42Z")
> [@h.sapiens](#): > > I’ve seen it once on TCM, and I was really amused at how close some of the dialog in “Airplane!” was to the original. Even the hero’s name, Ted Stryker, is the same except for the spelling. The screenplay was based on a novel by Arthur Hailey, in fact, who later went on to write the novel _Airport_. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/58 "2016-02-19T08:25:32Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > 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. I remember one Saturday afternoon in the mid-eighties, the radio started playing _I Want A New Duck_. I was actually surprised when Huey Lewis started singing. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/59 "2016-02-19T10:34:53Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > George MacDonald Fraser’s _Flashman_ series is based on a character from Thomas Hughes’ book _Tom Brown’s School Days_. I know of Tom Brown, although I’ve never read the book. But I’ve never read the Flashman books, either. Saw the movie _Royal Flash_, though. > [@bonzer](#): > > 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. There’s some entertaining “interweaving” in the Flashman novels: a few characters from Hughes’s _Tom Brown’s Schooldays_ show up in them now and again, including Tom Brown himself. Rather delightfully IMO, at the end of the Indian Mutiny (the novel _Flashman In The Great Game_), Flashy is congratulating himself on his having made it alive and in one piece, through sundry horrific perils in that conflict, when he receives a present sent out from England: the book _Tom Brown’s Schooldays_ – historic-accurately, it had just been published then (late 1850s). It’s a gift from a bitter enemy of his, Lord Cardigan, which causes Harry F. to wonder what that’s all about. He soon finds out: it’s been sent to him exactly because of its very unflattering portrayal of him. He’s still relatively young and un-philosophical about things; he gets furiously angry at this bastard Thomas Hughes for describing him in his true colours, and for the harm that this is likely to do to his reputation. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/60 "2016-02-19T11:45:38Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > The screenplay was based on a novel by Arthur Hailey, in fact, who later went on to write the novel _Airport_. In point of fact, before Hailey did the novel in '58, **Zero Hour** came out in '57; and before _that,_ it was James Doohan at the controls but not yet over the war in '56, after the pilot and co-pilot and half the passengers had fish for the in-flight meal during the **Flight Into Danger** TV movie, which got the “Alcoa Hour” treatment as soon as the Americans realized those Canadians were on to something. All still Hailey’s credit, of course – but screenplay before novel. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465.md?page=4)