# 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:** 7
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/121 "2016-03-05T19:33:24Z")
I’m sure many, many, many more people know of Lady Mondegreen than of [The Bonnie Earl O’ Moray](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bonnie_Earl_O%27_Moray) ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/122 "2016-03-05T19:52:20Z")
True, but a misheard word or phrase is not a parody. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2016, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/123 "2016-03-05T22:26:32Z")
> [@Sangahyando](#): > > 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. Not to mention that Flashy had just (inevitably undeservedly) received his VC for his role in Mutiny. One has to wonder about the extent to which Fraser had this all planned out when he embarked on the series. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/124 "2016-03-06T03:31:37Z")
Since others have mentioned Foghorn Leghorn copying Kenny Delmar’s Senator Claghorn… Today, Pepe LePew is probably better remembered than Charles Boyer or the dashing thief Pepe LeMoko that Boyer played. ---
**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:** [January 19, 2019, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/125 "2019-01-19T04:10:14Z")
I learnt the other day Monty Python didn’t originate the phrase “And now for something completely different”, it was originated by presenter Christopher trace on the BBC children’s program Blue Peter, and later half-inched by the Pythons. ---
**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 19, 2019, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/126 "2019-01-19T04:49:47Z")
This whole thread is obviously a parody of the [lesser known original](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=419487). ---
**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 19, 2019, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/127 "2019-01-19T05:41:16Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > This whole thread is obviously a parody of the [lesser known original](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=419487). 🆒 Ah, but decades from now, everyone will think of _this_ thread, long after they’ve forgotten the original. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2019, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/128 "2019-01-19T17:40:42Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > This whole thread is obviously a parody of the [lesser known original](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=419487). It’s posts like this that make me wish The Dope had a “Like” button. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2019, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/129 "2019-01-19T18:10:58Z")
Hah, two different threads which failed to mention the umpteen subtitled alternate takes (“parody” may not be the correct term) on the movie “Downfall”, of which [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DzsWSPeLqg&ytbChannel=null) is the most notorious and best example. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2019, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/130 "2019-01-19T18:49:35Z")
Here’s an example of a case of that that really bugs me: In the movie ‘Downfall’ there is an underground bunker scene where Adolf Hitler, upon being told the truthful disappointing news of the true hopelessness of the German military situation by a group of his top officers, goes into an epic maniacal raving diatribe against his officers. What bugs me is that that this scene is very often used by wags by substituting the original subtitles to ones used to carry some parodic humor about another subject. So much so that most people know that scene only as a stand-alone clip, and not that it's part of a great film. When told of the film, they're completely indifferent. ---
**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 19, 2019, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/131 "2019-01-19T18:51:40Z")
> [@Suburban\_Plankton](#): > > It’s posts like this that make me wish The Dope had a “Like” button. Pretty cynical crowd here, we’d have to have a row of buttons: ◊ LIKE ◊ SMILING SARDONICALLY ◊ SMIRKING ◊ SNEERING AT ◊ DISLIKE ◊ DISLIKE THE POST BUT STILL HAVE A WARM SPOT FOR THE POSTER DUE TO A CAT THREAD IN MPSIMS ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2019, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/132 "2019-01-19T19:26:33Z")
For a time in the mid-1980s, the TV ads (for the Yellow Pages?) with David Leisure (who also played “Joe Isuzu”) parodying Joe Friday were probably better known than \*Dragnet \*was. ---
**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 19, 2019, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/133 "2019-01-19T20:25:11Z")
Even as a first grader watching them on prime time, I always thought _The Flintstones_ were a ripoff of _The Honeymooners._ Enough that I’d get mad and ask grownups why that was legal. And I wondered that about Yogi Bear, too… and hey, a couple of articles think [Yogi was based on Art Carney](http://mentalfloss.com/article/84776/real-life-inspirations-behind-8-memorable-cartoon-characters). Specifically, his Ed Norton character from… _The Honeymooners!_ Bam!(vintage 60s Magic Microphone drop…) Oh, and I’d bet a lot more people know Edna Mode from _The Incredibles_ (“NO CAPES!”) than designer Edith Head. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2019, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/134 "2019-01-19T20:44:34Z")
> [@Don\_Draper](#): > > 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. I guess it depends on how you mean it. While (for instance) I’ve never read any of the original Arthurian legends, their gist is a deeply embedded and well-known part of our culture. When Graham Chapman’s King Arthur in _MP&HG_ tells Dennis the Peasant how “the Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in purest shimmering samite, held Excalibur aloft” and so forth, pretty much everybody knows what he’s referring to. Maybe we don’t know the dialogue of the original, but we know the gestalt of it. Same with _Young Frankenstein_. Maybe we know it better than the _specific_ Frankenstein movie that it was playing off of, but we all know Frankenstein’s monster (even if we think “Frankenstein” was the name of the monster, rather than that of his creator), whether we’ve ever seen _Young Frankenstein_ or not. And we know of the monster due to the original movies. _Young Frankenstein_ wouldn’t have even made sense if its audience hadn’t been at least somewhat versed in the original. ---
**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 20, 2019, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/135 "2019-01-20T00:12:01Z")
Good points, **RT**. Susan Sontag coined the term\* semiotics \*to denote things we ALL seem to know. I’d love to see a breakdown by age/demographics as to who “just knows about” what things. ---
**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 20, 2019, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/136 "2019-01-20T00:24:28Z")
Quick tangent on semiotics, I worked in advertising, where we really rely on common ground with viewers. But when it doesn’t work, it’s hilarious… \*We take you now to the boss’s conference room… \* “No, this is a GREAT idea! See, it riffs off _The Hour Of The Wolf_. Ingmar Bergman? C’mon, it’s a classic! See, we shoot it on the same remote Scandinavian island… what? Why all the blank faces? It was THE movie of '68, everyone saw it! Max Von Sydow? Liv Ullman? You’ve seen it! So we build our tagline on the guttural Swedish monologue in the final scene, all my friends can quote it … Stop laughing, this’ll worrrrrk!” So for a parody to work, enough people have to really know the original. Parodies that don’t work? They guessed wrong (or didn’t do their research). ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2019, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/137 "2019-01-20T09:33:25Z")
wasn’t the tick ben endlunds middle finger to marvel and dc whom hed worked for at times? ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2019, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/138 "2019-01-20T12:03:44Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > For a time in the mid-1980s, the TV ads (for the Yellow Pages?) with David Leisure (who also played “Joe Isuzu”) parodying Joe Friday were probably better known than \*Dragnet \*was. I don’t remember those ads, but I’d not be particularly sure of that. If it was contemporary to his time as Joe Isuzu, it would have also have been contemporary to the rather successful 1987 comedy movie version. If it was earlier, it would have been in shouting distance of Jack Webb’s death, at which point the show was still well known enough that the LAPD honoured him by ‘retiring’ Joe Friday’s badge number. (And Webb had been working on another revival when he died.) ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2019, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/139 "2019-01-20T19:51:29Z")
> [@Don\_Draper](#): > > 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. Similarly most people have heard of Don Quixote, but hardly anyone has heard of the dozens of Roland and his knights inspired stories that the book parodies. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2019, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/140 "2019-01-20T20:14:52Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Susan Sontag coined the term\* semiotics \*to denote things we ALL seem to know. Not sure if serious or joking… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465.md?page=8)