# 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:** 8
**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 21, 2019, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/141 "2019-01-21T01:45:32Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Not sure if serious or joking… Or an idiot. Just repeated something that someone told me years ago, and I forgot to challenge them for a cite… Or even look it up. So I finally did that, and that label goes back a lot farther than I’d thought. Sorry! ---
**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 21, 2019, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/142 "2019-01-21T02:04:32Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Not sure if serious or joking… Everyone knows its called Symbology. ---
**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 21, 2019, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/143 "2019-01-21T04:58:25Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Or an idiot. Just repeated something that someone told me years ago, and I forgot to challenge them for a cite… > > Or even look it up. So I finally did that, and that label goes back a lot farther than I’d thought. Sorry! Don’t apologise. I thought it was a lovely illustration of exactly how the “everybody knows…” type of thing gets started. > [@Penfeather](#): > > Everyone knows its called Symbology. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2019, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/144 "2019-01-21T06:07:46Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > 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.) A revival was made and aired in 1989 (alongside a revival of _Adam-12_). Both shows lasted for two seasons. There was then another revival in 2003 with Ed O’Neill playing Joe Friday. That series was also renewed for a second season but the studio made the inexplicable decision to bring new characters into the show and minimize Friday’s presence in the series. The show was cancelled two months later. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2019, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/145 "2019-01-21T09:14:24Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > 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. Which included those of the Arturian cycle, so “similarly” isn’t quite the right word… so, some of the stuff he parodied is sort of lost, but not all. And some of it came back alive during the romantic period and later with fantasy novels: Cervantes wasn’t around to parody Ivanhoe or the Dragonlance, but damn if he wouldn’t have liked to. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/146 "2019-01-23T03:23:28Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > 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. Surely you know the dance routine in _ **YF** _ was a parody of Fred Astaire’s in the eponymous movie? [https://vimeo.com/31922652](https://vimeo.com/31922652) > [@](#): > > Again in a Mel Brooks/Gene Wilder film, I had no idea the _“We don’t need no stinking badges!”_ line in _[Blazing Saddles](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1lyNt5km8U)_ was a parody from the old, classic film _[The Treasure of the Sierra Madre](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqomZQMZQCQ)_. > > Still thought both were pretty funny on their own… The first time I saw\*\*\* BS\*\*\* in 1973–74, the cinema was packed, and I was literally the only one there who got the joke (I grew up watching movies of the 1930s–50s on TV). Everybody else was wondering what the hell I was laughing at. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/147 "2019-01-23T16:29:27Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > 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. _Holy Grail_ was the first I had heard of the Lady of the Lake. The story I was familiar with was pulling the sword from the stone, thanks to T.H. White (and later Disney). It wasn’t until much later when _The Once and Future King_ inspired me to slog through Mallory’s _Le Morte d’Arthur_ that I came upon the Lady of the Lake in her original-ish form. But in general I agree that the concept of King Arthur, Lancelot, Galahad, the Round Table, etc. are pretty ingrained in English-speaking culture. ---
**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 23, 2019, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/148 "2019-01-23T19:31:19Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Which included those of the Arturian cycle, so “similarly” isn’t quite the right word… so, some of the stuff he parodied is sort of lost, but not all. And some of it came back alive during the romantic period and later with fantasy novels: Cervantes wasn’t around to parody Ivanhoe or the Dragonlance, but damn if he wouldn’t have liked to. What I meant was I’d never heard the story of Roland before Don Quixote. There’s one chapter where Cervantes mentions the titles of some of the books in the Don’s library. I think you’d have to be an expert on Spanish romantic literature to know the names of the books he parodies. ---
**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 23, 2019, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/149 "2019-01-23T22:22:57Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I don’t know how common this is, but I knew “On Top of Spaghetti” for years before I learned of the existence of “On Top of Old Smokey”. And even when I did learn of the other song, it was through yet another parody of it (“On top of old Smokey, all covered with grass and stuff, I lost my poor sweetheart, because I didn’t run fast enough”) There’s evidence _On Top of Spaghetti_, which was published in 1962, is actually a parody of _The Pizza Song_, which was released in 1961 by Dick Biondi. _The Pizza Song_, in turn, was a parody of _On Top of Old Smokey_. If this is accurate, then _On Top of Spaghetti_ is a parody of a parody, and I further wonder if this is the only case of a parody of a parody. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/150 "2019-01-23T22:38:05Z")
I’ve always known “On Top of Old Smokey,” and then the first parody I learned went something like: On Top of Old Smokey All covered in blood I shot my poor teacher With a .44 slug I went to her funeral I spit (or shit) on her grave When everyone threw flowers I threw a grenade I didn’t learn the “On Top of Spaghetti” version until much, much later. The teacher version I heard probably in 4th grade. The spaghetti version probably not until 8th grade or something. Different childhoods, I guess. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/151 "2019-01-23T22:43:03Z")
> [@Penfeather](#): > > Everyone knows its called Symbology. I call it Nameology. ---
**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 24, 2019, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/152 "2019-01-24T20:41:05Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > There’s evidence _On Top of Spaghetti_, which was published in 1962, is actually a parody of _The Pizza Song_, which was released in 1961 by Dick Biondi. _The Pizza Song_, in turn, was a parody of _On Top of Old Smokey_. > > If this is accurate, then _On Top of Spaghetti_ is a parody of a parody, and I further wonder if this is the only case of a parody of a parody. _The Battle of New Orleans_ was more of a novelty song than a parody but there was a parody called _The Battle of Kookamonga_ More of a tribute than a parody but there’s a Bugs Bunny cartoon that uses Spike Jones _Hawaiian War Chant_ which is another parody that’s more well known than the original. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/153 "2019-01-29T21:58:27Z")
> [@erysichthon](#): > > Here’s a list of [over 100 covers of MacArthur Park](http://rateyourmusic.com/list/pmtpimp1969/macarthur_park_and_those_who_ran_with_it/). > > I love Dave Barry, but his notorious “worst song” poll is largely responsible for the myth that MacArthur Park is an obscure, unpopular song. It isn’t and it never was. I don’t think I’ve heard it presented unironically since about 1974. And then only because there was a cat on WJW radio in Cleveland named MacArthur and he used it as the theme song for his talk show. With intentional irony, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2019, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/154 "2019-01-29T23:39:37Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > Those were at least remembered by people who studied Gothic literature, but (according to [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northanger_Abbey#Allusions.2Freferences_to_other_works)) some of the other novels mentioned in _Northanger Abbey_ – like _Castle of Wolfenbach_… Ah, the original first-person shooter in Gothic Literature. I recall the game slowing way down when Matilda reloaded her flintlocks in real time. Eliza Parsons had a long career, publishing _Castle of Wolfenbach_ in 1793 and _Creating a Worksheet in Excel 2002_ more than two centuries later. > [@digs](#): > > 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. It was even more obvious when the lost tapes reappeared. Every last one of them, IIRC, corresponded to a Flintstones episode, down to the dialog. ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2019, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/155 "2019-01-30T03:41:11Z")
Betty Boop is a lot more famous than Helen Kane, the 20s vaudeville singer with the baby-doll flapper look, high breathy voice, and the boop-boop-a-doop catchphrase. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2019, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/156 "2019-01-30T03:49:35Z")
Spaceballs. Have the young kids these days even heard of Star Wars? I’ve seen old interviews where Hetfield said that Metallica is basically the two Heads, Diamond and Motor, smooshed together. ---
**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:** [January 31, 2019, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/157 "2019-01-31T15:26:24Z")
I image many people associate “Oh, the humanity” with WKRP’s turkey drop and not the Hindenberg disaster. Ditto “As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly” and not GWTW’s “…I will never be hungry again.” ---
**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 1, 2019, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/158 "2019-02-01T23:59:12Z")
How many people know the poem _Casabianca_? Okay, and how many know: \* The boy stood on the burning deck His heart was all a-quiver He gave a cough, his leg fell off And floated down the river. \* or one of 100 other versions? ---
**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:** [February 4, 2019, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/159 "2019-02-04T14:40:53Z")
Yogi Bear vs. Yogi Berra. And if you believe the similarity in names was a coincidence, I will sell you a bridge. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2020, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465/160 "2020-05-07T19:17:37Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > The screenplay was based on a novel by Arthur Hailey, in fact, who later went on to write the novel _Airport_. Yes, so I assumed Airplane was a parody of Airport. I’d never heard of Zero Hour back then. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cases-where-the-parody-are-more-well-known-than-the-original/746465.md?page=9)