Cases where the parody are more well known than the Original

[Morbo]

@cjepson

I was going to mention this. More broadly, there are many, many cartoon characters who are based on live-action characters or real people, and many are probably better known than the originals. These mostly fall more into the category of tributes or ripoffs than parodies, however.

For me personally, I saw Bugs Bunny doing Liberace waaaay before I saw Liberace. And I had no idea the Mad Scientist (BOO!) was supposed to be Peter Lorre until I saw Casablanca much, much later.

Also, I had no idea Foghorn Leghorn was supposed to be parodying anybody until about 60 seconds ago.

[pulykamell]

@Morbo

For me personally, I saw Bugs Bunny doing Liberace waaaay before I saw Liberace. And I had no idea the Mad Scientist (BOO!) was supposed to be Peter Lorre until I saw Casablanca much, much later.

Also, I had no idea Foghorn Leghorn was supposed to be parodying anybody until about 60 seconds ago.

Help me out here. Liberace was the first concert I’ve ever seen. (I think I was in fourth or fifth grade and I begged my dad to get tickets to the show. Only time I ever remember going to any sort of musical performance with either of my parents.) Which Bugs Bunny skits are Liberace parodies?

And who is Foghorn Leghorn parodying?

Or am I being wooshed here?

[Nametag]

It’s an entirely different kind of movie.

[Ulf_the_Unwashed]

@pulykamell

Help me out here. Liberace was the first concert I’ve ever seen. (I think I was in fourth or fifth grade and I begged my dad to get tickets to the show. Only time I ever remember going to any sort of musical performance with either of my parents.) Which Bugs Bunny skits are Liberace parodies?

And who is Foghorn Leghorn parodying?

Or am I being wooshed here?

For Leghorn, see post 52…

[Morbo]

@pulykamell

Help me out here. Liberace was the first concert I’ve ever seen. (I think I was in fourth or fifth grade and I begged my dad to get tickets to the show. Only time I ever remember going to any sort of musical performance with either of my parents.) Which Bugs Bunny skits are Liberace parodies?

[

And who is Foghorn Leghorn parodying?

Or am I being wooshed here?

I was referring to Penfeather’s [url="http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=19113752&postcount=52]post 52](https://youtu.be/dcqmvGVH9c0"Like this?[/url).

[smithsb]

While not parodies, my introduction to classical music was Disney’s Fantasia. I see hordes of dancing mops on hearing. The 1812 Overture - the bang part - triggers, " Quaker’s Puffed Rice, shot from guns", in my shrinking pool of neurons.

[Morbo]

Fixed my link

[pulykamell]

@Morbo

Fixed my link

Yep, definitely Liberace. Somehow, I don’t ever remember seeing that episode, and I thought I saw them all. Thanks!

[slitterst]

@The_Other_Waldo_Pepper

That’s understandable; it’s an entirely different kind of movie altogether.

It’s an entirely different kind of movie.

[WotNot]

@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.

If you’re considering a worldwide audience, then there’s no contest: GWTW is a classic film that’s shown on TV fairly often, and Carol Burnett is practically unknown outside North America.

[buddha_david]

The Energizer Bunny was originally a parody/mockery of a very similar (and long-forgotten) Duracell commercial.

@Really_Not_All_That_Bright

@Crafter_Man

Would Quiet Riot’s cover of Slade’s Cum On Feel the Noize fall under the definition of a parody?

Not really. For one thing, that story is largely bullshit. They probably did hate the idea of covering the song, but Banali’s claim that the record is the very first take can’t possibly be true.

Why would they lie? Lots of songs have been recorded in a single take. And it happens to be kind of song (like “Wild Thing”) that sounds better the worse you play it.

Also, Metallica never lied about Diamond Head cover songs being their own. They’ve always been very upfront about how their style was inspired by the NWOBHM scene.

[Peter_Morris]

Blazing Saddles is partly a parody of Destry Rides Again. In particular, the “Teutonic Titwillow” = Marlene Dietrich.

Also, I’ll bet that more people today know *Hedly *Lamarr than know Hedy.

[dougie_monty]

I’ll bet more people have read Poe’s “The Raven” in the *Mad * version, accompanied by Bill Elder’s bizarre illustrations, than have read it in some stodgy anthology. And the parody didn’t change a word of Poe’s work.
Stan Freberg’s “Banana Boat” song probably got to be more famous than Harry Belafonte’s original. In fact, when Freberg’s version was played on the radio, I thought Belafonte was performing!

[furryman]

I thought Dr. Strangelove was a parody of the movie “Fail Safe” but apparently it’s actually a parody of the novel “Red Alert.” Either way, I bet more people have heard of "Dr. Strangelove than either of the other two stories.

I’d consider Sailor Moon to be more of a pastiche than a parody but it’s definitely a lot more well known than any of the other magical girl cartoons that came before it.

[Thudlow_Boink]

@dougie_monty

I’ll bet more people have read Poe’s “The Raven” in the *Mad * version, accompanied by Bill Elder’s bizarre illustrations, than have read it in some stodgy anthology. And the parody didn’t change a word of Poe’s work.

I dunno about that. I read the MAD version when it got included as a bonus in one of the Special Issues I had as a kid, long after it had originally appeared. Where would most people have encountered it? On the other hand, isn’t the poem still printed pretty regularly in school literature textbooks?

Probably the Simpsons version is more familiar than MAD’s.

[RealityChuck]

A part of the Marx Brothers’ Animal Crackers is a direct parody of Eugene O’Neill’s play Strange Interlude. Groucho even has the line “Pardon me while I have a strange interlude.” I don’t think the O’Neill play is as well known these days.

[Horatio_Hellpop]

Alan Sherman’s songs are better-known to one generation of kids than the classical pieces they parody (“Hello Fadduh, Hello Muddah” et al), but that was an isolated, localized effect. Similarly, to the generation for whom The Lone Ranger was a thing, the theme song is better known for that than for William Tell.

“It’s Now or Never” isn’t exactly a parody of “O Sole Mio,” but it’s probably better-known in America. I guess we could do a whole separate thread on popular music pieces that appropriated a well-known classical tune.

[erysichthon]

@dougie_monty

And the parody didn’t change a word of Poe’s work.

Then it’s not a parody.

[Peter_Morris]

@erysichthon

Then it’s not a parody.

See here and judge for yourself

PDF warning

MadMag%20Raven.pdf

[erysichthon]

@Peter_Morris

See here and judge for yourself

PDF warning

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/MadMag%20Raven.pdf

You might want to look up the definition of “parody.” Printing a famous poem with funny illustrations isn’t parody.