I just finished watching one of the many fake 30’s Homestar Runner cartoons. Why would somebody parody something they know nothing about? The fake date is 1936 but the grayscale (rather than black & white) cartoons are scored by organ and have silent movie style title cards (there is sound, though). 1936! Most cartoons were in color by then, and organs never accompanied movie soundtracks! If the toons weren’t swinging, they were crooning, and no one would be caught dead animating the Charleston (yes, a character was doing the Charleston in 1936; to barbershop. How hip :rolleyes: ). Actually, one had an opening that resembled a 50’s TV show (Parsnips A-Plenty). Ugh!
But enough about Homestar, he’s far from the only offender. There was one episode of 2 Stupid Dogs that made the same mistakes, and countless more completely inaccurate, and thus, uneffective parodies of that period that I don’t remember specifically.
Movies from that period are so ripe for parody, so if frustrates me that no one can get it right. Out of all the spoofs, I haven’t heard one “Say, what’s the big idea, ya mug”, even though 99.9% of the films from that time contained that line. Where are the immensly high pitched, nasal voices, the super hi-contrast cinematograpy, the 60 words-per-second dialogue, the loose choreography of the dance numbers (ignoring the precise Bubsy Berkley ones), the 85% naked women, and the sometimes incomprehensible level of slang? It’s all so hillarious and just waiting for someone to do an over-the-top spoof.
Actually, I remember one example of a just about right parody. It was a Saturday Night Live episode. I don’t remember much about it, but Phil Hartman was in the cast. Anyone know what I’m talking about?
