# "I never saw the movie, but I read the Mad parody" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 22, 2019, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-saw-the-movie-but-i-read-the-mad-parody/832909 "2019-04-22T21:42:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2020, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-saw-the-movie-but-i-read-the-mad-parody/832909/41 "2020-04-09T20:40:17Z")
I belong to a monthly book discussion group that does mostly science fiction and fantasy. We read both new books and older ones. We decided that for our January 2001 meeting we should read _2001_. We talked about the book and the movie, but we also spent some time quoting the _Mad_ parody of the movie, which we could mostly quote just from our memories of reading it thirty-two years before. ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2020, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-saw-the-movie-but-i-read-the-mad-parody/832909/42 "2020-04-11T01:41:15Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > In a similar vein, years ago I read Harvard Lampoon’s Bored of the Rings before I tried reading the LOTR trilogy and/or The Hobbit. I could NOT get past the first 3 pages. And years later, the films did nothing at all for me. Except get me strange looks when I walked out of the theatre after 5 minutes. Well, at least you gave it a good chance. :rolleyes: ---
**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:** [April 11, 2020, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-saw-the-movie-but-i-read-the-mad-parody/832909/43 "2020-04-11T05:02:49Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I had to look it up. When the Allied characters (posing as Germans) speak to Germans, they speak unaccented English and are talking in “English-German”. The German characters who respond speak in German-accented English, and are talking in “German-German”. Then the guy goes “Oh, shut the @#!%$& up!” “Gee, Major, what language was that?” “English-English!” ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2020, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-saw-the-movie-but-i-read-the-mad-parody/832909/44 "2020-04-11T08:56:04Z")
They knew what to leave alone too. Several years ago, I read an interview with one of the principals who mentioned that they would _never_ do a parody of _Schindler’s List_. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2020, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-saw-the-movie-but-i-read-the-mad-parody/832909/45 "2020-04-11T13:47:05Z")
All you guys: **Get out of my mind!!**. "We’re off to dig the guru… the wonderful guru of ours. The thing he’s got is better than pot, and it’s fun of fantastical powers! If you want to spin like a UFO The guru of ours will make it so we know we know we know we know we know Until your furshlugginer mind will blow!" –done from memory, dammit. ETA: OK, I did see that original movie. But I also learned a LOT from reading “Valley of the Dollars”, which I never saw. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2020, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-saw-the-movie-but-i-read-the-mad-parody/832909/46 "2020-04-11T14:19:47Z")
**Loused Up in Space** Lost in Space parody late 1960s I believe. So good! Wasn’t _Midnight Cowboy_ done as Midnight Wowboy? I seem to remember that. ---
**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:** [April 11, 2020, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-saw-the-movie-but-i-read-the-mad-parody/832909/47 "2020-04-11T15:45:06Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > The thing he’s got > is better than pot, and it’s fun of fantastical powers! I think the line was “It’s \*\*full \*\*of magical powers.” I like the song sung by The Square Man (Pat Boone); _At Howard Johnson’s eating, you’ll find me there, repeating those jokes no one can bear. At tall buildings I am gaping, 'cause there just is no escaping that I’m nothing but a square!_ And of course, \* Someday, with an insane glow, I’ll get high! And I’ll freak out until mt brain starts to petrify! Someday, with an insane glow, I’ll turn on! And the trip that I’m taking will mean my mind is gone! Someday, I hope that I’ll get hooked on something better than a cooked banana! I’ll tune in on that mystic bit and groove until I hit my own Nirvana! Someday, with an insane glow, I’ll get high! Cool chicks have an insne glow, why, then, oh why, can’t I?\* > [@](#): > > But I also learned a LOT from reading “Valley of the Dollars”, which I never saw. **NIGHTCLUB SINGER:** I’d like to dedicate my next song to an **adorable couple** here at ringside! \*\*WOMAN: \*\*How nice! He’s going to sing to **two young people** in love! **MAN:** No, he’s going to sing to **Juniper Knock** \* there. **WOMAN:** But\*\* she’s\*\* not a couple! She’s **all alone**. She’s— Oh, I \*\*see \*\*what he means! \*Sharon Tate. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2020, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-saw-the-movie-but-i-read-the-mad-parody/832909/48 "2020-04-11T18:44:25Z")
@terentii, your post reminded of a send-up MAD did of an awards show, illustrated by the late great Mort Drucker. I don’t remember the parody name, but they riffed on MGM putting out such squeaky-clean movies by changing Wizard of Oz’s _If I Only Had a Brain_ with _We’ve Done Away With Sex_. _In these MGM successes the girls keep on their dresses and nothing’s rated X. Don’t expect any action but a musical attraction 'cuz we’ve done away with sex._ ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2020, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-saw-the-movie-but-i-read-the-mad-parody/832909/49 "2020-04-11T19:30:38Z")
Found it! That was from Mad’s parody of _That’s Entertainment!_ called _What’s Entertainment?_. Written, of course, by Frank Jacobs. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-saw-the-movie-but-i-read-the-mad-parody/832909/50 "2020-04-12T04:38:54Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > _The Godfather_. Hmm, don’t recall the Mad Magazine parody name. Quick Googling shows a 2012 Mad Mag piece _The OddFather_ but that’s obviously not the one I’m remembering from childhood. " Issue 155, Dec. 1972. And in issue 178 October 1975 was “The Oddfather Part, Too”. ---
**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:** [April 12, 2020, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-saw-the-movie-but-i-read-the-mad-parody/832909/51 "2020-04-12T05:24:44Z")
_I’ll tune in on that mystic bit and groove until **at last** I hit my own Nir-van-a!_ Scans better. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2020, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-saw-the-movie-but-i-read-the-mad-parody/832909/52 "2020-04-12T06:22:00Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > All you guys: **Get out of my mind!!**. > > "We’re off to dig the guru… > > \ Nicely done! That was in the first Mad magazine I ever bought. In 1969, if memory serves. And if I’m recalling correctly, with Liza Minelli as Dorothy and Ed Sullivan as the Guru. In many cases, the Mad parodies encouraged me to see the films parodied (when I was old enough, and they were re-released, or available on video). _The Godfather_ was one; others would include _Midnight Cowboy_, _A Clockwork Orange_, and _The Exorcist_. I may never return to some (I don’t need to see _The Exorcist_ again), but others I have rewatched many times. Mad piqued my curiosity about movies I was too young to see, but wanted to, and eventually did. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2020, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-saw-the-movie-but-i-read-the-mad-parody/832909/53 "2020-04-13T22:50:12Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I saw _ **The Sound of Music** _ on my first trip to the Soviet Union in 1975, at the age of 20. It was a very old print, badly spliced together and dubbed into Russian, which I didn’t know well back then (the songs were in English with subtitles). I had no trouble following the story, though. > > A month or so after I returned home, I was at the house of a friend who had a copy of the issue of \*\*\*MAD \*\*\* that contained _ **The $ound of Money** _. As I read it, I was laughing so hard I literally fell out of the easy chair I was sitting in. > > “I have something to \*\*tell \*\*you, Maria. The Captain is in \*\*love \*\*with you.” > > “But, Countess! I’m in love with the **Captain**. And if he’s in love with **me** , that means I must **leave**! If that makes no sense to **you** , it makes even less sense to **me**. But then, I didn’t \*\*write \*\*this picture. Did **anyone**?” “How do solve the problem of religion… How do you handle nuns and not offend…” It’s truly frightening how much 1960’s Mad is permanently engraved in my brain. ---
**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:** [April 13, 2020, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-saw-the-movie-but-i-read-the-mad-parody/832909/54 "2020-04-13T23:10:51Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > “How do solve the problem of religion… > How do you handle nuns and not offend…” > > It’s truly frightening how much 1960’s Mad is permanently engraved in my brain. IIRC, the verse starts “How do you make a movie 'bout religion?” I actually broke out into song with this one at a volunteer church function a few years back. While he didn’t say anything, the Vicar was clearly \*\*not \*\*amused! :mad: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-never-saw-the-movie-but-i-read-the-mad-parody/832909.md?page=2)