# Mad Magazine Movie Parodies of Non-existent Movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies, theater-stage-dance\ **Created:** [September 21, 2023, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-movie-parodies-of-non-existent-movies/990485 "2023-09-21T12:46:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2023, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-movie-parodies-of-non-existent-movies/990485/1 "2023-09-21T12:46:03Z")
One of the things I loved about the old Mad Magazine, especially in the 1960s, was the way they’d do a “parody” of a movie that didn’t actually exist. But it played off familar cliches, or off a real movie. But they gave it an original cast of famous people, usually drawn by Mort Drucker, their master caricaturist. Some examples: **Son of Mighty Joe Kong** – sort-of parody of the RKO “Ape Trilogy” of _King Kong, Son of Kong_, and _Mighty Joe Young_, starring Dick van Dyke, James Garner, and Doris Day. It ends up with Doris Day atop the Empire State Building. Appeared in 1965, which featured a cover painting of gorillas in biplanes trying to shoot a giant Alfred E. Neuman off the Empire State Building, appropriately enough. New York station WWOR was famous for showing the Ape Trilogy on Thanksgiving morning against the fasmous parades on the other networks, but this parody predated that. **The Flying Ace** starring the Beatles as WWII pilots, Ed Sullivan as their commanding officer, and Natalie Wood as Ringo’s character’s wife. Also appeared in 1965 **My Fair Ad-Man** a musical parody, using the songs and outline from Lerner and Loew’s _My Fair Lady_ to tell the story of two advertising executives – Cary Grant and Charles Laughton – who make a bet that Grant’s character can turn a beatnik (Frank Sinatra, with a beret and goatee) into an advertising executive. Features Dean Martin as a singing policeman. From 1960 **The Guru of Ours** – sort-of parody of The Wizard of Oz, but really parodies modern trends. With Liza Minelli in the Dorothy role (she was Judy Garland’s daughter, of course, and would go on to play Dorothy in the 19754 animated _Journey Back to Oz_) and Tiny Tim as Aunt Em, Ed Sullivan (again) as the Guru, with what look like George Hamilton and Michael J. Pollard in other roles **Antenna on the Roof** – instead of directly parodying the movie, they did this indirect parody of modern trends, with Zero Mostel (who originated the role of Tevye on Broadway) oin the Tevye part. I recognize Woody Allen as one of the suitors, but can’t recall any other obvious caricatures. From 1972 Most other parodies don’t quite fit this mold. I don’t recall celebrity caricatures in 1965’s _Crazy Fists_ (boxing movie parody. _007: The James Bomb Musical_ deserves to be better known (especially with its “title song” _007_, sung to the tune of “Oklahoma!”, or with its parody of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. – “I.C.E.C.U.B.E.”, The International Conspiracy to Eliminate, Contaminate, and Undermine the British Empire), but it only had caricatures of Sean Connery and Bernard Lee (and Mike Hammer), so It’s not really the same thing. There were movie parodies in several of the Mad paperbacks, rather than the magazines, including one with Marlon Brando playing Tarzan. And, of course, there were the political musical parodies, but in those the caricatures were of the people actually portrayed. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2023, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-movie-parodies-of-non-existent-movies/990485/2 "2023-09-21T15:29:34Z")
I was going to say that they did something like this that was a parody of “Lost Horizon”, but apparently it was a parody of an actual remake. > **[Lost Horizon (1973 film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Horizon_(1973_film))** > > Lost Horizon is a 1973 musical fantasy adventure film directed by Charles Jarrott and starring Peter Finch, Liv Ullmann, Sally Kellerman, George Kennedy, Michael York, Olivia Hussey, Bobby Van, James Shigeta, Charles Boyer and John Gielgud. It was also the final film produced by Ross Hunter. The film is a remake of Frank Capra's 1937 film of the same name, with a screenplay by Larry Kramer. Both stories were adapted from James Hilton's 1933 novel Lost Horizon. > Lost Horizon was lambasted by criti... ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2023, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-movie-parodies-of-non-existent-movies/990485/3 "2023-09-21T15:55:37Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > I was going to say that they did something like this that was a parody of “Lost Horizon”, but apparently it was a parody of an actual remake. Yes, and the remake was definitely worth doing a parody of. I showed it at one of my Bad Film Festivals. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2023, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-movie-parodies-of-non-existent-movies/990485/4 "2023-09-21T15:56:54Z")
_Movie Movie_ was a film equivalent of this, with parodies of two 30s movie genres, the boxing film (_Dynamite Hands_) and the “All talking, all singing, all dancing” movie musicals (_Baxter’s Beauties of 1933_). George C. Scott was in it (he loved making it) and gets to kick the bucket twice. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2023, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-movie-parodies-of-non-existent-movies/990485/5 "2023-09-21T16:01:20Z")
Seems like that bomb of a remake prompted _everyone_ to do their own parody. Johnny Carson even did one, featuring Carol Wayne in the Sally / Gloria role and Johnny as the High Lama / Carnac the Higher Lama. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2023, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-movie-parodies-of-non-existent-movies/990485/6 "2023-09-21T16:15:05Z")
Even great actors like Peter Finch can make a turkey once in a while. I admired his talent in other films but that movie was dreadful. ---
**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:** [September 21, 2023, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-movie-parodies-of-non-existent-movies/990485/7 "2023-09-21T16:21:20Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > Even great actors like Peter Finch can make a turkey once in a while. I admired his talent in other films but that movie was dreadful _“I have never seen it but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built and it is terrific.”_ Michael Caine, discussing one of his movies. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2023, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-movie-parodies-of-non-existent-movies/990485/8 "2023-09-21T18:03:36Z")
They had a fake horror movie parody called “Arbor Day”. What I remember most about it was that they patronized a pizza place that used human “meat.” ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2023, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-movie-parodies-of-non-existent-movies/990485/9 "2023-09-21T18:11:31Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > They had a fake horror movie parody called “Arbor Day”. “Barney Miller” beat [them](https://www.madcoversite.com/mad227-04.html) to it [a couple of months earlier.](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/BarneyMillerS8E01) A real movie with that title was released in [1990.](https://morbidlybeautiful.com/reel-review-arbor-day-1990-2023/) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2023, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-movie-parodies-of-non-existent-movies/990485/10 "2023-09-21T18:12:49Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > They had a fake horror movie parody called “Arbor Day”. What I remember most about it was that they patronized a pizza place that used human “meat.” I read and liked that – those teenage slasher horror movies needed parodying. IIRC, Jack Davis did the artwork, but he didn’t put caricatures of any celebrities in his art for this one. They were all generic cartoon people. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2023, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-movie-parodies-of-non-existent-movies/990485/11 "2023-09-21T18:20:46Z")
Even though I grew up in the 80s and 90s I came into a collection of _Mad_ and _Cracked_ magazines from the 1970s, so I remember what you are talking about. The problem is I was too young to get many of the references. I do remember “The Dip” which parodied 1977 adventure thriller “The Deep.” I read the book on which that movie is based and it was awful. Racist, misogynist crap. I can’t remember if they pointed that out in the parody. I know that as I read it, I was too young to know how bigoted it was, so maybe I had to get that idea from _Mad._ But from what I recall the book fell heavily into the Savage Black Men trope. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2023, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-movie-parodies-of-non-existent-movies/990485/12 "2023-09-21T18:45:51Z")
They once did “The Old Gray Line”, which parodied movies like _The Long Gray Line_ and _The West Point Story_ paired with “The New Gray Line”, which imagined a 1970s version starring Jack Nicholson and James Caan. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2023, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-movie-parodies-of-non-existent-movies/990485/13 "2023-09-21T18:50:42Z")
Are you sure that appeared in Mad? I don’t recall it, and it’s not listed on the Wikipedia page of Mad Movie satires (which lists the others I mentioned in the OP). It doesn’t turn up in a general Google search, either > **[List of film spoofs in Mad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_film_spoofs_in_Mad)** > > This list of film spoofs in Mad includes films spoofed (parodied) by the American comic magazine Mad. Usually, an issue of Mad features a spoof of at least one feature film or television program. The works selected by the staff of Mad are typically from cinema and television in the United States. > The authors parody the original titles with puns or other wordplay. Characters are caricatured, and lampooned with joke names. > These articles typically cover five pages or more, and are presented as a ... ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2023, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-movie-parodies-of-non-existent-movies/990485/14 "2023-09-21T18:53:01Z")
Found it – it;'s in Mad #233 from Fall 1981. Wikipedia clearly didn’t think it a proper movie spoof [https://www.comics.org/issue/94023/](https://www.comics.org/issue/94023/) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2023, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-movie-parodies-of-non-existent-movies/990485/15 "2023-09-21T18:54:30Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I do remember “The Dip” which parodied 1977 adventure thriller “The Deep.” I read the book on which that movie is based and it was awful. Racist, misogynist crap. I can’t remember if they pointed that out in the parody. I know that as I read it, I was too young to know how bigoted it was, so maybe I had to get that idea from _Mad._ But from what I recall the book fell heavily into the Savage Black Men trope. I never read the book, but I didn’t get the impression of racism and misogyny from the Mad satire – at least, I don’t recall it. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2023, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-movie-parodies-of-non-existent-movies/990485/16 "2023-09-21T19:03:48Z")
I can’t believe I found this, but you can read the whole parody, and yes, it makes several comments about the racism of the film… but leans into the sexism, I’m afraid. [https://madcoversite.com/mad198-04.html](https://madcoversite.com/mad198-04.html) ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2023, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-movie-parodies-of-non-existent-movies/990485/17 "2023-09-21T19:20:39Z")
One of the previous threads about Mad parodies mentioned “East Side Story”, a parody of “West Side Story” with world figures (Khrushchev, Castro, De Gaulle, etc.) at the U.N. (Mad #78). I see there was also a parody “It’s A Blunderful Life” from 1996 with Bill Clinton and his guardian angel Richard Nixon. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2023, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-movie-parodies-of-non-existent-movies/990485/18 "2023-09-21T21:48:42Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I can’t believe I found this, but you can read the whole parody, and yes, it makes several comments about the racism of the film… but leans into the sexism, I’m afraid. You’re quite right. It HAS been a long time since I read that one. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2023, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-movie-parodies-of-non-existent-movies/990485/19 "2023-09-21T21:50:11Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > One of the previous threads about Mad parodies mentioned “East Side Story”, a parody of “West Side Story” with world figures (Khrushchev, Castro, De Gaulle, etc.) at the U.N. (Mad #78). > > I see there was also a parody “It’s A Blunderful Life” from 1996 with Bill Clinton and his guardian angel Richard Nixon. Yeah – these are the ones I mentioned in the OP as “political” ones. They did a lot of other political musicals (“A Day with JFK”), but most of the other ones didn’t parody movies. ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2023, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-magazine-movie-parodies-of-non-existent-movies/990485/20 "2023-09-21T22:02:56Z")
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