Great Expectations. I can’t get through that book without the South Park episode completely commandeering the story. I’m sure there were no robotic monkeys if I could get through the book and I’m pretty sure Dickens didn’t write:
“Oh what a gay time we shall have, and I do mean gay as in festive, not as in penetration of the bum.” - Pocket
“…And they all lived happily ever after, except for Pocket who died of Hepatitis B.” – Narrator
It’s a pretty far cry from “serious literature,” but the first Dean Koontz book I read was “Tick Tock,” which is a very entertaining (IMHO) parody of the horror genre. Ever since, when I’ve picked up a Koontz book, I expect it to be funny. I am always disappointed, especially since I don’t find them particularly suspenseful or thrilling, either. Some of them are funny, but not in a good way.
I always felt lucky because of that; I’m sure it does really screw up the movie.
Knew The Holy Grail nearly by heart before I ever read any Chretien de Troyes.
My editon of his tale of Lancelot, Cliges, and Erec and Enide has been heavily annotated as a result – many references lifted from there, but also, it read to me like the Further Silly Adventures…
I’d seen Life of Brian long before I went to uni and grad school and took up Imperial Rome as one of my subfields – you know, that whole ‘What have the Romans ever really done for us?’ is actually a brilliant way to illustrate a lecture in Roman provincial administration, cos everything they list is accurate!
Monty Python is a wonderful resource for mediaevalists who feel like a little giggle…surely you’re heard ‘The Ronettes Sing: Mediaeval Agrarian History’!
Another difficult one for me was The Grapes of Wrath oddly enough. Not seen a parody, but my mum knew a family who would load up the family truckster simply to go on a week’s hols as if they were heading to Salinas to find work in the orange groves, and she would always say the Joads were heading off to holiday when they pulled away (nice people, actually; she was fond of them). It wasn’t until years later I sat to read the book and realised who the Joads were! Couldn’t read it without thinking of the family friends.
PS Has anyone seen Zero Hour before Airplane?
I’m not sure if I’ll ever see The Passion of Christ because it’s been ruined by a parody thread posted here awhile back.
I’ve begun noticing every frickin’ time one of the characters smooths their dress in Robert Jordan’s Wheel Of Time series because of a post in the “What if Tolkien was written by someone else”. :mad:
Well, I’ve always found good lit stands up against parody. I can enjoy the parody, think it’s funny, yet still get the good points. Often parody is an affectionate form.
For an example of “ruined by parody”, how about reading <i>Foucault’s Pendulum</i> then <i>Da Vinci Code</i>? Pendulum is about people dabbling in mystery, laughing at people taking modern templars seriously, it all going horribly wrong, etc. Da Vince Code is about the sort of stupid conspiracy theory Pendulum makes fun of.
Another vote for Mad magazine. Where I lived in the seventies the newsagent would stock recent editions of Mad magazine well before the cinemas received the current film releases. My enjoyment of a whole bunch of movies was distorted (and in some cases enhanced) by the Mad comic strip parodies, most memorably Grease and Dressed to Kill.
cainxinth, you got there first with the Brian/Bible post. It was the first thing that sprung to my mind when I read the OP. I still haven’t read the New Testament.
I had an identical experience with the Lucy/Kane spoiler related by ElectricZ. Lucy is my role model though so I’ve forgiven her. 
I was driven to see the second LotR movie by Butters’s parody of Gollum in that episode of South Park, but the real Gollum was hardly as entertaining.
Terry Jones is a pretty serious historian, so it’s not surprising that they’d find a way to be historically accurate and funny.
I’m sure I saw the Simpsons’ memorable take on Grapes before I read the book. (At “Diorama-rama,” Nelson’s diorama of the book is just a plate of grapes. He explains it as follows: “Here’s the Grapes… and here’s the Wrath!” smashing it with a mallet. It’s one of those things that just works.) It has nothing to do with the book so it doesn’t ruin it, but I’ve read it and acted in the play, and it does lighten things up a bit.
Heh. I own my own copy of Kentucky Fried Movie. I’m here to tell you that thinking of Big Jim Slade during romantic moments can kill the mood. Possibly even the relationship, if you don’t watch it.
I read Christopher Moore’s Lamb last year and it makes every other book/film/article that mentions Jesus a new experience. I read The Davinci Code soon afterwards, and whenever they mentioned Mary or Mary Magdalene I got the giggles.
Me too. Plus I now can’t watch the Michael Jackson’s video for “Beat It” without expecting all the gags from Weird Al’s “Eat It” video. (e.g. it just seems wrong when the guy doesn’t get stuck in the manhole, or the guitar solo doesn’t end with an explosion.)
(Of course, since Michael Jackson has become a parody of himself, it’s hard to see his older stuff in the same light anyway.)
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson was not surprising to me at all. I’ve seen it parodied a lot, but it was actually ruined/spoiled for me when in high school I made the mistake of watching the TV movie. It starred Dan Cortese, so it was kind of like a parody, and Keri Russell (the reason I was watching it). When my english class read the story the next year I wasn’t surprised at all, and knew what was coming which ruined it for me.
Back when the remake of Planet of the Apes was just coming into cinemas, a friend mentioned he was hoping to go and see it. I immediately launched into some of the songs from the Simpsons’ musical thatre version.
Oh no, I was wrong.
It was earth all along.
You finally made a monkey out of me.
etc.
Anyway, turns out he’d never seen the original. I didn’t actually spoil the remake for him, because NObody knows what THAT was about, but I don’t think he’ll ever see the first movie now.
Askia, I grew up reading MAD parodies! I wasn’t allowed to see any R-rated movies or read the “adult” books (i.e. the Bicentennial Series by John Jakes) so I got my own versions through MAD. To this day I can still recognize actors from classic movies I’ve never seen, (The Godfather series, The Exorcist, etc.) just from knowing their MAD versions. Damn! Some of those cartoons were really accurate! I had a MAD subscription for several years, probably in the mid to late '70s. Did MAD just get stupid since then, or does its humor really only appeal to pre-teens and I’ve outgrown it?
Kath
MAD’s gone way downhill since Bill Gaines died. They even accept advertising now, and there’s no way that couldn’t affect their “every target valid” philosophy.