What I really like is when animated sitcoms take on novels, poems, movies or any kind of past production and adapt them to their characters. Making a spoof of Stephen King like Family Guy did in S07E15 or completely re-doing Die Hard like the Cleveland Show did recently in S03E07.
This happens frequently and especially in The Simpsons. Spoofs usually highlight the characters' personalities and mix them in with a story that doesn't seem appropriate to fit these out-of-context characters.
I like spoofs for two reasons. First, because they're really funny and second because they open the show and give a something more to their audience than the weekly jokes. This helps making TV a legitimate art form capable of building on the stones of past and present productions. So that's something good !
Let's take a look at a few of these spoofs :
One of my favorite is, of course, The Simpsons version of The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe that appears in "Treehouse of Horrors" S02E03. First thing first, the narrator is none other than James Earl Jones and his voice just makes the whole thing hold perfectly. Homer plays the poor man haunted by the memory of his Lenore, seen in a portrait as Marge, when "a stately Raven of the saintly days of Yore" (Bart) comes in to torment Homer with the infamous "Nevermore". Lisa and Maggie play Seraphim swinging an unseen censer.
As we watch what The Simpsons did with Poe's most famous poem, the family actually fades away and although there are a few funny moments and a very good performance by Homer in my opinion, the Treehouse of Horrors segment is nonetheless just as intense as the written word. Everything builds up to the final verse "And my soul from that shadow that lies floating on the floor Shall be lifted nevermore.".
STAR WARS and FAMILY GUY
I couldn't talk about spoofs without talking about Star Wars and Family Guy ! The three episodes, and especially the first one which is the best, take on the original Star Wars trilogy in that memorable Family Guy way. Obviously Peter plays Han Solo and Brian is Chewie while Stewie is Darth Vador, Lois Princess Leia and Chris Luke Skywalker. Meg is a giant space worm...
Now this spoof is more of a tribute to George Lucas and Star Wars that have influenced Seth MacFarlane and his crew so much. It has some really funny parts like in "Something something something Dark Side" when Han Solo is about to be frozen and Princess Leia says "I love you" to him and he replies "F@&! you". This spoof also lets Family Guy expand its humour to everything showing that when they laugh about something it doesn't mean they disrespect it, and that's a very important fact when watching Family Guy.
I would also add here Robot Chicken's spoof of Star Wars but it's not really a Sitcom now is it. But something to watch absolutely if you haven't or to watch again and again if you already have !
JAMES BOND and AMERICAN DAD
I was hesitating between several episodes from different shows, and especially The Simpsons, for this last part but I wanted to have three different shows and American Dad has some really good spoofs. I already talked about American Dad spoofing Vietnam War movies in "In Country...Club", so I'll talk about the episode "Tearjerker" S03E10.
"Tearjerker" spoofs every James Bond movie ever made but with its own original script, so it's not like the two others.
One of my favorite American Dad episodes where Stan is a secret agent, Francine the bondgirl, Steve is Q, Hayley is Moneypenny, Roger is the bad guy and Klaus his sidekick.
Very funny episode, very funny, and especially when Roger gives Stan his evil plan for world domination where he stars in a movie as a retarded alcoholic Jew that has a puppy with cancer in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Second World War. Contrary to other spoofs, this one does set most of the characters in a familiar environment like Stan and Roger, but the script is very interesting to look at because it compiles all the stereotypes that we see in Bond movies.
Watch these episodes, they are awesome and I guarantee you many laughs !
Tell me about your favorite spoof episodes and not just in animated sitcoms !
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Thank you,
TRJ
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