21 Parodies That Outclassed the Genres They Spoofed
Parodies are fun, but it only takes one Disaster Movie to understand the irony involved in a bad movie making fun of a good one. Even in a competent satire, it’s a lot easier to point out the flaws in a work of art than to make one from scratch.
Trust us, we’re experts.
But sometimes, a parody is so good that it’s on the same level as what it skewers — or even better. For Redditor samx3i, Scream is the prototype of such a film. They quoted Wikipedia to point out that “the film went on to be a financial success and received considerable critical acclaim for its deconstruction of the horror genre” and “it is credited with revitalizing the horror genre in the mid ‘90s and inspiring an array of imitators.”
They then asked r/Movies for more “examples of movies like Scream that satirize a genre while simultaneously being among the very best films of the very genre they parody?” and their fellow Redditors responded with quite a few highly elevated laughs.
The Cabin in the Woods
Grease
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
Young Frankenstein
Shrek
Knives Out
The Princess Bride
Wet Hot American Summer
Last Action Hero
Spaceballs
Black Dynamite
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
Galaxy Quest
Shaun of the Dead
The Return of the Living Dead
The Long Goodbye
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
The LEGO Batman Movie
True Lies
Kingsman: The Secret Service
Clue
