Story Type: Spoof
“A spoof is a comic movie that parodies a specific genre of films.”
“A spoof is a comic movie that parodies a specific genre of films.”
In Hollywood movie circles, there are genres like Horror or Science Fiction, cross genres like Action-Thriller or Drama-Comedy, and sub-genres like Romantic Comedy or Mystery Thriller.
Then there are story types, a shorthand way to describe a specific narrative conceit that is almost always tied directly to the movie’s central concept. They can be found in any genre, cross genre, or sub-genre.
Knowledge about and awareness of these story types can be a boost not only to your understanding of film history and movie trends, but also as fodder for brainstorming new story concepts. Mix and match them. Invert them. Gender bend them. Genre bend them. Geo bend them.
Story types exist for a reason: Because they work. Hopefully this series will help you make them work for you.
Today: Spoof.
A spoof is a comic movie that parodies a specific genre of films. It has been a Hollywood staple since the 40s.
Some examples of spoofs:
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948): Two hapless frieght handlers find themselves encountering Dracula, the Frankenstein Monster and the Wolf Man.
Casino Royale (1967): In an early spy spoof, aging Sir James Bond comes out of retirement to take on SMERSH.
Blazing Saddles (1974): To ruin a western town, a corrupt political boss appoints a black sheriff, who promptly becomes his most formidable adversary.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975): King Arthur and his knights embark on a low-budget search for the Grail, encountering many very silly obstacles.
Airplane! (1980): An airplane crew takes ill. Surely the only person capable of landing the plane is an ex-pilot afraid to fly. But don’t call him Shirley.
Hollywood Shuffle (1987): An actor limited to stereotypical roles because of his ethnicity, dreams of making it big as a highly respected performer in this satiric look at African American actors in Hollywood.
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988): Incompetent cop Frank Drebin has to foil an attempt to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II.
Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996): A parody of multiple African-American movies.
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997): A 1960s hipster secret agent is brought out of cryofreeze to oppose his greatest enemy in the 1990s, where his social attitudes are glaringly out of place.
Scary Movie (2000): A year after disposing the body of a man they accidently killed, a group of dumb teenagers are stalked by a bumbling serial killer.
Shaun of the Dead (2004): A man decides to turn his moribund life around by winning back his ex-girlfriend, reconciling his relationship with his mother, and dealing with an entire community that has returned from the dead to eat the living.
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007): Singer Dewey Cox overcomes adversity to become a musical legend.
Vampires Suck (2010): A spoof of vampire-themed movies, where teenager Becca finds herself torn between two boys.
There are at least three ways spoofs come to be:
- A specific genre has been mined in movies so much that it has saturated the cultural mindset, setting itself up to be parodied.
- A genre that was once super popular, but has fallen by the wayside, now resurrected by a spoof.
- Combining several movie examples within a genre, a ‘kitchen sink’ approach to film parody.
From a studio standpoint, spoofs are popular because generally they are much less expensive to produce than other types of movies, plus they have a built-in marketing advantage, relying on consumer awareness of the movies and genre the film is parodying, a natural form of pre-awareness.
What spoofs would you add to this list? What appeals to you about this type of story?
For more articles in the Story Types series, go here.