Comic Relief: Best Spoofs

As I was writing the title for this week’s category, something dawned on me: the terms “best” and “spoof” have absolutely no business in the same sentence together.

I mean, when you look at the long history of spoof movies, there is no denying that many of them are just plain awful. No matter how you break it down, they are based on bad plots that are arranged to make fun of movies that became pop favorites – and in many cases that movie they are poking fun at likely didn’t have a strong plotline to begin with.

I mean, just think of some of those we’ve had to endure in the five to seven years alone: Date Movie, Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans, Disaster Movie…and why do 75 percent of them have ‘Movie’ in the title? We know it’s a movie, we’re watching it.

OK, timeout. I’m not selling this one very well. Starting over.

There are many awful spoof movies out there, but once in a while it seems a spoof or parody comes along that isn’t half bad. In fact, a couple of them were quite well done.

So let’s take a look today at the Top Five Spoofs. Of course, I’m sure you have your own so be sure to add to our list.

5. Austin Powers: This “British Mojo” filled series of movies mixed themes of failure, success and sex to bring together audiences if all kinds. It’s not hard to understand why: whether or not it was any good, it was made it the theme of James Bond and anything with Bond remotely attached to it automatically sells.

The first movie in this series, however, was legitimately funny. It had a style that hadn’t really been used before and the comic one-liners were priceless.

4. Scary Movie: This start of an awful series of spoof movies, the reason this makes the list is that it was so simple and so successful that it spawned an entire generation of spoof movies. Yes, most of those were awful and that might not have been a positive thing in hindsight, but the Scary Movie franchise at its peak made an awful lot of money.

The movie itself isn’t that bad, either. At a time when horror movies were followed by a sequel every summer, it brought some humor to the situation. And it had the Wayans brothers before they completely disappeared.

On a side note, are the Wayans brothers still in the business?

3. This is Spinal Tap: This spoof movie played on the documentary style works of fiction that first became popular in the late 1970s.

The first time I saw this film, I thought it was “different” but by the end I found I was actually enjoying it. It had its own style, which was a big reason it had the success it did.

2. Blazing Saddles: Mel Brooks was a master when it came to developing the spoof. For that reason, we are giving him both the number two and number one slots on the list. There could have been more than got in from Brooks, but we had to try and be somewhat fair.

Now I know that nothing I say could outwit Brooks so I’m just going to keep it simple. Mel Brooks rocks and so do his movies.

1. Robin Hood: Men in Tights: This is our second in the Mel Brooks winner’s circle. He rocks, and so does this movie.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

It's only Wednesday, but it feels like the weekend should have been here two days ago. You have a full plate ahead, lots of work left to do, classes at Southington High School or college to sit through or are just plain in need of a break. We have you covered.