12 Times Mel Brooks Movies Perfectly Parodied Movie Cliches
Vote up the Mel Brooks movie moments that perfectly parody common movie cliches.
Mel Brooks’s films don’t just parody specific movies; they also parody “movies” themselves. Among the many hilarious references to films like Star Wars, Robin Hood, classic Westerns, and Hitchcock films, Brooks’s movies also sometimes take aim at common cliches and character tropes where you don’t even have to “get” a specific reference to understand them.
Here are some of the most on-target parodies of movie cliches that obviously come from a director who loves the movies he’s satirizing as much as anyone.
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1
In ‘Spaceballs,’ A Character’s Entire Job Is To Promote Toys Based On The Movie
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Mel Brooks reached out to George Lucas to get his blessing for Spaceballs, and the Star Wars creator agreed – as long as they didn’t sell any Spaceballs action figures, since those toys could potentially be mistaken for Star Wars figures. Brooks decided to bake the Star Wars toy craze into his parody, creating a Yoda-like character named “Yogurt” who lives in a mystic cave and whose entire purpose is to sell Spaceballs-themed merchandise.
What do you think?Perfectly parodied? -
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In ‘Robin Hood: Men in Tights,’ Robin Wins The Archery Contest For No Other Reason Than It’s In The Script
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Robin Hood: Men in Tights includes a climactic archery contest between Robin Hood (in disguise) and one of the sheriff’s hired goons. Since this is a Robin Hood movie, we know how this has to end: Robin triumphantly wins the contest and reveals himself to the adoring commoners. But this time, Robin’s bull’s-eye gets split down the middle by the bad guy, and Robin… loses??
The exasperated Robin knows that can’t be right. So he implores all the characters to check their scripts, and, lo and behold, Robin gets to shoot again. Why? Because it’s a Robin Hood movie, that’s why.
Perfectly parodied? -
3
In ‘Robin Hood: Men in Tights,’ Robin Has A Tragic Backstory That Just Keeps Going And Going
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Robin Hood: Men in Tights makes fun of the common backstory in Robin Hood films (and many “hero’s journey” stories) where the protagonist finds out early on that something tragic has happened to their family and it’s up to them to make things right.
Robin is horrified to learn from his trusty sidekick Blinkin that his father perished while he was away. As did his mother. And brothers. And, well, you name it…
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4
In ‘Spaceballs,’ President Skroob Uses Needlessly Complex Sci-Fi Technology To Move A Couple Of Feet
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Spaceballs mostly targets the Star Wars trilogy, but takes some swipes at other classic sci-fi franchises, including one scene that takes Star Trek’s beaming technology to an absurd extreme. Brooks’s President Skroob needs to transport to the ship’s main deck and engages in a complicated back-and-forth beaming mishap with the ship’s (extremely Scottish) beaming operator. Finally, he decides to just walk… and goes through one door that leads straight to his destination, which was just a few feet away the whole time.
It’s a specific Star Trek joke, but also an amusing commentary on how futuristic movies sometimes invent really “FUTURE-Y” technology just to seem slick and futuristic, even if it doesn’t make much sense to use.
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5
In ‘Blazing Saddles,’ The Drunken Gunslinger’s Classic Sob Story Takes A Wild Turn
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In Blazing Saddles, Gene Wilder portrays “The Waco Kid,” a once-feared gunslinger who’s fallen off the wagon and become a washed-up shell of his former self. Like most gunslingers in Westerns, he also has a tragic backstory, which he emotionally reveals to Sheriff Bart during a heart-to-heart moment. But because this a Mel Brooks film, this tragic backstory takes a bit of a different turn.
Perfectly parodied? -
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In ‘Dracula: Dead and Loving It,’ The Stake To The Heart Produces An Exaggeratedly Disgusting Geyser Of Blood
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Dracula: Dead and Loving It makes fun of classic Dracula films and the more edgy, violent vampire films from the early ’90s like Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Interview with the Vampire. The scene in which Jonathan Harker and Van Helsing sneak into a crypt to finish off the undead Lucy takes the modern “violent” vampire movies to an absurd extreme. The stake through the heart isn’t just bloody – it produces a comical geyser of blood that completely drenches Harker (while Van Helsing shrewdly keeps his distance).
And it takes more than one staking to get the job done.
Perfectly parodied? -
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7
In ‘Robin Hood: Men in Tights,’ Robin Smoothly Cuts Down A Candelabra – Which Immediately Falls On Him
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Robin Hood: Men in Tights includes one small visual joke that inverts basically every “swashbuckling” movie ever made. While surrounded by the king’s soldiers, Robin notices that a bunch of them are standing under a huge, heavy candelabra. So Robin cuts the rope to the candelabra… which comes crashing straight down onto him.
Perfectly parodied? -
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8
In ‘Young Frankenstein,’ Whenever A Shady Character’s Name Is Mentioned, The Horses Whinny – Over And Over Again
Young Frankenstein parodies many of the common cliches in classic Universal horror films, including one obviously shady character whose introduction is immediately followed by a conspicuous thunderclap and the horses whinnying.
Igor notices that every time someone says the name of their mysterious host Frau Blücher, the horses go nuts. So he tests the hypothesis by just throwing in one extra “Blücher” for no reason.
Perfectly parodied? -
9
In ‘Dracula: Dead and Loving It,’ When Dracula Tries To Hypnotize A Henchman It Works TOO Well
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Dracula: Dead and Loving It takes aim at the classic vampire story and its many movie adaptations. Leslie Nielsen plays Dracula, who asserts his hypnotic influence over his soon-to-be henchman Renfield by doing a classic “look into my eyes” routine… and Renfield immediately falls asleep.
In this version, Dracula’s “Dracula-ness” is so powerful (and Renfield is so extra-stupid), the classic mind-control scene ends up just irritating him.
Perfectly parodied? -
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10
In ‘Blazing Saddles,’ The Toughest Goon In The West Is A Lovable Scamp With A Penchant For Philosophy
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In Blazing Saddles, ex-NFL player Alex Karras portrays Mongo, an amalgam of every “tough guy” goon from classic Westerns. He’s so tough, he punches out a guy’s horse with one swing, and Sheriff Bart is instructed not to shoot him because “you’ll just make him mad.” But after he’s defeated, Mongo inverts his character trope with a bit of existential philosophy when he reveals that even he knows he’s merely a pawn in the game of life. A sad truth every Western heavy must come to grips with eventually.
Perfectly parodied?
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11
In ‘High Anxiety,’ The Femme Fatale Starts Barking Out Frantic, Random Instructions The Second She Arrives
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High Anxiety is Mel Brooks’s parody/homage to his filmmaking idol, Alfred Hitchcock. The film fits in a dazzling array of references to specific scenes in Hitchcock films and the common character archetypes in Hitchcock movies, including a mysterious, frantic, beautiful woman who shows up out of nowhere and throws the main character for a loop.
In this version, of course, Madeline Kahn plays the “Hitchcock heroine” character to a hilarious extreme, immediately barking out random, increasingly ridiculous orders to Brooks’s character in a nonstop frenzy of unspecified panic.
Perfectly parodied? -
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12
In ‘Silent Movie,’ The Characters Cram In A Bunch Of Celebrity Cameos To Get Their Movie Made – Literally
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Silent Movie is Mel Brooks’s homage to the classic slapstick films of early Hollywood, with nonstop goofy physical gags and (as the title implies) all the dialogue on title cards. The film’s plot centers on Mel Brooks playing a director (named Mel Funn) who’s determined to make a new silent movie, but the studio has no interest in it – unless the director can fill the movie with A-list stars.
So the characters go on a quest to find those stars, and, well, they find them: Paul Newman, James Caan, Anne Bancroft, Burt Reynolds, Liza Minnelli, and more all actually appear in the film. It ends up being a meta-commentary on the exact subject it’s lampooning: Sure, you can make your ridiculous movie; just make sure to throw a bunch of big stars in there to make sure people actually go see it.
