I feel the need to defend Robin Hood; Men In Tights, a movie I watched at least a dozen times growing up. The only Robin Hood source material I had at the time was the Disney cartoon, and I still loved it. Maybe I was missing things, but it didn't feel like there were sequences of "hmm, this is sending up something but I'm not sure what". Even as an adult, I think it's a very funny film. Maybe not quite as funny as Blazing Saddles, but pretty darn funny.
Spaceballs I possibly can't judge as well, since I was familiar with Star Wars when I saw it. But once again it seems to have a lot of gags that are based more on silly characters, silly situations and yeah, OK, toilet humour than on sending up any particular moment from the source material.
Maybe this misses the point of parody, since the films are being funny in their own right rather than funny in reference - but then again, as you point out, if something is only funny in reference then it's not very accessible to an audience.
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Date: 2008-08-31 07:28 am (UTC)Spaceballs I possibly can't judge as well, since I was familiar with Star Wars when I saw it. But once again it seems to have a lot of gags that are based more on silly characters, silly situations and yeah, OK, toilet humour than on sending up any particular moment from the source material.
Maybe this misses the point of parody, since the films are being funny in their own right rather than funny in reference - but then again, as you point out, if something is only funny in reference then it's not very accessible to an audience.