“Eat It.” “Epic Movie.” “Spaceballs.” “Parody Movie” (coming soon). What do these things have in common? They are are all timeless examples of classic parodies that have delighted the masses and shamed their targets to the point of exile. Or in the first case, death.

They can be funny sometimes, if you know what they’re parodying. If you don’t, you’re usually pretty confused. They can either be clever and funny, like “The Naked Gun”, or a lame, lazy replacement for an actual joke, like “Family Guy”.

Let’s see what this one is.

We have here the music video for Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 classic: “Dancing In The Dark”. I won’t precede it with anything. Just breath deeply and take it all in. It’s nothing short of glorious:

Although the last song recorded for Springsteen’s landmark album “Born In The USA” album, it was picked as the first single because it reflected the Boss’s current mood. That mood was “pissed” apparently, as he was pretty frustrated from his efforts putting the album together. The lyrics are supposed to reflect that but I didn’t really check because really, who cares? Anyways, it did real well, I guess.

The music video was directed by famous director of movies he’s directed, Brian DePalma (Scarface, The Untouchables). Regardless of previous work, he did an amazing job with this video. It’s really just a concert but it’s shot pretty well. It’s fun. The dancing is phenomenal. It’s iconic. Iconic. That’s a pretty good prerequisite for parody.

One of the most notable things about the video, if you made it far enough, is the emergence of an emerging young starlet who eventually emerged as a young Courtney Cox. She of course went on to bigger, better things like “Cocoon 2: The Return” and a marriage to internationally renown funnyman David Cox-Arquette. But it all started here. And what a way to go.

In 1995, Cox was in New York City to promote her new show “Friends”, presumably because the program also took place in New York City. Always looking for a guest, a pre-Horatio Sanz “Saturday Night Live” was eager to fill the vacant spot of host. While giving an impromptu, totally unstaged monologue to the liberal Jewish audience, she found herself being interrupted by an old friend (OR WAS HE?) :

Fantastic.

The 1994-1995 season of SNL is notorious for its lame sketches and phoned in performances, and this episode is no exception. This sketch, however, cracks me up. That is a dead on impersonation. The best impersonations involve a mixture of both the person being parodied and the performer them self, and that’s definitely the case here. You can catch some trademark Sandler sound effects while she’s trying to escort him off stage. The longer it goes on, the funnier it is to me. OK, I think the rest should speak for itself. That’s all for today. Goodbye.

Tags: Actual Thing Vs. Parody, Music, tv // Add Comment »