List of film spoofs in Mad

This list of film spoofs in Mad includes films spoofed (parodied) by the American comic magazine Mad. Usually, an issue of Mad features a spoof of at least one feature film or television program. The works selected by the staff of Mad are typically from cinema and television in the United States.

The authors parody the original titles with puns or other wordplay. Characters are caricatured, and lampooned with joke names.

These articles typically cover five pages or more, and are presented as a sequential storyline with caricatures and word balloons. The opening page or two-page splash usually consists of the cast of the show introducing themselves directly to the reader; in some parodies, the writers sometimes attempt to circumvent this convention by presenting the characters without such direct exposition. This approach was also used for Mads television parodies, and came to be identified with the magazine. The style was widely copied by other humor publications. In 1973, the promotional movie poster for Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye was designed in the introductory manner of a Mad parody, including the rectangular word balloons with self-referential dialogue; for verisimilitude, the poster was written and drawn by Mad regulars Frank Jacobs and Jack Davis.

Many parodies end with the abrupt deus ex machina appearance of outside characters or pop culture figures who are similar in nature to the film or TV series being parodied, or who comment satirically on the theme. For example, Dr. Phil arrives to counsel the Desperate Housewives, or the cast of Sex and the City show up as the new goomahs on The Sopranos.

The parodies frequently make comedic use of the fourth wall, breaking character, and meta-references. Within an ostensibly self-contained storyline, the characters may refer to the technical aspects of filmmaking, the publicity, hype, or box office surrounding their project, their own past roles, any clichés being used, and so on. In 2013, Film Comment wrote, "While film studies majors gasp over the deconstruction of genre in the works of David Lynch and the meta-movies of Charlie Kaufman, 'the usual gang of idiots' over at MAD have been deconstructing, meta-narrativing, and postmodernizing motion pictures since the very first movie parody (Hah! Noon!) appeared in 1954."Hendrix 2013 (However, that was actually Mad'''s second movie parody; the first had been Ping Pong three issues earlier.)

Almost all of the parodies are of a single, particular film. However, Mad has occasionally done omnibus parodies of film series, such as the James Bond movies, the 1970s Planet of the Apes sequels, and the Twilight Saga movies. It has also combined multiple mini-parodies of unrelated films into a single article. Some actors and directors have said that they regarded ridicule by Mad as an indication of major success in their careers.

In recent years, the parodies and their creators have been available outside the pages of the regular magazine. The March/April 2013 issue of Film Comment (Film Society of the Lincoln Center) carried Grady Hendrix's historical survey of Mads film parodies, titled Cahiers du CinéMAD. In August 2016, four of Mads longtime contributors—editor/artist Sam Viviano, writers Dick DeBartolo and Desmond Devlin, and artist Tom Richmond—appeared at a public symposium in Nebraska to discuss their work in this particular medium."Mad Magazine veterans will discuss movie parodies at Omaha event", Micah Mertes / World-Herald staff writer, August 2016 Mad has also published thematic collections of their past spoofs, from Oscar-winning films to superhero movies to gangster films."MAD Spoofs Movie Classics", January 2015

In September 2020, with Mad having been reduced to a primarily reprint format, Tom Richmond and Desmond Devlin announced that they were crowdfunding a book of newly created movie parodies called Claptrap. They launched the campaign with the completed two-page opening spread for Star Worse: Plagiarizing Skywalker, a spoof of the ninth film in the Star Wars saga, and the only one that Mad would not do. Published in 2023, the book includes twelve full parodies of older popular or iconic films that Mad had for various reasons opted not to parody at the time, along with a dozen additional comedic movie-themed pieces.

Film spoofs list

1950s Spoofed title Actual title Writer Artist Issue Date Index Ref Ping Pong! King Kong (March 1933)(Genre: Adventure horror monster) Harvey Kurtzman Will Elder61953-08August–September 1953 Hah! Noon! High Noon (July 1952)(Genre: Western) Harvey Kurtzman Jack Davis91954-03March 1954 Sane! Shane (April 1953)(Genre: Western) Harvey Kurtzman John Severin101954-04April 1954 From Eternity Back to Here! From Here to Eternity (August 1953)(Genre: Romantic war drama) Harvey Kurtzman Bernard Krigstein121954-06June 1954 Wild 1 (correction) Wild 1/2 The Wild One (December 1953)(Genre: Crime) Harvey Kurtzman Wally Wood151954-09September 1954 Stalag 18! Stalag 17 (July 1953)(Genre: War) Harvey Kurtzman Wally Wood181954-12December 1954 The Cane Mutiny! The Caine Mutiny (June 1954)(Genre: Military trial) Harvey Kurtzman Wally Wood191955-01January 1955 Under the Waterfront! On the Waterfront (July 1954)(Genre: Crime drama) Harvey Kurtzman Wally Wood211955-03March 1955 The Barefoot Nocountessa! The Barefoot Contessa (September 1954)(Genre: Drama) Harvey Kurtzman Jack Davis231955-05May 1955 Vera's Cruz Vera Cruz (December 1954)(Genre: Western) Harvey Kurtzman Jack Davis241955-07July 1955 The Blackboard Jumble Blackboard Jungle (March 1955)(Genre: Social drama) Harvey Kurtzman Wally Wood251955-09September 1955 The Prodigious The Prodigal (May 1955)(Genre: Biblical epic) Harvey Kurtzman Wally Wood261955-11November 1955 The Seven Itchy Years The Seven Year Itch (June 1955)(Genre: Romantic comedy) Harvey Kurtzman Will Elder261955-11November 1955 Ulysses Ulysses (August 1955)(Genre: Fantasy-adventure) Harvey Kurtzman Wally Wood271956-04April 1956 He Rose Tattooed The Rose Tattoo (February 1955)(Genre: Drama) Harvey Kurtzman Wally Wood281956-07July 1956 The Man in the Soot-Gray Flannel The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (May 1956)(Genre: Drama) Harvey Kurtzman Jack Davis291956-09September 1956 Morbid Dick Moby Dick (June 1956)(Genre: Period adventure drama) ? Wally Wood301956-12December 1956 The Bad Seat The Bad Seed (September 1956)(Genre: Psychological thriller) Paul Laikin Bob Clarke321957-04April 1957 O.K.! Gunfight at the Corral! Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (May 1957)(Genre: Western) ? George Woodbridge361957-12December 1957 The Wrong LionsThe Young Lions (April 1958)(Genre: Epic war drama) ? Mort Drucker411958-09September 1958

1960s {| class="wikitable sortable" ! Spoofed title ! Actual title ! Writer ! Artist ! Issue ! Date ! Index ! Ref |- | The Producer and I| The King and I (June 1956)(Genre: Romantic musical) | Nick Meglin | Mort Drucker |60 |1961-01January 1961

| Hack, Hack, Sweet Has-Been or What Ever Happened to Good Taste?| Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (December 1964) (Genre: Psychological thriller)andWhat Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (October 1962) (Genre: Psychological thriller/Horror) | Larry Siegel | Mort Drucker |100 |1966-01January 1966

List of film spoofs in Mad

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