Movie Poster Parody - Analysis
Just when you thought Contextual was over, turns out you have to write a 300-word essay containing a short analysis, and who knows what else. Or was it 350?
Our third and final assignment for this class is going to be a movie poster parody. This has been hailed as the assignment throughout the batches. Poster parodies are legendary. A parody, according to Google (when citations are involved, you know shit's getting real), is an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect. But what makes a good parody?
A parody often draws absurd and unrelated connections, often juxtaposing the original meaning. For example, as can be seen in one of the examples below, "Life of Pi" is parodied into "Pife of Po". There is absolutely no connection between the allegorical story and Teletubbies. It's absurd, and that's what makes it funny. Furthermore, the style of the parody poster is often very similar to the original poster, from the layout to the colours to the fonts used. I like to call it "second glance humour."
The wordplay has to match as well. This includes using similar-sounding words, paying attention to syllables and vowels. Homonyms are welcome, but this doesn't necessarily have to be the case---below, the iconic thriller "Jaws" becomes "Chores". And above, "The Last Airbender" becomes "The Last Airfreshener"---though there's one extra syllable, it is redeemed by the similar sounding vowels.
Finally, it's about looking for jokes that contain a pop cultural aspect to it, or something from everyday life. It has to be easily recognisable. For example, "Lord of the Rings" becomes "Lord of the Bling", complete with a golden chain and beanie. This brings about images of rap icons and "the thug life", which everyone is bound to be familiar with. And my personal favourite, "Inception" becoming "Reception". I swear I laughed out loud when this was brought up in class. So the original joke was about a wedding reception and how confusing it is, with all these party planners and caterers and cold feet, but when I first saw it I thought it meant reception as in phone reception. I mean, a bunch of people standing on the streets, surrounded by metropolitan buildings? I don't know, it just screams "looking for signal OH WHOOPS A TUNNEL" to me. So again, it largely depends on what your audience thinks about it. A joke can be deeply philosophical (my personal favourite is "why did the chicken cross the street?") but if people aren't going to get it, they're just not going to get it, man.
Of course, I guess it depends on each individual. We all have very different senses of humour. I laugh at pretty much everything, no kidding. Sometimes things are so unfunny it becomes funny. Some people might not feel the same way, though, and that's fine. Scientists don't really know why we think something is funny. So I guess what I'm trying to say is, who cares if no one else is laughing? You have a good time out there.
