Summary
- The best parody movies take the most outrageous aspects of movie genres and make them even more ridiculous, without mocking the genre itself.
- Great parody movies have a clever sense of humor and intelligent jokes that appeal to people's love for the genre they're spoofing.
- Some of the best parody movies, like Airplane! and Shaun of the Dead, have become iconic and have even received critical acclaim and awards recognition.
The best parody movies take the best and most outrageous parts of movie genres and change things up to make them even more ridiculous. Sadly, over the years the idea of spoof movies gained a bad name thanks to an endless supply of spoofs of practically every genre in existence. However, it wasn't always that way. There is also a difference between the best spoof movies and the best parody movies. A spoof movie is something like Airplane!, where it takes the tropes of the action genre and shows how ridiculous they can be. A parody movie is one that plays within a genre, without taking itself that seriously, similar to Shaun of the Dead.
Some of the best parody movies started coming out in the 1970s and while they ended up falling on hard times in the 2000s, they remain a part of movie history. Some of the movies ended up as Oscar and Golden Globe nominees and others have entered into the Library of Congress as some of the most important movies in history. What separates the great parody movies from the bad ones is both the sense of humor on display and the brains behind the jokes. These movies don't really make fun of the genre, they simply show humor in the parts of the genre that people love the most.
20 Team America: World Police (2004)
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Trey Parker and Matt Stone took a break from South Park to write and direct the action movie spoof of the sci-fi Thunderbirds TV marionette series with Team America: World Police. Team America hilariously parodied the premise of Thunderbirds - a highly trained squad of heroes with special vehicles - while also lampooning overly political celebrities and U.S. foreign policy while featuring a groundbreaking use of puppetry. The movie failed to reach the level of Parker and Stone's previous movie, South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut, which itself picked up an Oscar nomination. It still picked up positive reviews and ended up as a minor box office success.
19 What We Do In The Shadows (2014)
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Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi's What We Do In The Shadows is one of the best movie parodies in the form of a mockumentary. The movie follows a group of New Zealand Vampires who are struggling with modern life just the same as everyone else. There are also werewolves and more than enough jokes to throw around. The 2014 movie was so popular, it led to the hit TV adaptation on FX from Clement that follows a new trio of vampires located on Staten Island, as well as a spinoff called Wellington Paranormal that follows the officers from the movie as they encountered further supernatural occurrences.
18 Tucker And Dale Vs Evil (2010)
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Tucker and Dale Vs Evil is a hilarious comedic horror spoof movie that turns the table on the slasher genre. Tucker and Dale are trying to enjoy a vacation at their cabin in the woods when they're ambushed by a group of college students who can't seem to stop dying in horrific ways. The students believe Tucker and Dale are serial killers hiding out in the woods and targeting them, while Tucker and Dale are horrified to see the college kids continually dying in accidents. It's a hilarious twist on the typical "hillbilly killers living in the woods" and an enjoyable parody movie. It was a minor success that became a cult classic.
17 This Is The End (2013)
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This is the End spoofs the apocalyptic genre where characters try to survive the end of the world. The movie sees several celebrities portraying exaggerated fictional versions of themselves as they try to survive the end of the world. The rapture happens and some are swallowed by massive sinkholes while others are brought into heaven. The rest, including some of Hollywood's top actors, are left to fight each other on Earth. The cast includes everyone from James Franco and Seth Rogen to Emma Watson and Channing Tatum. The movie was a box office success, making $126 million on a $32 million budget (via The Numbers).
16 Sausage Party (2016)
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There are elements of the Toy Story series all over the R-rated animated parody movie Sausage Party. However, where that series accessed childhood ideals, this one hits at adolescent yearnings. Drugs, sex, and a surprising amount of graphic food dismemberment are all at play here. Based on a script by Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, and Evan Goldberg, Sausage Party follows anthropomorphic food in a grocery store that learns their purpose is for humans to eat them. This means they have to escape, or at least have as much fun as possible before they meet their end. It ended up as the highest-grossing R-rated animated movie at the time of its release.
15 Hot Shots! (1991) / Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993)
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Jim Abrahams and Pat Proft were responsible for a number of the best parody movies that helped define the genre in the 80s and 90s, which included Hot Shots!, which starred Charlie Sheen, Valeria Golina, Cary Elwes, and Lloyd Bridges in a parody of Top Gun. Hot Shots was a huge hit, making $176 million, making it successful enough for a sequel called Hot Shots! Part Deux, which spoofed action franchises like Rambo. It was also a huge success and proved Charlie Sheen's comic timing, something he would come back to years later in television sitcoms.
14 Tropic Thunder (2008)
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2008's Tropic Thunder was directed by Ben Stiller, who also starred in one of the best parody movies of action cinema. It follows actors filming a war movie in Vietnam that turns deadly and hilarious when they are lost in the jungles of Cambodia. Tropic Thunder lampoons films like Platoon while the stereotypical cast of extreme method actors, washed-up action stars, hopeful rookies, one-note comedians, and a rapper-turned-actor perfectly tears apart Hollywood with an honest look at the industry and its players. Robert Downey Jr. picked up an Oscar nomination and Tom Cruise's hilarious Len Grossman role picked up a Golden Globe nomination.
13 The Cabin In The Woods (2012)
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Cabin in the Woods is one of the best parody movies in horror, and it is not even a comedy. The movie starts as a typical horror movie playing into the stereotypical character archetypes from the jock to the final girl, but it becomes a meta-movie once the plot behind the stereotypical characters is revealed. Written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard, and directed by the latter, the movie focuses on the victims of the slasher killers, but in the background are scientists who control the monsters and sacrifice the kids to stop the end of the world. This remains one of the best parody movies thanks to its status as a cult classic and a subversion of the genre.
12 Galaxy Quest (1999)
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One of the best parody movies is a Star Trek parody that is so beloved, some Trekkies voted it one of the best Star Trek movies of all time (via IGN). A ridiculously talented cast is brought together for this examination of faded fame, nostalgia, space adventures, and convention culture, all wrapped in classic Star Trek tropes. Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Sam Rockwell, Tony Shalhoub, Justin Long, and Rainn Wilson, are among the recognizable names and faces, and all get big laughs. The inimitable Alan Rickman as Shakespearean misanthrope Alexander Dane deserves all the praise he received in this cult classic.
11 Borat (2006) / Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020)
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Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat has been a staple in popular culture since its release in 2006 and most people have an impression of his character whether they've seen the movie or not. The first movie has great reviews and the second movie, released in 2020, is not far behind. Cohen portrays Kazakhstan reporter Borat in the mockumentary and gets himself into insane situations as he interviews people and purposefully tries to cause chaos and shock people in the movies. What makes it one of the best parody movies is that Cohen never breaks character and many people he approaches have no idea they are in a parody movie.
