Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with parody

Technical/legal questions about a site that will parody a trademarked brand

Riki tiki — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:59:14 -0800

I'm thinking of creating a political parody website that may step on some toes and/or trademarks. I have a few technical and legal questions about how best to go about this. So I had an idea for lambasting a prominent political party in the United States. I was shocked to find that a really obvious domain name for that party was available, but it may infringe upon a trademark for that party.

I know YANAL and YANML, but a little guidance as to the prudent first steps here would be appreciated. I would assume (but correct me if I'm wrong) that free-speech protections of satire and parody may protect me from some of the trademark issues. But I also sense that those lines may become fuzzier if I ever appear to draw a profit from the site. Is there anything I can do to reasonably ensure that my site is on firm legal ground without the cost of consulting an actual attorney?

On more of a technical level, does anyone know of a good hosting company that could be relied upon to keep the site running even if they got big scary letters on legal stationery from that political party?

This idea is still in the brainstorming stages, so I'm probably imagining a bigger future for it than will realistically happen... but I'd rather be overprepared than underprepared.

Who are these funny glam rockers?

maryh — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 01:15:48 -0800

I give up! I know I saw a link to this silly glam rock band here or on the blue, but I can't find now and it's driving me NUTS! The band was/is British, dates from the mid to late '90's, and starred in a series of over-the-top sequential videos for their thumping, anthemic T-Rexish/Queenish songs. They were very popular in the UK, at least for a few years.

And if anyone can recommend musical goofiness along those lines from other sources, it will be greatly appreciated. (This guy, for example.)

Old Cartoon filter: Looking for "Kitchen of the Future" style parody cartoons.

toekneebullard — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 16:08:26 -0800

Old Cartoon filter: Looking for "Kitchen of the Future" style parody cartoons. OK, when I was a kid there was a certain kind of cartoon that I REALLY loved. I BELIEVE it was related to Warner Brother's in some way, but I could be wrong.

The cartoons I'm thinking of always parodied the "Kitchen of the Future" style films from the 50's. The trade show films that would show a car with a record player, or really early versions of washing machines and whatnot. That's a horrific description. I hope people just know what I'm talking about.

So anyways, I'm looking for the cartoons that PARODIED those films. Is there a certain artist or director that was known for those cartoons? I've been doing some digging, but it's hard to google something that parodies something that you can't even describe well.

Thanks for any help!

I can finally clean that lint out of my belly button

zainsubani — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 10:10:28 -0800

My firm has just announced one-week furloughs for most employees. What struck me as odd was that the email included an attachment labelled "Activities". When I opened it, it was a list: "Top 20 Things to do While on Furlough". Examples:

* Clean out your garage and other storage places and hold a garage sale.
* Go hiking with your pet.
* Renew your library card.

It's like management is just begging to be parodized. Alas, I have not the comedy chops to do it well. Anyone want to suggest some good parody "activities" I could pursue whilst on furlough?

What are some great, foreign language film clips or scenes ripe for parody subtitling?

Unsomnambulist — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:35:05 -0800

Subtitling that "Downfall" clip has been done to death. Are there any other great scenes from foreign films that are ripe for language interpretation? (Examples of the "Downfall" clip being parodied include Hitler being very angry about the new Watchmen ending, and Hitler becoming upset when his grammar is corrected.)

You already cleared this from your cache 35 minutes ago.

hindmost — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 02:58:31 -0800

Where can I find a copy of the Condensed Watchmen that was formerly found at scans_daily? Now that scans_daily is defunct, I can't find the MS Paint stick figure comic that was referenced in this mefi post. Google cache, archive.org and other searches have proven unproductive.

Have your kids learn how to kill people!

Phire — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:23:32 -0800

A few years ago, Amnesty International (I think) ran an awareness campaign about child soldiers by putting up posters about a summer camp where they could send their kids to be tortured, molested, beaten, and taught how to use rifles. Where is it? I remember seeing this on MeFi, and it may or may not have been Amnesty International. Either way, the website itself was a flash based site and you could look at details for the shooting range and the obstacle course and the cabins and whatnot. Apparently there were posters for this in downtown Toronto and there were a lot of outraged parents who didn't quite get that it was meant to be an awareness campaign.

I can't for the life of me remember what the camp was called, but I remember it being a really well done site. Does anyone else recall this?

Bad Idea Jeans

namewithhe1d — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 11:57:11 -0800

Bad Idea Jeans could easily be one of my favorite commercial parodies of all time. Did they exist in real life? Is the reference on the bottom of this page real? I would love to see the actual commercial of this if it exists...

Fast Food (Parody) Nation

porn in the woods — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:32:14 -0800

A friend is writing a play and needs profane and puerile nicknames for fast-food franchises for dialog between two wage-slave burnouts about past jobs. We've brainstormed "charmers" like Papa Murphy's Wake and Bake, Jack Off In The Food, Pizza Slut, Raunch Table Pizza and Jack Off In Her Box; can you up the juvenilia? Bonus points for West Coast franchises.

technical gibberish parody video

mdpc98 — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:48:18 -0800

I am trying to find a specific internet video from a few years ago. The video is a parody of a highly technical product promotional/sales company. There is one man in a suit explaining the company's production innovation, design, etc., as he stands in front of equipment racks. About half-way through, you begin to realize that it's all just technical gibberish. My google-fu is failing me.

Looking for comic strip about A.N.W.A.R.

Raichle — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 14:04:07 -0800

I'm trying to find a comic strip about A.N.W.A.R. drilling that I saw awhile back. (more inside) It was a one-cell comic in black & white that I think was in a magazine and was either titled or gave the impression of the oil in ANWAR being only a drop in the bucket... Does anyone remember this?

What does Getty Images care about Lenin?

saeculorum — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 18:20:20 -0800

SeattleFilter: What does "[t]his photo opportunity © Getty Images" mean? Today, while wondering around the magnificent and awesome Fremont Fair with many naked people riding bikes, I noticed two instances of the following statement template-painted:

"This photo opportunity © Getty Images"

It was in front of the Fremont Statue of Lenin and near Gas Works Park. I can't find any references to this online, so I was wondering what it means? I'm assuming it's parody of something, but I can't figure out what!

Do you know any fake James Bond title songs?

lord_yo — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 15:55:27 -0800

Do you know any fake James Bond title songs? I'm looking for songs that sound like James Bond title songs, but aren't. They could be parodies (like "The Man Made of Guns" by Kris Straub), fake title themes (like on Arling & Cameron's "Music for Imaginary Films"), or just songs that seem inspired by James Bond themes (such as Robbie Williams's "Millennium"). Any recommendations?

Has The Simpsons ever attacked President Bush directly?

Effigy2000 — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:47:21 -0800

I haven't watched The Simpsons regularly since about season 12 or 13, but in those episodes I did happen to catch on TV, I have never seen them directly attack President Bush. I do remember back in the 'golden age' they used to regularly poke fun at Clinton (to name but one example, Clinton playing the sax and Moe telling him to "get back to work"). I'm wondering if regular watchers of The Simpsons can point me to episodes from season 13 onwards where they did directly parody or attack Bush.

Fantastic fake science books and where to find them

easternblot — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 09:08:24 -0800

I'm looking for recommendations for fake science books, or humoristic books in the style of a science book. Examples: the Haggis-on-Whey books, or J.K. Rowling's "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them". Disclaimer: It's for a tentative "humor" section of a fake course manual I'm supposed to write for a not-for-credit teaching course. My chosen course would be "science and pop culture", and I don't want to do the whole thing about movies and tv so I'm curious if there are enough of these parody books to warrant one or two proposed lecture hours on humor/comedy. The take home message would be: people have to be familiar with the way in which science is usually presented to be able to enjoy these kinds of books.

Image of Vault Boy Spoofing Ayn Rand?

brownpau — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 12:21:11 -0800

Does anyone remember a short comic parody of objectivism using an archetypal 1950s character in the style of "Vault Boy" from Fallout? I think the cartoon was called "Atlas Shrugged in Three Easy Steps" or something along those lines, and ended with two men locked in hand to hand combat. Assorted searches have yielded only frustration, but I know I saw a link to the image somewhere here on Metafilter.

Trying to locate a series of short Matthew McConaughey radio parodies

monkeybutt — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 20:57:19 -0800

Looking for a series of short Matthew McConaughey parodies I heard on the radio earlier in the year. It was on a morning radio show and they had these little interstitials where a MM sound-alike would ape the actor's snickering cool/sexy ladies man demeanor and end the bit with "I'm MM, and you're not." They were hysterical and I'm sure they are out there at least on the voice actor's website or something. Anybody have ears on this tidbit?

thanks in advance

Looking for "The Golden Boat"...

pazoozoo — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 19:00:33 -0800

Does anyone know if a DVD copy of the 1996 movie "The Golden Boat" by Raoul Ruiz was ever made and if so, where it can be purchased?

Weekly World News - Satire or Parody?

christopherious — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 20:29:50 -0800

Is the Weekly World News satire, parody, something in between or something else entirely? And how does it compare to or contrast with other similar works of media such as The Onion?

Bible copycats?

deeper red — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 13:51:26 -0800

Books that imitate/parody/use-as-inspiration the story of Jesus? Do you know of any literary works that imitate the gospels, in terms of parodying the story of Jesus, or copying the style or structure of the gospels (a contemporaneous account of the life of a mystic, for example)?

It doesn't have to be humorous and could be a more heavy-weight literary effort. Note that I'm not interested in apocrypha. Maybe things like Monty Python's Life of Brian, or Will Self's Book of Dave, or anything older (Pilgrim's Progress, as a debatable example).

Polite request: This isn't the place to offer your views on religion, or Jesus, or authenticity of The Bible. Thanks!

Classic science video parody

defcom1 — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 16:22:32 -0800

I'm looking for the name of a series of parody classic science videos, in the style of what you used to watch in high school, but with complete nonsensical (science wise) content.

Life Sucks

greta simone — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 08:47:00 -0800

I want to find The Game of Life (Sucks). My friends and I were playing the Milton Bradley Game of Life the other night and we were coming up with ideas of what could be included in the game that would make it more realistic (or pessimistic) and funny. By the end we had pretty much created an entirely different version of Life that includes things like divorce, abortion, rehab, jail, etc that we decided we would rather play. My google-fu totally sucks and I was not able to find a parody version that fits what we want. Do you know if something like this exists and where I could get it?

It's "Deluxe", son, "Deluxe".....

melt away — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 11:47:19 -0800

Trying to find specific soft-drink ads played at movie theaters. They were spoofs on MTV hip-hop culture. Co-workers and I are trying to find information or a video online of the commercials played before movies in theaters a few years back. The trailers featured a white suburban hip-hop kid who called himself "Deluxe". At least one of the trailers was a parody of MTV Crib. Anything about this on the web? I can't seem to find anything at all.

Aaron Sorkin is a pitcher or a catcher?

felix — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 09:16:20 -0800

Sometime within the last month, someone blogged a great parody of Aaron Sorkin's writing style, imagining a discussion between a pitcher and a catcher (or maybe a manager) conferring on the mound. The context was whether Studio 60 will survive or not, which for the sake of humanity I personally pray it does. Since there are about ten trillion blog posts of that format, I'm hoping that someone remembers this one.

The conversation went something like

PITCHER: So here we are at the World Series.
CATCHER: Brazil. In 1948, Brazil produced 53 million bananas.
PITCHER: I got a Brazilian wax the other day. But perhaps that is more information than you intended to obtain.
CATCHER: Let's walk. In 1952, Brazil underwent a dramatic revolution in its weaving industry.
PITCHER: I'm hoping for a dramatic revolution on my fastball.

And so on. But better. Anyone?

Who's real, who's the copycat?

papakwanz — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 14:04:25 -0800

"No, I'm your husband." "No, shoot him! He's the imposter!" Where'd this come from? There's a guy and some sort of doppelganger fighting. Someone, the guy's wife, daughter, friend, partner, whatever, has to figure out which is which and take out the evil copycat.

I've seen this scene parodied a few times in cartoons, namely Family Guy and South Park.

The terrible Michael Bay film The Island played it straight and had a scene where [spoiler] Ewan McGregor the clone & his "sponsor" did this exact schtick, ending with the "real" one getting shot instead of the (good guy) clone. [/spoiler] I was surprised the film played this scene seriously, considering that its been parodied more than a few times.

My question is: where did this first appear? I'm assuming it was some sort of sci-fi movie or TV show that featured clones, or other-dimensional doppelgangers, or evil robots that look just like people, whatever. Anyone know what film/show was the first to do a clone vs. original climax scene?