Love-Hate Letters to a genre / trope /idea?
November 27, 2014 3:17 AM Subscribe
Can you recommend shows or books that act as great "love-hate" letters deconstructing and showing off the flaws in a particular idea or genre while also being loving examples of the genre?
The ones I am thinking of while writing this are Cabin in the Woods (Hollywood Horror story) and Madoka (Anime magical girls). To a lesser extent Worm does this with the superhero genre (there must be more superhero ones, I'm just not thinking of them at the moment) and the children of earth season of Torchwood with sfnal terror.
The ones I am thinking of while writing this are Cabin in the Woods (Hollywood Horror story) and Madoka (Anime magical girls). To a lesser extent Worm does this with the superhero genre (there must be more superhero ones, I'm just not thinking of them at the moment) and the children of earth season of Torchwood with sfnal terror.
The first Scream film is a good example for the slasher genre
posted by Ted Maul at 3:29 AM on November 27, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by Ted Maul at 3:29 AM on November 27, 2014 [4 favorites]
Galaxy Quest performs this admirably by being a sci-fi story about the washed-up actors from an old sci-fi show, who are aware of, and end up revisiting, many of the tropes of the genre.
posted by itstheclamsname at 3:35 AM on November 27, 2014 [9 favorites]
posted by itstheclamsname at 3:35 AM on November 27, 2014 [9 favorites]
The Princess Bride does this to some extent for fantasy stories, although more the book than the film. Buffy the Vampire Slayer deconstructs some tropes but mostly plays to them. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a terrific little movie which plays on the idea of noir while adhering fairly strictly to the format.
Down with Love is a celebration and mockery of screwball comedies (and, I think, under-rated). The Artist is a playful celebration of silent film, and supposedly Mel Brooks Silent Movie is as well, but I haven't seen it. Enchanted pokes fun at Disney films while basically being a Disney film. Similarly the Incredibles has some good mockery of superhero films while being a terrific superhero film. South Park the movie is pretty good at spoofing musicals while being one. Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz both somewhat send up their genres while being a good example of their genres.
posted by Cannon Fodder at 3:50 AM on November 27, 2014 [10 favorites]
Down with Love is a celebration and mockery of screwball comedies (and, I think, under-rated). The Artist is a playful celebration of silent film, and supposedly Mel Brooks Silent Movie is as well, but I haven't seen it. Enchanted pokes fun at Disney films while basically being a Disney film. Similarly the Incredibles has some good mockery of superhero films while being a terrific superhero film. South Park the movie is pretty good at spoofing musicals while being one. Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz both somewhat send up their genres while being a good example of their genres.
posted by Cannon Fodder at 3:50 AM on November 27, 2014 [10 favorites]
Several episodes of Community did this, maybe most notably the Law and Order episode.
posted by saladin at 4:04 AM on November 27, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by saladin at 4:04 AM on November 27, 2014 [2 favorites]
Also, Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg's "Cornetto Trilogy" (Shawn of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, World's End) do this brilliantly within their respective genres (zombie horror, cop drama, sci-fi apocalypse).
posted by saladin at 4:06 AM on November 27, 2014
posted by saladin at 4:06 AM on November 27, 2014
Deadpool is probably the comic book superhero of note for this. And to a certain extent the Kickass things.
Scrubs was a poignant hospital drama disguised as a sitcom, and though the episodes vary a lot of them were direct refutations of typical medical drama plots.
Farscape in some ways was a series of plot and directorial decisions made specifically in opposition of scifi adventure tropes but it's one of the most standout scifi tv shows of its period.
posted by Mizu at 4:30 AM on November 27, 2014
Scrubs was a poignant hospital drama disguised as a sitcom, and though the episodes vary a lot of them were direct refutations of typical medical drama plots.
Farscape in some ways was a series of plot and directorial decisions made specifically in opposition of scifi adventure tropes but it's one of the most standout scifi tv shows of its period.
posted by Mizu at 4:30 AM on November 27, 2014
Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, for JRPGs and NBA-related 90s pop-culture. Being able to pummel the giant, disembodied ghost head of Bill Cosby takes on a whole new cathartic dimension these days.
posted by urufu at 4:43 AM on November 27, 2014
posted by urufu at 4:43 AM on November 27, 2014
Enchanted, for Disney princess movies.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 4:53 AM on November 27, 2014
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 4:53 AM on November 27, 2014
In anime, the Gainax mecha series: Gunbuster, Neon Genesis Evangelion, FLCL, Gunbuster II, Gurren Laggan, all both exemplify and deconstruct the genre. Also Space Dandy (space opera), Kill la Kill (superpowered highschoolers), Apocalypse Zero (80s B-grade apocalypse), Samurai Champloo, and some episodes of Cowboy Bebop. The Youtube series Dragonball Abridged is both a parody and a loving re-do of the original series.
The manga One Punch Man would probably count as this.
Outside anime, how about Leslie Nielsen's work -- Airplane, Police Squad!, Naked Gun. More parody than re-construction, but they are played very straight-faced.
The breakout Halo machinima series Red vs Blue, which deconstructs the fiction of the game but ends up weaving its own rather interesting story within that. The Half Life 2 comic Concerned -- silly, but closely following the game's story. Oh yeah, and perhaps you could count Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Sealab 2021, and all those other Adult Swim cartoon re-edits!
I guess Adventure Time kind of falls into this somewhat, with its weird, ironic/genuine take on tabletop-RPG-style fantasy and scifi.
Pulp Fiction, and Tarantino's work in general. Also Grindhouse, and the spinoffs like Machete.
If you don't mind going back a bit, there's The Rape of the Lock (heroic epic), and I guess Candide (Bildungsroman) and Gulliver's Travels (far-fetched travelogue) would count. Or even Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, which parodies several contemporaneous genres. More recently, perhaps the Hardy/Brontë send-up Cold Comfort Farm.
Some episodes of Community, like the zombie one, paintball one, Christmas animation one, etc. It's kind of a thing with that show. :P
Well, that's all I can think of for now!
posted by Drexen at 5:23 AM on November 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
The manga One Punch Man would probably count as this.
Outside anime, how about Leslie Nielsen's work -- Airplane, Police Squad!, Naked Gun. More parody than re-construction, but they are played very straight-faced.
The breakout Halo machinima series Red vs Blue, which deconstructs the fiction of the game but ends up weaving its own rather interesting story within that. The Half Life 2 comic Concerned -- silly, but closely following the game's story. Oh yeah, and perhaps you could count Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Sealab 2021, and all those other Adult Swim cartoon re-edits!
I guess Adventure Time kind of falls into this somewhat, with its weird, ironic/genuine take on tabletop-RPG-style fantasy and scifi.
Pulp Fiction, and Tarantino's work in general. Also Grindhouse, and the spinoffs like Machete.
If you don't mind going back a bit, there's The Rape of the Lock (heroic epic), and I guess Candide (Bildungsroman) and Gulliver's Travels (far-fetched travelogue) would count. Or even Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, which parodies several contemporaneous genres. More recently, perhaps the Hardy/Brontë send-up Cold Comfort Farm.
Some episodes of Community, like the zombie one, paintball one, Christmas animation one, etc. It's kind of a thing with that show. :P
Well, that's all I can think of for now!
posted by Drexen at 5:23 AM on November 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
Best answer: -- The novels Superfolks, Soon I Will Be Invincible, and Nuklear Age all do this for superhero comics.
-- The 1955 film adaptation of Mickey Spillane's Kiss Me Deadly is basically a takedown of the Mike Hammer character, and arguably a lot of 1950s noir, from the inside.
-- Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire takes on academic analysis, and gives a good kick to The Prisoner of Zenda and its many imitators along the way.
-- Flann O'Brien's The Poor Mouth disassembles the genre of "Celtic Twilight" pseudo-anthropology, particularly J.M. Synge's The Aran Islands. His masterwork, At Swim-Two-Birds, is one for Irish modernist novels and the 19th-century sentimental novels they displaced.
-- Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea responds to Jane Eyre rather negatively.
-- Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash is a "love-hate" letter to cyberpunk fiction.
-- Mark Twain's "The Celestial Railroad" takes on John Bunyan's A Pilgrim's Progress.
-- The first modern novel, Don Quixote spends its first half as a love-hate letter to chivalric romances...and its second half as a love-hate letter to its first half! Get an annotated edition, though.
posted by kewb at 5:24 AM on November 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
-- The 1955 film adaptation of Mickey Spillane's Kiss Me Deadly is basically a takedown of the Mike Hammer character, and arguably a lot of 1950s noir, from the inside.
-- Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire takes on academic analysis, and gives a good kick to The Prisoner of Zenda and its many imitators along the way.
-- Flann O'Brien's The Poor Mouth disassembles the genre of "Celtic Twilight" pseudo-anthropology, particularly J.M. Synge's The Aran Islands. His masterwork, At Swim-Two-Birds, is one for Irish modernist novels and the 19th-century sentimental novels they displaced.
-- Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea responds to Jane Eyre rather negatively.
-- Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash is a "love-hate" letter to cyberpunk fiction.
-- Mark Twain's "The Celestial Railroad" takes on John Bunyan's A Pilgrim's Progress.
-- The first modern novel, Don Quixote spends its first half as a love-hate letter to chivalric romances...and its second half as a love-hate letter to its first half! Get an annotated edition, though.
posted by kewb at 5:24 AM on November 27, 2014 [1 favorite]
The LEGO movie - "epic" action movie spoof that turns out to be an epic action movie.
Mean Girls for teen movies.
posted by lunasol at 5:50 AM on November 27, 2014
Mean Girls for teen movies.
posted by lunasol at 5:50 AM on November 27, 2014
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (comic book at least) is both pulp adventure story and critique of pulp adventure stories (and critique of pulp and of adventure and of, ultimately, stories and how and why they are told/exist).
posted by Hartster at 6:08 AM on November 27, 2014
posted by Hartster at 6:08 AM on November 27, 2014
Best answer: Neither a film or a book but the wonderful play Noises Off by Michael Frayn is both a skewering of the bedroom farce and a really wonderful example of one.
posted by shibori at 6:30 AM on November 27, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by shibori at 6:30 AM on November 27, 2014 [4 favorites]
For comics:
Warren Ellis's Planetary does a good job with superhero and pulp adventure genres (I liked League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but I'd stop after 1 and 2, myself). The web comic Strong Female Protagonist is not quite as "superhero-y as I think you want, but it's a really interesting look at a young woman who realizes that beating up robots isn't actually helping.
For SF/Fantasy:
China Miéville's The Scar and the Bas-Lag books in general) takes on fantasy tropes like the magic sword and vampires with a great deal of love and sincere criticism.
Iain Bank's Culture novels get Space Opera away from its conservative roots and turns a lot of its assumptions upside down.
Kim Newman to some degree too on vampires in Anno Dracula and Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the D'Ubervilles. In some ways, they are more travelogues to their respective literature, but they tend to play up how blindingly stupid the tropes are while presenting them with loving detail.
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:31 AM on November 27, 2014
Warren Ellis's Planetary does a good job with superhero and pulp adventure genres (I liked League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but I'd stop after 1 and 2, myself). The web comic Strong Female Protagonist is not quite as "superhero-y as I think you want, but it's a really interesting look at a young woman who realizes that beating up robots isn't actually helping.
For SF/Fantasy:
China Miéville's The Scar and the Bas-Lag books in general) takes on fantasy tropes like the magic sword and vampires with a great deal of love and sincere criticism.
Iain Bank's Culture novels get Space Opera away from its conservative roots and turns a lot of its assumptions upside down.
Kim Newman to some degree too on vampires in Anno Dracula and Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the D'Ubervilles. In some ways, they are more travelogues to their respective literature, but they tend to play up how blindingly stupid the tropes are while presenting them with loving detail.
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:31 AM on November 27, 2014
This Is A Play by Daniel MacIvor (scroll down at that link for excerpts from the script)
posted by pseudostrabismus at 8:53 AM on November 27, 2014
posted by pseudostrabismus at 8:53 AM on November 27, 2014
John Dies at the End does this for "choosen one" horror/ fantasy save-the-world books. Skip the movie.
Aliens Attack is a great send up of every movie about aliens attacking as well as being a good movie about aliens attacking.
posted by fshgrl at 12:49 PM on November 27, 2014
Aliens Attack is a great send up of every movie about aliens attacking as well as being a good movie about aliens attacking.
posted by fshgrl at 12:49 PM on November 27, 2014
Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers is a brilliant and hilarious deconstruction/example of two-fisted pulp sci fi.
Italo Calvino's 'If on a winter night a traveller' is a sophisticated interrogation of the pleasures of reading that does a lot of deconstruction of airport thrillers and whatnot.
The Iron Dream by Norman Spinrad purports to be a pulp sci fi novel written by Adolf Hitler and is straightface parody of the genre.
posted by Sebmojo at 2:22 PM on November 27, 2014
Italo Calvino's 'If on a winter night a traveller' is a sophisticated interrogation of the pleasures of reading that does a lot of deconstruction of airport thrillers and whatnot.
The Iron Dream by Norman Spinrad purports to be a pulp sci fi novel written by Adolf Hitler and is straightface parody of the genre.
posted by Sebmojo at 2:22 PM on November 27, 2014
For detective fiction, Raymond Chandler's "The Simple Art of Murder" is exactly what you want. So good.
(His "Notes on the Detective Story" is good too.)
posted by Joseph Gurl at 12:18 AM on November 28, 2014
(His "Notes on the Detective Story" is good too.)
posted by Joseph Gurl at 12:18 AM on November 28, 2014
Psych, at least a few episodes, was really good about this. Of particular note: there was an episode at the beginning of the series that they pretty much remade in a tongue of cheek way.
Things they reflexively and humorously make fun of:
Buddy Cops
The Wrap Up part of any whodunnit-type reveal show
Campy Horror
posted by Rams at 2:49 AM on November 28, 2014
Things they reflexively and humorously make fun of:
Buddy Cops
The Wrap Up part of any whodunnit-type reveal show
Campy Horror
posted by Rams at 2:49 AM on November 28, 2014
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posted by Ziggy500 at 3:21 AM on November 27, 2014 [1 favorite]