20 Hilarious Parody Movies, Ranked By Pure Comedy
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Comedy is one of the oldest pastimes, and no person nor work of art is safe from being the butt of a good joke. Being the target of humor doesn't always mean something's bad - in fact, it's often a way to show joy and reverence for human habits and artistic traditions. One need only look at cinema to see that there isn't a genre of film out there that hasn’t been dissected, mocked, ridiculed, and poked fun at by parody movies.
Despite their mischievous nature, however, the best spoofs are made in good faith and boast heaps of affection for the films they set out to skewer. In some cases, parodies are even better than the movies they’re spoofing, proving that a sprinkling of humor can elevate any genre.
This list will delve into those films that define the parody subgenre at its best, covering everything from horror comedies, to spy capers, to teen flicks and beyond. So, grab some popcorn, buckle in, and get ready to celebrate the creme de la creme of parody and spoof movies.
- 144 VOTESPhoto: Paramount Pictures
The Plot: Ted Striker, a traumatized fighter pilot, must overcome his aerophobia and safely land a plane after the passengers and crew contract food poisoning. It’s enough to discourage anyone from eating an in-flight meal ever again.
The Parody: Directed by Jim Abrahams and the Zucker brothers, Airplane! satirizes air-based disaster movies, including Zero Hour!, and the Airport series. The ‘70s and early ‘80s were notable for producing classic disaster flicks, but Airplane! turned the deadly scenarios found in these intense thrillers into laugh-out-loud gags.
Memorable Bit: Leslie Nielsen's Dr. Rumack summons Ted into the cockpit and asks if he can take over the flight and land it. Ted says, “Surely you can’t be serious.” The doctor responds, “I am serious, and don't call me Shirley.” Nielsen's deadpan delivery turns what could have been a forgettable pun into an all-timer that will be quoted forever.
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The Plot: Lone Starr, a pilot-for-hire, and Barf, a half-dog, half-human alien, set out to save a princess from the clutches of President Skroob and Dark Helmet. To complicate matters even more, the noble heroes must also evade the galactic lone shark Pizza the Hutt.
The Parody: By the late ‘80s, the Star Wars franchise had long taken over the world, making it perfect fodder for Mel Brooks’ brand of ribbing. Spaceballs is the ultimate spoof of George Lucas’s galaxy far, far away, poking fun at everything from the space opera storytelling to the franchise's rampant commercialism. Most characters are fairly direct takeoffs on Star Wars characters, and every aspect of the original film trilogy is ripe for targeting.
Memorable Bit: The heroes cross paths with a Yoda-like character named Yogurt, who tells them about the power of the Schwartz. When Lone Starr asks him about his place and what he does there, Yogurt breaks the fourth wall and preaches the gospel of merchandising while advertising Spaceballs-themed dolls, t-shirts, and flamethrowers.
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The Plot: Charlie Sheen is Sean “Topper” Harley, an unstable fighter pilot who must overcome his demons to destroy a nuclear facility in Iraq. Plenty of drama comes up in training, as he's forced to work with the son of his father's old flight partner. Silly call signs like “Mailman,” “Pirate,” and “Wash Out,” abound.
The Parody: Hot Shots! affectionately parodies Top Gun, but its spoofing runs deeper than aping Tony Scott's camp airborne action hit. The political commentary in Jim Abrahams's comedy gives it some bite, which is expected from any movie featuring Saddam Hussein as a character who lounges by the pool. The sequel Hot Shots! Part Deux also mocks specific scenes from other macho flicks of the era, like Rocky and Dances With Wolves, to hilarious results.
Memorable Bit: Every line in Hot Shots! is designed to make viewers laugh, and some go to some unexpected places, like this zinger from Topper: “My father used to say that not playing to win is like sleeping with your sister. Sure, she's a great piece of tail, with a blouse full of goodies, but... it's just illegal.” There's a profound message in there somewhere.
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The Plot: King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table set out on an ambitious quest to find the titular artifact. Their journey takes them far and wide, and the noble adventurers meet some interesting characters along the way - some of whom they have to chop to pieces.
The Parody: Arthurian tales are as old as storytelling itself, but they mainly focus on dramatic, serious renderings of the English king and his history. Monty Python and the Holy Grail marked a long-overdue deconstruction of the legends, and who better to handle it than the boundary-pushing United Kingdom comedy collective known for their delightful absurdity?
Memorable Bit: King Arthur and his squire Patsy wander through a forest and encounter a Black Knight guarding a bridge they need to cross. so Arthur withdraws his sword and gets into a tussle with his opponent. The king cuts off the knight’s arm, but the enemy refuses to acknowledge it, saying, “'Tis but a scratch.” The situation escalates from there until the knight has lost all of his limbs, yet still refuses to surrender.
- 540 VOTESPhoto: 20th Century Fox
The Plot: Dr. Frederick Frankenstein doesn't want to be associated with his family’s legacy. After all, his grandfather Victor was a madman whose morally questionable experiments with human remains have been well documented. After inheriting the family estate in Transylvania, though, Frederick finds that he just can't resist the temptation, so he creates his own monster and trains it to be friendly.
The Parody: Mel Brooks's horror-comedy is a parody of Universal’s monster movies from yesteryear, and it adheres to their style all the way down to its black-and-white coloring. The film also riffs on scenes from the studio's original Frankenstein movies, but subverts them enough to provide a fresh take on the material. Case in point: when the mob storms the castle to get the monster, Frankenstein and his abomination calm them down with calm discussion, then some shared sponge cake and wine. What is the moral of the story? All disagreements can be solved with baked goods.
Memorable Bit: After calming the monster's homicidal tendencies, Dr. Frankenstein and his monster perform a musical number on stage for a crowd that demands good entertainment. Sadly, the performance isn't exactly well received by the audience.
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- Photo: Paramount Pictures
The Plot: Detective Frank Drebin, a man who's very bad at his job, must stop a villain and brainwashed baseball player from assassinating the Queen of England. While Frank might no tbe the brightest officer, he has a good track record of getting his man, but he doesn't make it easy for himself.
The Parody: Detective movies typically depict officers who are competent at their jobs. Naked Gun and its sequels remain comedy classics to this day as they follow a wholesome, dimwitted detective who's hilariously bad at investigating crimes, but is an absolute master when it comes to hilarious one-liners. The first film, released in 1988, built off of Nielsen's character from the TV show Police Squad!, and it was followed by two equally ridiculous sequels in 1991 and 1994. A fourth film is planned to release in 2025.
Memorable Bit: Frank needs a car to chase a bad guy. Instead of waving his badge and taking someone's wheels, he hops into a driving instructor's vehicle in the middle of a lesson for an unseasoned teen student, who proceeds to pursue the criminal. It goes about as badly as one would expect.
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The Story: A greedy Old West politician wants to empty the town of Black Ridge to profit off the railroad construction, so he hires a Black sheriff, hoping the residents will seek new pastures due to their inherent racism. However, the townsfolk grow fond of their new lawman, since he's a good man.
The Parody: Western movies often present a romantic view of the American West, where admirable gunslingers, ranchers, and lawmen take down enemies who threaten their towns and land. In the process, these movies tend to ignore the racism of the time period. Mel Brooks's film highlights this aspect of the genre by lampooning it for its historical ignorance, while still being a lighthearted romp. The film also acknowledges every Western cliche in the book, sometimes breaking the fourth wall in the process.
Memorable Bit: Speaking of breaking the fourth wall, Blazing Saddles culminates with a fight between the politician's hired guns and the Black Ridge townsfolk, but this is no traditional shootout. Instead, they brawl through a Warner Bros. soundstage and have a pie fight. It's the yummiest battle in the history of cinema.
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The Plot: Robin of Locksley (played with camp charm by Cary Elwes) returns to England after fighting in the Holy Crusades to discover that his family home has been taken, and the villainous Prince John and the Sheriff of Rottingham now control the lands. So, with the help of his trustworthy merry men, the hero grabs his bow and gets to work sticking it to the man.
The Parody: Robin Hood is one of the most iconic characters in literature, film, and television, so it was only a matter of time until he was rinsed for comedic effect. It’s a send-up to the swashbuckling action Robin Hood flicks are renowned for, albeit with more spontaneous rapping in Sherwood Forest. Some gratuitous arrow-point-of-view sequences also poke fun at the tradition of establishing the hero's famed skill with a bow by showing him making ridiculously difficult (or outright impossible) shots.
Memorable Bit: Robin Hood: Men In Tights followed the 1991 release Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, which starred Kevin Costner in the title role. The spoof pokes fun at its more serious predecessor when the protagonist says, “Unlike other Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent.” Now, that’s how to throw shade at Hollywood's questionable casting habits.
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The Plot: A promiscuous spy from the ‘60s is cryogenically frozen and reawakened in the ’90s to stop Dr. Evil, who's returned from space to steal nuclear weapons and hold the world hostage. Austin Powers is the only man capable of defeating the supervillain, but can he stay focused on the task at hand with the beautiful Vanessa Kensington by his side? Oh, behave!
The Parody: Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery is a send-up of old-school spy movies, most notably the James Bond franchise. 007 has a way with the ladies and knows how to thwart tyrannical villains, but his conquests pale compared to Mike Myers as the smooth-talking spy stallion. On top of that, the most stereotypically evil Bond villains pale in comparison to Mike Myers as Dr. Evil. Myers uses his SNL-honed talent for making larger-than-life characters to handle plenty of roles across the film series, which began with this first entry in 1997; two more films followed in 1999 and 2002.
Memorable Bit: Scott Evil doesn't meet his father's expectations. He wants to work in a petting zoo, but Dr. Evil wants him to take over the family business and become a mischievous supervillain. So, they air their grievances at a group therapy session where no one judges them for their tumultuous relationship. It's quite refreshing to see a movie where supervillains and their kids can talk about their feelings in a safe space.
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The Plot: Inspired by the Topps trading card series Mars Attacks, this film shows what happens when Martians invade Earth. Shockingly, it doesn’t take long for them to start picking fights with humanity. Can the United States government and the Welsh singer Tom Jones save the day?
The Parody: Tim Burton made an entertaining biopic about Ed Wood, the old Hollywood schlock master famed for endearing Z-grade oddities like Plan 9 from Outer Space. So, it was only natural that Burton also directed a movie that spoofed sci-fi movies from that era while simultaneously mocking ‘90s sci-fi action blockbusters such as Independence Day. In an age where Hollywood was all about commercially appealing tentpole flicks, Mars Attacks! was a refreshingly cynical change of pace - and it's aged quite well, as modern Tinseltown movie trends are nothing like Burton's sci-fi spoof. Everything is silly here, from the appearance of the aliens, to the fact that their secret weakness is the sound of Slim Whitman's yodeling on the song "Indian Love Call."
Memorable Bit: The miniature Martians appear before the military and a crowd of citizens, declaring that they have come in peace and wish no harm. Everyone applauds, and just when they think all is going to be well, the invaders pull out their weapons and unleash havoc. One soldier tries to surrender with the American flag, but Old Glory isn't enough to save his life.
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The Plot: A rockstar travels to East Germany to perform for fascists, only to fall in love with a member of a Resistance movement and end up joining a mission to save a scientist. Thus begins an adventure featuring musical numbers in pizza restaurants and rebel soldiers rocking some pretty moo-arvelous cow disguises.
The Parody: Top Secret! lampoons a variety of staple genres from the mid-20th century in Hollywood, from Elvis Presley musicals to spy thrillers that spanned the WWII and Cold War eras. This peculiar blend is best exemplified by the hilarious soundtrack opener called “Skeet Surfin'," which is a pastiche of several of the Beach Boys' most recognizable hits, but with a lot more firearms involved.
Memorable Bit: There are countless war and spy movies that have non-English-speaking characters recite gibberish, hoping it passes as a believable foreign language, since apparently the effort of genuinely translating lines is too great. In Top Secret!, the trope is skewered by a book store scene filmed backward and played in reverse to give the illusion that the characters speak Swedish. Anyone who knows Swedish will confirm they’re just speaking nonsense.
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The Plot: In the 1970s, a group of down-on-their-luck filmmakers set out to make the first silent movie in decades. However, the studio - which faces its own struggles thanks to financial hardships - will only greenlight the ambitious project if the filmmakers can attract big-name performers to star. Thus begins a process of recruiting the right names to get the film off the ground; a great array of actors including Burt Reynolds, James Caan, Liza Minelli, and Anne Bancroft star as themselves.
The Parody: Silent Movie is a love letter to the early years of Hollywood and honors that era of filmmaking by being mostly dialogue-free and full of slapstick. Mel Brooks's spoof of the silent cinema era is essentially a story about how difficult it is to get movies made, and it’s full of self-referential gags that show he's a filmmaker willing to poke fun at himself.
Memorable Bit: A title card shows the main character, Mel Funn, asking the French mime Marcel Marceau - playing himself - if he'd like to star in the first silent movie in over 40 years. The mime answers with a firm “No,” the only word spoken in the movie. It's hard to imagine any harsher rejection than that.
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The Story: A filmmaker chronicles the American tour of the fictional heavy metal band Spinal Tap. Of course, with this being set in the world of rock music, it doesn't take long for things to start going wrong; tension brews behind the scenes, the band struggles to find its way onstage, and members consider launching Jack the Ripper-themed side projects.
The Parody: This Is Spinal Tap encapsulates the riotous and unpredictable nature of the heavy metal scene back in the day. While each scene makes for hilarious and over-the-top viewing, most stories chronicled in the mockumentary have a basis in reality. Black Sabbath's Ozzy Osbourne thought the movie was a documentary when he saw it, and this is coming from a guy who bit off a bat's head and has probably seen some wild stuff on tour.
Memorable Bit: Spinal Tap guitarist Nigel Tufnel shows off his amplifier, revealing a dial that goes up to 11 instead of the standard 10. It’s “one louder,” and that goes a long way. The scene epitomizes the notion of going that extra mile to rock out, and the expression has entered common speech in the decades since the film's release.
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The Plot: A group of silly teenagers accidentally off a man and dispose of his body, only to fall prey to a Ghostface-mask-wearing serial killer one year later. From that moment on, they must try to survive Shakespeare In Love screenings and learn moves from The Matrix to combat the villain's reign of terror.
The Parody: The success of Scream paved the way for a new wave of slasher movies in the latter half of the ‘90s into the early '00s, with terrifying mysteries like I Know What You Did Last Summer and Urban Legend latching onto the trend. Scary Movie takes their gory formula and skewers it for humor, often replicating scenes beat-for-beat while throwing in the absurdity and gags viewers expect from the Wayans brothers' outings. This evolved into an entire Scary Movie franchise, but the first movie is arguably the most entertaining.
Memorable Bit: Wes Craven's Scream made people too scared to answer their phones in the ‘90s. Meanwhile, Budweiser commercials had the opposite effect, inspiring people to shout “Wassup” down the receiver while showing some tongue. Scary Movie brings both worlds together by having Ghostface pay homage to the commercial, showing that even the most demented villains can sit back and kick it.
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- 1517 VOTESPhoto: Universal Pictures
The Plot: Pop rapper Conner Friel leaves his successful boyband, The Style Boyz, to launch a solo rap career as “Conner4Real," but things don’t go according to plan. His album flops, sending the ambitious songster's career into the bowels of despair. This forces him to do whatever it takes to stay relevant in the public eye, but he refuses to do the one thing that could make him famous again: reunite with his old bandmates.
The Parody: The Lonely Island’s entire career has been built on satire, so it was only a matter of time before the musical collective of Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer tackled a mockumentary. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping replicates the formula of movies like This Is Spinal Tap, albeit with a focus on 21st-century mainstream musical trends. Certain aspects clearly take aim at contemporary musical artists - like the fact that the title is a clear play on the concert film Justin Bieber: Never Say Never.
Memorable Bit: After Conner learns that his record flopped, he asks the camera crew to stop recording so he can have a private conversation with his manager. When the camera is off, a swarm of bees attacks, forcing the rapper to “merk” them with a flamethrower. He then asks the cameraman if he caught his, only to be left devastated when he remembers he told him to stop filming. That must have stung, as a recording of him torching bees might have gotten him much-needed buzz and publicity.
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The Plot: Jake, the top football player at his high school, tries to turn a nerdy rebel into a prom queen to win a bet. Unfortunately, he faces obstacles courtesy of his ex-girlfriend and of his own sister, who has the hots for him.
The Parody: The late '90s and early 2000s were a golden age for teen movies. From rom-coms like She’s All That to raunchier fare like American Pie to darker takes like Cruel Intentions, these coming-of-age flicks followed teenagers as they navigated adolescence and young adulthood, often with hilarious outcomes. Not Another Teen Movie riffs on these flicks and their common tropes while also poking fun at their most notable characters and scenes.
Memorable Bit: A pre-Marvel Chris Evans recreates Ali Larter's infamous whipped cream bikini scene from Varsity Blues, as his character tries to impress the girl he’s crushing on. It will change the way you view banana splits forever.
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The Plot: Ashtray gets sent to live with his father in the inner city and spends his days hanging out with his cousin Loc Dog, who loves puffing the magic dragon and flashing his guns. It isn't all fun and games, though, as Ashtray meets a girl and gets her pregnant, and he's forced to contend with gang lords, breakdancing grandmas, and other the trials and tribulations of becoming a man.
The Parody: Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood mines influence from Boyz in the Hood, South Central, and other early-to-mid ‘90s hood movies. It also comments on the social issues that informed those movies, albeit in an overblown comedic fashion. Case in point: Ashtray reads a bedtime story to his dad, putting a hilarious spin on the young father archetype that was common in urban dramas at the time.
Memorable Bit: Loc Dog gets into a bickering contest with the villainous Toothpick and his posse, which results in them seeing who has the most firepower. After Toothpick pulls out a grenade launcher, Loc Dog one-ups him with a nuclear missile from the USSR and says, “Do we have a problem?” Guess who wins this battle of wits?
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The Plot: Gary, a Broadway actor, is recruited by an anti-terrorism unit called Team America to go undercover, infiltrate a terrorist cell, protect America from North Korea, and stop liberal Hollywood actors from causing carnage. What could possibly go wrong?
The Parody: Matt Stone and Trey Parker of South Park fame bring their outrageous, line-crossing comedy adopts the style of puppet franchises like Thunderbirds to satirize post-9/11 American militarism, foreign policy, and Hollywood. Like their other projects, Team America is a non-partisan comedy that lambasts every political ideology and issue of the day, tackling hot-button subjects with glee.
Memorable Bit: After promising to “never die,” Gary knocks strings with his fellow world police officer Lisa in a raunchy scene that goes on for longer than any sequence involving puppet coitus should. The scene where Kim Jong Il sings Akon's “Lonely” is a close second (and arguably just as tender, in its own way).
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- 1918 VOTESPhoto: Sony Pictures Releasing
The Plot: After accidentally cutting his brother Nate in half with a machete and losing his sense of smell, Dewey Cox discovers the blues and becomes a rock and roll star for the ages. His journey to stardom isn't all sunshine and rainbows, however, as he must overcome every biopic cliché in the book.
The Parody: In the mid-2000s, music biopics were hot: Jamie Foxx took home an Oscar for playing Ray Charles in Ray, and Joaquin Phoenix earned rave reviews for his performance as Johnny Cash in Walk the Line. In response to those highly-praised dramas came the John C. Reilly-starring parody. Walk Hard boasts the essential hallmarks of a rags-to-riches biopic while centering around a protagonist who rocks harder, parties harder, and produces more offspring. It also features a truly impressive soundtrack full of original songs to really commit to the bit of Dewey Cox's fictional music career.
Memorable Bit: After young Dewey accidentally splits Nate’s body in two, the shocked sibling shouts, “Dewey, I’m halved!” Afterward, Nate tells his bro that he must be “double great” for the both of them, ultimately creating a heartwarming moment amid the chaos. Things turn dark when their father tells Dewey that he isn't half the boy Nate was, nor is he half the boy that the top half of Nate was following the accident.
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- 2015 VOTESPhoto: MGM/UA Communications Co.
The Plot: An African-American soldier returns to his old neighborhood to uncover an epidemic involving gold chains that killed his brother. He soon learns it's all connected to a white crime lord named Mr. Big, and he sets out to rectify the situation with help from some original gangsters who were a big deal in the 1970s.
The Parody: I’m Gonna Git You Sucka is a spoof of Blaxploitation action/crime movies from the 1970s like Shaft, Truck Turner, Coffy, which saw Black heroes rid the streets of crime. As such, it's unabashedly politically incorrect and gritty, but fans of the genre it's riffing on will have a blast with it. Made in 1988, it looks back at the styles and cinematic trends of the ‘70s with the classic blend of derision and nostalgia that makes for a great parody.
Memorable Bit: A pair of Mr. Big's goons visit one seemingly sweet mother's house, assuming they can intimidate her into paying her son's debts. Little do they know that Ma knows how to throw down, and she beats up one of the henchmen before giving both of them an ultimatum: either go out the window or take the stairs. The goons choose the latter and get sent tumbling as a result.
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