Theres something wrong with this post! 'What is it?!' A post is something on a blog, but thats not important...

Recently I found an article on filmreference.com that looks a little - but in an in depth way, at Parody. Two key aspects that I found interesting was the viewpoint of Freidrich Jameson that Parody should rightfully be a Pastiche, and that Parody uses 6 techniques to create a comedic effect. The 6 Techniques it lists are:


Reiteration: which is the process by which the parody establishes its connection to the source text, using, for example, horses to evoke the western, handheld cameras to evoke the documentary, and so on. Many parodies take great care in reproducing the iconic elements of the source genre. (Directly sourced from the article as best describes the technique)

Inversion : This is when the parody completely opposes the nature of the parodied. The example that was given in the article was the Cannibal: The Musical stage production that in essance is creating a joyous community feeling to horrific violence.



Misdirection: Using Conventional methods to build up a certain feeling (ie: Melodrama) before completely misleading the audience by breaking that feeling, normally due to the use of comedy. For example in Airplane! a representation of a shady bar is conveyed to the audience and the protagonist is narrating on top, commenting on how unsavoury characters and brawls were the norm. Then there is a traditional Poker scene involving a cheat, and when the camera zooms out it reveals two girl guides who then begin to brawl, completely contrasting the mood created by the narrative and build up.



Literalization: When the most literal meaning is used instead of the contextual meaning. For example in Airplane 2: The sequel when the Love interest says the character Simon is 'Falling apart'. The camera cuts to Simon and his arm falls off. The iconic reply '...And don't call me Shirley' was born in Airplane! from after the Protagonist asks the doctor something, saying 'Surely you don't mean ...'.



Extraneous Inclusion: When a conventional representation includes items or elements that are completely out of sorts. Again using Airplane 2 as an example; a character is buying some items from a shop. One of which is a timebomb that when mentioned the sales woman picks it up from a shelf full of normal gift shop items, despite the obvious break in convention.



Exaggeration: takes an aspect of the source text and renders it absurd through excessive emphasis. This technique can apply to simple objects, like the enormous helmet worn by the character Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis) in Spaceballs (1987). It can also apply to narrative or stylistic conventions, as in The Naked Gun , which references the discreet Hollywood practice of cutting away from sex scenes to symbolic images of curtains blowing in the breeze or fireworks exploding. The montage of images in this love scene (flowers opening, a train entering a tunnel, an atom bomb exploding into a mushroom cloud) is both more suggestive and more extensive than the convention permits.
(Sourced directly from Article as best describes the technique)