Parody
Encyclopedia
A parody in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric
or ironic
imitation. As the literary theorist Linda Hutcheon
puts it, "parody … is imitation, not always at the expense of the parodied text." Another critic, Simon Dentith, defines parody as "any cultural practice which provides a relatively polemic
al allusive imitation of another cultural production or practice."
Parody may be found in art or culture, including literature
, music
(although "parody" in music has an earlier, somewhat different meaning than for other art forms), animation
, gaming and film
.
The writer and critic John Gross
observes in his Oxford Book of Parodies, that parody seems to flourish on territory somewhere between pastiche
("a composition in another artist's manner, without satirical intent") and burlesque
(which "fools around with the material of high literature and adapts it to low ends").
(Poetics, ii. 5), Hegemon of Thasos
was the inventor of a kind of parody; by slightly altering the wording in well-known poems he transformed the sublime into the ridiculous. In ancient Greek literature
, a parodia was a narrative poem imitating the style and prosody of epic
s "but treating light, satirical or mock-heroic subjects" (Denith, 10). Indeed, the apparent Greek roots of the word are para- (which can mean beside, counter, or against) and -ode (song, as in an ode). Thus, the original Greek word parodia has sometimes been taken to mean counter-song, an imitation that is set against the original. The Oxford English Dictionary, for example, defines parody as imitation "turned as to produce a ridiculous effect" (quoted in Hutcheon, 32). Because par- also has the non-antagonistic meaning of beside, "there is nothing in parodia to necessitate the inclusion of a concept of ridickule" (Hutcheon, 32).
Roman
writers explained parody as an imitation of one poet by another for humorous effect. In French
Neoclassical literature, parody was also a type of poem where one work imitates the style of another for humorous effect. Ancient Greece
made satyr
play
s which parodied
tragic plays. People that were in the plays dressed up like satyrs which were followers of most Olympian gods such as Dionysus
and Hermes
.
, parody means a reworking of one kind of composition into another (for example, a motet
into a keyboard work as Girolamo Cavazzoni
, Antonio de Cabezón
, and Alonso Mudarra
all did to Josquin des Prez
motet
s.) More commonly, a parody mass
(missa parodia) or an oratorio
used extensive quotation from other vocal works such as motets or cantata
s; Victoria
, Palestrina
, Lassus
, and other notable composers of the 16th century used this technique; Bach
also used music from cantata
s for his Christmas Oratorio
. The older meaning of parody has been replaced by a meaning analogous to common usage, such that modern musical parody
has humorous, even satirical intent, often using recycled musical ideas. "Weird Al" Yankovic
was a successful parody artist. He also wrote original songs. In the age of the Internet and YouTube, a parody doesn't necessarily have to be to the tune
of a non- humorous song. Some parodies are based on an artist's style (See The Key of Awesome) or (See The Lonely Island
).
Also, The Ritz Roll and Rock, a song from the movie Silk Stockings
that is sung by Fred Astaire
, is a parody of the genre Rock and Roll
.
is in Ben Jonson
, in Every Man in His Humour in 1598: "A Parodie, a parodie! to make it absurder than it was." The next notable citation comes from John Dryden
in 1693, who also appended an explanation, suggesting that the word was in common use, it means to make fun of or re-create what you are doing.
A parody , in contemporary usage, is a work created to mock, comment on, or poke fun at an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation.
. Major modernist examples of this recontextualizing parody include James Joyce
's Ulysses
, which incorporates elements of Homer
's Odyssey
in a 20th-century Irish context, and T. S. Eliot
's The Waste Land
, which incorporates and recontextualizes elements of a vast range of prior texts, including Dante
's The Inferno.
Blank parody, in which an artist takes the skeletal form of an art work and places it in a new context without ridiculing it, is common. Pastiche
is a closely related genre
, and parody can also occur when characters or settings belonging to one work are used in a humorous or ironic way in another, such as the transformation of minor characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
from Shakespeare's drama Hamlet
into the principal characters in a comedic perspective on the same events in the play (and film) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. In Flann O'Brien
's novel At Swim-Two-Birds
, for example, mad King Sweeney, Finn MacCool
, a pookah, and an assortment of cowboy
s all assemble in an inn in Dublin: the mixture of mythic characters, characters from genre
fiction, and a quotidian setting combine for a humor that is not directed at any of the characters or their authors. This combination of established and identifiable characters in a new setting is not the same as the post-modernist habit of using historical characters in fiction out of context to provide a metaphoric element.
(although Amadis is mentioned in the book). Another notable case is the novel
Shamela by Henry Fielding
(1742), which was a parody of the gloomy epistolary novel
Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740) by Samuel Richardson
. Many of Lewis Carroll
's parodies of Victorian didactic verse for children, such as "You Are Old, Father William
", are much better known than the (largely forgotten) originals. Stella Gibbons
's comic novel Cold Comfort Farm
has eclipsed the pastoral novels of Mary Webb
which largely inspired it.
In more recent times, the television sitcom 'Allo 'Allo!
is perhaps better known than the drama Secret Army
of which it is a parody (although a full appreciation of the humour largely depends on a knowledge of the earlier work).
Some artists carve out careers by making parodies. One of the best-known examples is that of "Weird Al" Yankovic
. His career of parodying other musical acts and their songs has outlasted many of the artists or bands he has parodied. Although he is not required under law to get permission to parody, as a personal rule, however, he does seek permission to parody a person's song before recording it.
In the US legal system the point that in most cases a parody of a work constitutes fair use was upheld in the case of Rick Dees
, who decided to use 29 seconds of the music from the song When Sonny Gets Blue to parody Johnny Mathis
' singing style even after being refused permission. An appeals court upheld the trial court's decision that this type of parody represents fair use. Fisher v. Dees 794 F.2d 432 (9th Cir. 1986)
, following Bakhtin, see parody as a natural development in the life cycle of any genre
; this idea has proven especially fruitful for genre film theorists. Such theorists note that Western movies, for example, after the classic stage defined the conventions of the genre, underwent a parody stage, in which those same conventions were ridiculed and critiqued. Because audiences had seen these classic Westerns, they had expectations for any new Westerns, and when these expectations were inverted, the audience laughed.
Perhaps the earliest parody was the 1922 Mud and Sand
, a Stan Laurel
film that made fun of Rudolph Valentino
's film Blood and Sand. Laurel specialized in parodies in the mid-1920s, writing and acting in a number of them. Some were send-ups of popular films, such as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde—parodied in the comic Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde
(1926). Others were spoofs of Broadway plays, such as No, No, Nanette
(1925), parodied as Yes, Yes, Nanette
(1925). In 1940 Charlie Chaplin
created a satirical comedy about Adolf Hitler
: The Great Dictator
, which followed the first-ever Hollywood parody of the Nazis, the Three Stooges
' short subject You Nazty Spy!.
About 20 years later Mel Brooks
started his career with a Hitler parody as well. After The Producers
(1968) Brooks became one of the most famous film parodists and did spoofs on any kind of film genre. Blazing Saddles
(1974) is one of his most popular parodies, and Spaceballs
(1987) is still considered by many people to be the best science fiction
spoof ever.
The famous British comedy group Monty Python
is also famous for its parodies, for example, the King Arthur
spoof Monty Python and the Holy Grail
(1974) or the Jesus
satire Life of Brian (1979). In the 1980s there came another team of parodists including David Zucker, Jim Abrahams
and Jerry Zucker
. Their most popular films are the Airplane!
, Hot Shots!
and Naked Gun series.
More recently, parodies have taken on whole film genres at once. One famous film parody is the Scary Movie
franchise. Other recent genre parodies include Not Another Teen Movie
, Date Movie
, Epic Movie
, Meet the Spartans
, Disaster Movie
, and Vampires Suck
.
in which artists parody their own work (as in Ricky Gervais
's Extras) or notable distinctions of their work (such as Antonio Banderas
's Puss in Boots
in Shrek 2
and Shrek 3) or an artist or genre repeats elements of earlier works to the point that originality is lost.
under United States Copyright Law
, it can be protected from claims by the copyright owner of the original work under the fair use
doctrine, which is codified in . The Supreme Court of the United States
stated that parody "is the use of some elements of a prior author's composition to create a new one that, at least in part, comments on that author's works." That commentary function provides some justification for use of the older work. See Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.
In 2007, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
denied a fair use defense in the Dr. Seuss Enterprises v. Penguin Books case. Citing the Campbell v. Acuff-Rose decision, they found that a satire
of the O.J. Simpson murder trial
and parody of The Cat in the Hat
had infringed upon the children's book because it did not provide a commentary function upon that work.
In 2001, the United States Court of Appeals, 11th Circuit
, in Suntrust v. Houghton Mifflin
, upheld the right of Alice Randall
to publish a parody of Gone with the Wind
called The Wind Done Gone
, which told the same story from the point of view of Scarlett O'Hara
's slaves, who were glad to be rid of her.
against a group which had published a pro-Palestinian
parody of the paper. Alan Donaldson, the judge in the case, ruled that parody is not a defence to a copyright
claim.
), "There is currently no exception which covers the creation of parodies, caricatures or pastiches". Parodies of works protected by copyright require the consent or permission of the copyright owner, unless they fall under existing fair use/fair dealing exceptions:
In 2006 the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property
recommended that the UK should "Create an exception to copyright for the purpose of caricature, parody or pastiche by 2008". Following the first stage of a two-part public consultation, the Intellectual Property Office reported that the information received "was not sufficient to persuade us that the advantages of a new parody exception were sufficient to override the
disadvantages to the creators and owners of the underlying work. There is therefore no proposal to change the current approach to parody, caricature and pastiche in the UK."
and is often used to make social and political points. Examples include Swift
's A Modest Proposal
, which satirized English neglect of Ireland by parodying emotionally disengaged political tracts; and, recently, The Daily Show
and The Colbert Report, which parody a news broadcast and a talk show to satirize political and social trends and events. Some events, such as a national tragedy, can be difficult to handle. Chet Clem, Editorial Manager of the news parody publication The Onion
, told Wikinews
in an interview the questions that are raised when addressing difficult topics:
Parody is by no means necessarily satirical, and may sometimes be done with respect and appreciation of the subject involved, while not being a heedless sarcastic attack.
Parody has also been used to facilitate dialogue between cultures or subcultures. Sociolinguist Mary Louise Pratt
identifies parody as one of the "arts of the contact zone," through which marginalized or oppressed groups "selectively appropriate", or imitate and take over, aspects of more empowered cultures.
Shakespeare often uses a series of parodies to convey his meaning. In the social context of his era, an example can be seen in King Lear
where the fool is introduced with his coxcomb to be a parody of the king.
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
or ironic
Irony
Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...
imitation. As the literary theorist Linda Hutcheon
Linda Hutcheon
Linda Hutcheon, O.C. is a Canadian academic working in the fields of literary theory and criticism, opera, and Canadian Studies. Hutcheon describes her herself as "intellectually promiscuous", as she brings a cross-disciplinary approach to her work She is University Professor in the Department of...
puts it, "parody … is imitation, not always at the expense of the parodied text." Another critic, Simon Dentith, defines parody as "any cultural practice which provides a relatively polemic
Polemic
A polemic is a variety of arguments or controversies made against one opinion, doctrine, or person. Other variations of argument are debate and discussion...
al allusive imitation of another cultural production or practice."
Parody may be found in art or culture, including literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
, music
Parody music
Parody music, or musical parody, involves changing or recycling existing musical ideas or lyrics — or copying the peculiar style of a composer or artist, or even a general style of music. Although the result is often funny, and this is the usual intent — the term "parody" in musical terms also...
(although "parody" in music has an earlier, somewhat different meaning than for other art forms), animation
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
, gaming and film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
.
The writer and critic John Gross
John Gross
John Gross FRSL was an eminent English author, anthologist, literary and theatrical critic. The Spectator magazine called Gross “the best-read man in Britain”, as did The Guardian...
observes in his Oxford Book of Parodies, that parody seems to flourish on territory somewhere between pastiche
Pastiche
A pastiche is a literary or other artistic genre or technique that is a "hodge-podge" or imitation. The word is also a linguistic term used to describe an early stage in the development of a pidgin language.-Hodge-podge:...
("a composition in another artist's manner, without satirical intent") and burlesque
Burlesque
Burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects...
(which "fools around with the material of high literature and adapts it to low ends").
Origins
According to AristotleAristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
(Poetics, ii. 5), Hegemon of Thasos
Hegemon of Thasos
Hegemon of Thasos was a Greek writer of the Old Comedy. Hardly anything is known of him, except that he flourished during the Peloponnesian War. According to Aristotle he was the inventor of a kind of parody; by slightly altering the wording in well-known poems he transformed the sublime into the...
was the inventor of a kind of parody; by slightly altering the wording in well-known poems he transformed the sublime into the ridiculous. In ancient Greek literature
Greek literature
Greek literature refers to writings composed in areas of Greek influence, typically though not necessarily in one of the Greek dialects, throughout the whole period in which the Greek-speaking people have existed.-Ancient Greek literature :...
, a parodia was a narrative poem imitating the style and prosody of epic
Epic poetry
An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
s "but treating light, satirical or mock-heroic subjects" (Denith, 10). Indeed, the apparent Greek roots of the word are para- (which can mean beside, counter, or against) and -ode (song, as in an ode). Thus, the original Greek word parodia has sometimes been taken to mean counter-song, an imitation that is set against the original. The Oxford English Dictionary, for example, defines parody as imitation "turned as to produce a ridiculous effect" (quoted in Hutcheon, 32). Because par- also has the non-antagonistic meaning of beside, "there is nothing in parodia to necessitate the inclusion of a concept of ridickule" (Hutcheon, 32).
Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
writers explained parody as an imitation of one poet by another for humorous effect. In French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Neoclassical literature, parody was also a type of poem where one work imitates the style of another for humorous effect. Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
made satyr
Satyr
In Greek mythology, satyrs are a troop of male companions of Pan and Dionysus — "satyresses" were a late invention of poets — that roamed the woods and mountains. In myths they are often associated with pipe-playing....
play
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
s which parodied
tragic plays. People that were in the plays dressed up like satyrs which were followers of most Olympian gods such as Dionysus
Dionysus
Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete...
and Hermes
Hermes
Hermes is the great messenger of the gods in Greek mythology and a guide to the Underworld. Hermes was born on Mount Kyllini in Arcadia. An Olympian god, he is also the patron of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of the cunning of thieves, of orators and...
.
Music
In classical musicClassical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, parody means a reworking of one kind of composition into another (for example, a motet
Motet
In classical music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions.-Etymology:The name comes either from the Latin movere, or a Latinized version of Old French mot, "word" or "verbal utterance." The Medieval Latin for "motet" is motectum, and the Italian...
into a keyboard work as Girolamo Cavazzoni
Girolamo Cavazzoni
Girolamo Cavazzoni was an Italian organist and composer, son of Marco Antonio Cavazzoni. Little is known about his life except that he worked at Venice and Mantua, and published two collections of organ music...
, Antonio de Cabezón
Antonio de Cabezón
Antonio de Cabezón was a Spanish Renaissance composer and organist. Blind from childhood, he quickly rose to prominence as performer and was eventually employed by the royal family...
, and Alonso Mudarra
Alonso Mudarra
Alonso Mudarra was a Spanish composer and vihuelist of the Renaissance. He was an innovative composer of instrumental music as well as songs, and was the composer of the earliest surviving music for the guitar....
all did to Josquin des Prez
Josquin Des Prez
Josquin des Prez [Josquin Lebloitte dit Desprez] , often referred to simply as Josquin, was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance...
motet
Motet
In classical music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions.-Etymology:The name comes either from the Latin movere, or a Latinized version of Old French mot, "word" or "verbal utterance." The Medieval Latin for "motet" is motectum, and the Italian...
s.) More commonly, a parody mass
Parody mass
A parody mass is a musical setting of the mass, typically from the 16th century, that uses multiple voices of another pre-existing piece of music, such as a fragment of a motet or a secular chanson, as part of its melodic material. It is distinguished from the two other most prominent types of...
(missa parodia) or an oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
used extensive quotation from other vocal works such as motets or cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
s; Victoria
Tomás Luis de Victoria
Tomás Luis de Victoria, sometimes Italianised as da Vittoria , was the most famous composer of the 16th century in Spain, and one of the most important composers of the Counter-Reformation, along with Giovanni da Palestrina and Orlando di Lasso. Victoria was not only a composer, but also an...
, Palestrina
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was an Italian Renaissance composer of sacred music and the best-known 16th-century representative of the Roman School of musical composition...
, Lassus
Orlande de Lassus
Orlande de Lassus was a Franco-Flemish composer of the late Renaissance...
, and other notable composers of the 16th century used this technique; Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
also used music from cantata
Bach cantata
Bach cantata became a term for a cantata of the German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach who was a prolific writer of the genre. Although many of his works are lost, around 200 cantatas survived....
s for his Christmas Oratorio
Christmas Oratorio
The Christmas Oratorio BWV 248, is an oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach intended for performance in church during the Christmas season. It was written for the Christmas season of 1734 incorporating music from earlier compositions, including three secular cantatas written during 1733 and 1734 and a...
. The older meaning of parody has been replaced by a meaning analogous to common usage, such that modern musical parody
Parody music
Parody music, or musical parody, involves changing or recycling existing musical ideas or lyrics — or copying the peculiar style of a composer or artist, or even a general style of music. Although the result is often funny, and this is the usual intent — the term "parody" in musical terms also...
has humorous, even satirical intent, often using recycled musical ideas. "Weird Al" Yankovic
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist. Yankovic is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts...
was a successful parody artist. He also wrote original songs. In the age of the Internet and YouTube, a parody doesn't necessarily have to be to the tune
Melody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
of a non- humorous song. Some parodies are based on an artist's style (See The Key of Awesome) or (See The Lonely Island
The Lonely Island
The Lonely Island is an American comedy troupe composed of Akiva "Kiv" Schaffer, Jorma "Jorm" Taccone, and David Andrew "Andy" Samberg, best known for their comedic music. Originally from Berkeley, California, the group is currently based in New York City. The group broke out due to their...
).
Also, The Ritz Roll and Rock, a song from the movie Silk Stockings
Silk Stockings
Silk Stockings is a musical with a book by George S. Kaufman, Leueen MacGrath, and Abe Burrows and music and lyrics by Cole Porter.Hildegarde Knef gives a vivid backstage account of the casting, rehearsals, tryouts and Broadway opening of "Silk Stockings" in her autobiography "The Gift Horse:...
that is sung by Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
, is a parody of the genre Rock and Roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
.
English term
The first usage of the word parody in English cited in the Oxford English DictionaryOxford English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...
is in Ben Jonson
Ben Jonson
Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...
, in Every Man in His Humour in 1598: "A Parodie, a parodie! to make it absurder than it was." The next notable citation comes from John Dryden
John Dryden
John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.Walter Scott called him "Glorious John." He was made Poet...
in 1693, who also appended an explanation, suggesting that the word was in common use, it means to make fun of or re-create what you are doing.
A parody , in contemporary usage, is a work created to mock, comment on, or poke fun at an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation.
Modernist and post-modernist parody
In the broader sense of Greek parodia, parody can occur when whole elements of one work are lifted out of their context and reused, not necessarily to be ridiculed. Hutcheon argues that this sense of parody has again become prevalent in the 20th century, as artists have sought to connect with the past while registering differences brought by modernityModernity
Modernity typically refers to a post-traditional, post-medieval historical period, one marked by the move from feudalism toward capitalism, industrialization, secularization, rationalization, the nation-state and its constituent institutions and forms of surveillance...
. Major modernist examples of this recontextualizing parody include James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
's Ulysses
Ulysses (novel)
Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...
, which incorporates elements of Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
's Odyssey
Odyssey
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
in a 20th-century Irish context, and T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
's The Waste Land
The Waste Land
The Waste Land[A] is a 434-line[B] modernist poem by T. S. Eliot published in 1922. It has been called "one of the most important poems of the 20th century." Despite the poem's obscurity—its shifts between satire and prophecy, its abrupt and unannounced changes of speaker, location and time, its...
, which incorporates and recontextualizes elements of a vast range of prior texts, including Dante
DANTE
Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various national research and education networks in Europe and surrounding regions...
's The Inferno.
Blank parody, in which an artist takes the skeletal form of an art work and places it in a new context without ridiculing it, is common. Pastiche
Pastiche
A pastiche is a literary or other artistic genre or technique that is a "hodge-podge" or imitation. The word is also a linguistic term used to describe an early stage in the development of a pidgin language.-Hodge-podge:...
is a closely related genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
, and parody can also occur when characters or settings belonging to one work are used in a humorous or ironic way in another, such as the transformation of minor characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are characters in William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet. They are courtiers who are set by the king to spy on Hamlet, using their claimed friendship with him to gain his confidence. The characters were revived in W. S...
from Shakespeare's drama Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
into the principal characters in a comedic perspective on the same events in the play (and film) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. In Flann O'Brien
Flann O'Brien
Brian O'Nolan was an Irish novelist, playwright and satirist regarded as a key figure in postmodern literature. Best known for novels such as At Swim-Two-Birds, The Third Policeman and An Béal Bocht and many satirical columns in The Irish Times Brian O'Nolan (5 October 1911 – 1 April 1966) was...
's novel At Swim-Two-Birds
At Swim-Two-Birds
At Swim-Two-Birds is a 1939 novel by Irish author Brian O'Nolan, writing under the pseudonym Flann O'Brien. It is widely considered to be O'Brien's masterpiece, and one of the most sophisticated examples of metafiction....
, for example, mad King Sweeney, Finn MacCool
Fionn mac Cumhaill
Fionn mac Cumhaill , known in English as Finn McCool, was a mythical hunter-warrior of Irish mythology, occurring also in the mythologies of Scotland and the Isle of Man...
, a pookah, and an assortment of cowboy
Cowboy
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of...
s all assemble in an inn in Dublin: the mixture of mythic characters, characters from genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
fiction, and a quotidian setting combine for a humor that is not directed at any of the characters or their authors. This combination of established and identifiable characters in a new setting is not the same as the post-modernist habit of using historical characters in fiction out of context to provide a metaphoric element.
Reputation
Sometimes the reputation of a parody outlasts the reputation of what is being parodied. For example, Don Quixote, which mocks the traditional knight errant tales, is much better known than the novel that inspired it, Amadis de GaulaAmadis de Gaula
Amadis de Gaula is a landmark work among the knight-errantry tales which were in vogue in 16th century Iberian Peninsula, and formed the earliest reading of many Renaissance and Baroque writers, although it was written at the onset of the 14th century.The first known printed edition was published...
(although Amadis is mentioned in the book). Another notable case is the novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
Shamela by Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding was an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humour and satirical prowess, and as the author of the novel Tom Jones....
(1742), which was a parody of the gloomy epistolary novel
Epistolary novel
An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of documents. The usual form is letters, although diary entries, newspaper clippings and other documents are sometimes used. Recently, electronic "documents" such as recordings and radio, blogs, and e-mails have also come into use...
Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740) by Samuel Richardson
Samuel Richardson
Samuel Richardson was an 18th-century English writer and printer. He is best known for his three epistolary novels: Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded , Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady and The History of Sir Charles Grandison...
. Many of Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
's parodies of Victorian didactic verse for children, such as "You Are Old, Father William
You Are Old, Father William
"You Are Old, Father William" is a poem by Lewis Carroll that appears in his book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland . It is recited by Alice in Chapter 5, "Advice from a Caterpillar"...
", are much better known than the (largely forgotten) originals. Stella Gibbons
Stella Gibbons
Stella Dorothea Gibbons was an English novelist, journalist, poet, and short-story writer.Her first novel, Cold Comfort Farm, won the Femina Vie Heureuse Prize for 1933...
's comic novel Cold Comfort Farm
Cold Comfort Farm
Cold Comfort Farm is a comic novel by Stella Gibbons, published in 1932. It parodies the romanticised, sometimes doom-laden accounts of rural life popular at the time, by writers such as Mary Webb...
has eclipsed the pastoral novels of Mary Webb
Mary Webb
Mary Webb , was an English romantic novelist and poet of the early 20th century, whose work is set chiefly in the Shropshire countryside and among Shropshire characters and people which she knew. Her novels have been successfully dramatized, most notably the film Gone to Earth in 1950 by Michael...
which largely inspired it.
In more recent times, the television sitcom 'Allo 'Allo!
'Allo 'Allo!
'Allo 'Allo! is a British sitcom broadcast on BBC One from 1982 to 1992 comprising eighty-five episodes. It is a parody of another BBC programme, the wartime drama Secret Army, and was created by David Croft, who also wrote the theme music, and Jeremy Lloyd. Lloyd and Croft wrote the first 6...
is perhaps better known than the drama Secret Army
Secret Army (TV series)
Secret Army is a television drama series made by the BBC and the Belgian national broadcaster BRT created by Gerard Glaister. The series chronicled the history of a Belgian resistance movement during the Second World War dedicated to returning Allied airmen, usually having been shot down by the...
of which it is a parody (although a full appreciation of the humour largely depends on a knowledge of the earlier work).
Some artists carve out careers by making parodies. One of the best-known examples is that of "Weird Al" Yankovic
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist. Yankovic is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts...
. His career of parodying other musical acts and their songs has outlasted many of the artists or bands he has parodied. Although he is not required under law to get permission to parody, as a personal rule, however, he does seek permission to parody a person's song before recording it.
In the US legal system the point that in most cases a parody of a work constitutes fair use was upheld in the case of Rick Dees
Rick Dees
Rigdon Osmond "Rick" Dees III is an American comedic performer, entertainer, and radio personality, best known for his internationally syndicated radio show The Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 Countdown and for the novelty song "Disco Duck." He is a People's Choice Award recipient, a Grammy-nominated...
, who decided to use 29 seconds of the music from the song When Sonny Gets Blue to parody Johnny Mathis
Johnny Mathis
John Royce "Johnny" Mathis is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standards, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum status, and 73 making the Billboard charts...
' singing style even after being refused permission. An appeals court upheld the trial court's decision that this type of parody represents fair use. Fisher v. Dees 794 F.2d 432 (9th Cir. 1986)
Film parodies
Some genre theoristsGenre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
, following Bakhtin, see parody as a natural development in the life cycle of any genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
; this idea has proven especially fruitful for genre film theorists. Such theorists note that Western movies, for example, after the classic stage defined the conventions of the genre, underwent a parody stage, in which those same conventions were ridiculed and critiqued. Because audiences had seen these classic Westerns, they had expectations for any new Westerns, and when these expectations were inverted, the audience laughed.
Perhaps the earliest parody was the 1922 Mud and Sand
Mud and Sand
Mud and Sand is a silent film starring Stan Laurel, that was filmed in 1922. Laurel plays a matador who makes a fool of a famous Spanish dancer. The dancer demands revenge and, in the end, kills the matador by throwing a concealed brick at him after a fight with the fiercest bull in Spain...
, a Stan Laurel
Stan Laurel
Arthur Stanley "Stan" Jefferson , better known as Stan Laurel, was an English comic actor, writer and film director, famous as the first half of the comedy team Laurel and Hardy. His film acting career stretched between 1917 and 1951 and included a starring role in the Academy Award winning film...
film that made fun of Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino was an Italian actor, and early pop icon. A sex symbol of the 1920s, Valentino was known as the "Latin Lover". He starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle and Son of the Sheik...
's film Blood and Sand. Laurel specialized in parodies in the mid-1920s, writing and acting in a number of them. Some were send-ups of popular films, such as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde—parodied in the comic Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde
Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde
Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde is a 1925 silent, black-and-white comedy film, directed by Scott Pembroke and Joe Rock .The film iself is both a spoof of the previous Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde films Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde is a 1925 silent, black-and-white comedy film, directed by Scott Pembroke and Joe...
(1926). Others were spoofs of Broadway plays, such as No, No, Nanette
No, No, Nanette
No, No, Nanette is a musical comedy with lyrics by Irving Caesar and Otto Harbach, music by Vincent Youmans, and a book by Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel, based on Mandel's 1919 Broadway play My Lady Friends...
(1925), parodied as Yes, Yes, Nanette
Yes, Yes, Nanette
Yes, Yes, Nanette is a 1925 film featuring Oliver Hardy and directed by Stan Laurel.-Cast:* James Finlayson - Hillory, the new husband * Jack Gavin - Father of Ten Children* Grant Gorman - Sonny Bryan* Sue O'Neill - Daughter...
(1925). In 1940 Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
created a satirical comedy about Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
: The Great Dictator
The Great Dictator
The Great Dictator is a comedy film by Charlie Chaplin released in October 1940. Like most Chaplin films, he wrote, produced, and directed, in addition to starring as the lead. Having been the only Hollywood film maker to continue to make silent films well into the period of sound films, this was...
, which followed the first-ever Hollywood parody of the Nazis, the Three Stooges
Three Stooges
The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy act of the early to mid–20th century best known for their numerous short subject films. Their hallmark was physical farce and extreme slapstick. In films, the Stooges were commonly known by their first names: "Moe, Larry, and Curly" and "Moe,...
' short subject You Nazty Spy!.
About 20 years later Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. He began his career as a stand-up comic and as a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows...
started his career with a Hitler parody as well. After The Producers
The Producers (1968 film)
The Producers is a 1968 American satirical dark comedy cult classic film written and directed by Mel Brooks. The film is set in the late 1960s and it tells the story of a theatrical producer and an accountant who want to produce a sure-fire Broadway flop...
(1968) Brooks became one of the most famous film parodists and did spoofs on any kind of film genre. Blazing Saddles
Blazing Saddles
Blazing Saddles is a 1974 satirical Western comedy film directed by Mel Brooks. Starring Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder, the film was written by Brooks, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg, and Al Uger, and was based on Bergman's story and draft. The movie was nominated for three...
(1974) is one of his most popular parodies, and Spaceballs
Spaceballs
Spaceballs is a 1987 American science fiction comedy parody film co-written by, directed by, Mel Brooks and starring Bill Pullman, John Candy, Mel Brooks & Rick Moranis. It also features, Daphne Zuniga, Dick Van Patten, and the voice of Joan Rivers. The film was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on...
(1987) is still considered by many people to be the best science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
spoof ever.
The famous British comedy group Monty Python
Monty Python
Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...
is also famous for its parodies, for example, the King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
spoof Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a 1974 British comedy film written and performed by the comedy group Monty Python , and directed by Gilliam and Jones...
(1974) or the Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
satire Life of Brian (1979). In the 1980s there came another team of parodists including David Zucker, Jim Abrahams
Jim Abrahams
Jim Abrahams is an American movie director and writer.Abrahams was born in Shorewood, Wisconsin, to a Jewish family, and attended Shorewood High School...
and Jerry Zucker
Jerry Zucker (film director)
Jerry Zucker is an American movie director known for his role in directing comedy spoof films, and the hit film Ghost....
. Their most popular films are the Airplane!
Airplane!
Airplane! is a 1980 American satirical comedy film directed and written by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker and released by Paramount Pictures...
, Hot Shots!
Hot Shots!
Hot Shots! is a 1991 comedy spoof film starring Charlie Sheen, Cary Elwes, Valeria Golino, Lloyd Bridges, Kevin Dunn, Jon Cryer and Ryan Stiles . It was directed by Jim Abrahams, co-director of Airplane! , and was written by Abrahams and Pat Proft...
and Naked Gun series.
More recently, parodies have taken on whole film genres at once. One famous film parody is the Scary Movie
Scary Movie (series)
The Scary Movie series is a series of films mainly specializing in spoofing several popular horror films, which have collectively grossed over $818 million at the box-office worldwide...
franchise. Other recent genre parodies include Not Another Teen Movie
Not Another Teen Movie
Not Another Teen Movie is a 2001 American comedy film directed by Joel Gallen, released on December 14, 2001 by Columbia Pictures. It is a parody of teen movies which have accumulated in Hollywood over the last few decades...
, Date Movie
Date Movie
Date Movie is a 2006 American parody film, which was directed and written by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, two of the writers of the first Scary Movie. Much of the story line was based on that of the well-known romantic comedy My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Meet The Fockers...
, Epic Movie
Epic Movie
Epic Movie is a 2007 American parody film directed and written by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer and produced by Paul Schiff. It was made in a similar style to Date Movie, Friedberg and Seltzer's previous film. The film mostly references The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the...
, Meet the Spartans
Meet the Spartans
Meet the Spartans is a 2008 parody film directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. Similar to past movies, such as Scary Movie, Date Movie, and most recently Epic Movie, it directs parodies at various films. Although it references many movies, TV shows, people and pop cultural events, it...
, Disaster Movie
Disaster Movie
Disaster Movie is a 2008 parody film. It is written and directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, and stars Carmen Electra, Kim Kardashian, Matt Lanter, Nicole Parker, Crista Flanagan, Vanessa Minnillo, and Ike Barinholtz...
, and Vampires Suck
Vampires Suck
Vampires Suck is a 2010 vampire spoof film based on the Twilight film series and directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. It stars Jenn Proske, Matt Lanter, Christopher N...
.
Self-parody
A subset of parody is self-parodySelf-parody
A self-parody is a parody of oneself or one's own work. As an artist accomplishes it by imitating his or her own characteristics, a self-parody is potentially difficult to distinguish from especially characteristic productions .Sometimes critics use the...
in which artists parody their own work (as in Ricky Gervais
Ricky Gervais
Ricky Dene Gervais is an English comedian, actor, director, radio presenter, producer, musician, and writer.Gervais achieved mainstream fame with his television series The Office and the subsequent series Extras, both of which he co-wrote and co-directed with friend and frequent collaborator...
's Extras) or notable distinctions of their work (such as Antonio Banderas
Antonio Banderas
José Antonio Domínguez Banderas , better known as Antonio Banderas, is a Spanish film actor, film director, film producer and singer...
's Puss in Boots
Puss in Boots (Shrek)
Puss in Boots is a fictional cat and a supporting character in the Shrek film series, as well as the primary protagonist of the 2011 spin-off prequel Puss in Boots. He is voiced in English and both Spanish versions by Antonio Banderas...
in Shrek 2
Shrek 2
Shrek 2 is a 2004 American computer-animated fantasy comedy film, produced by DreamWorks Animation and directed by Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury and Conrad Vernon. It is the second installment in the Shrek film series and the sequel to 2001's Shrek...
and Shrek 3) or an artist or genre repeats elements of earlier works to the point that originality is lost.
United States
Although a parody can be considered a derivative workDerivative work
In United States copyright law, a derivative work is an expressive creation that includes major, copyright-protected elements of an original, previously created first work .-Definition:...
under United States Copyright Law
United States copyright law
The copyright law of the United States governs the legally enforceable rights of creative and artistic works under the laws of the United States.Copyright law in the United States is part of federal law, and is authorized by the U.S. Constitution...
, it can be protected from claims by the copyright owner of the original work under the fair use
Fair use
Fair use is a limitation and exception to the exclusive right granted by copyright law to the author of a creative work. In United States copyright law, fair use is a doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders...
doctrine, which is codified in . The Supreme Court of the United States
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
stated that parody "is the use of some elements of a prior author's composition to create a new one that, at least in part, comments on that author's works." That commentary function provides some justification for use of the older work. See Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.
Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.
Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, 510 U.S. 569 was a United States Supreme Court copyright law case that established that a commercial parody can qualify as fair use...
In 2007, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is a U.S. federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* District of Alaska* District of Arizona...
denied a fair use defense in the Dr. Seuss Enterprises v. Penguin Books case. Citing the Campbell v. Acuff-Rose decision, they found that a satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
of the O.J. Simpson murder trial
O. J. Simpson murder case
The O. J. Simpson murder case was a criminal trial held in Los Angeles County, California Superior Court from January 29 to October 3, 1995. Former American football star and actor O. J...
and parody of The Cat in the Hat
The Cat in the Hat
The Cat in the Hat is a children's book by Dr. Seuss and perhaps the most famous, featuring a tall, anthropomorphic, mischievous cat, wearing a tall, red and white-striped hat and a red bow tie. He also carries a pale blue umbrella...
had infringed upon the children's book because it did not provide a commentary function upon that work.
In 2001, the United States Court of Appeals, 11th Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts:* Middle District of Alabama...
, in Suntrust v. Houghton Mifflin
Suntrust v. Houghton Mifflin
Suntrust v. Houghton Mifflin Co., 252 F. 3d 1165 , opinion at 268 F.3d 1257, was a case decided by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit against the owner of Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, vacating an injunction prohibiting the publisher of Alice Randall's The Wind...
, upheld the right of Alice Randall
Alice Randall
Alice Randall is an American author and songwriter. Randall grew up in Washington, D.C.. She attended Harvard University, where she earned an honors degree in English and American literature, before moving to Nashville in 1983 to become a country songwriter. She currently lives in Nashville,...
to publish a parody of Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind
The slaves depicted in Gone with the Wind are primarily loyal house servants, such as Mammy, Pork and Uncle Peter, and these slaves stay on with their masters even after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 sets them free...
called The Wind Done Gone
The Wind Done Gone
The Wind Done Gone is the first novel written by Alice Randall. It was a bestselling historical parallel novel that reinterprets the famous American novel Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.- Plot summary :...
, which told the same story from the point of view of Scarlett O'Hara
Scarlett O'Hara
Scarlett O' Hara is the protagonist in Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone with the Wind and in the later film of the same name...
's slaves, who were glad to be rid of her.
Canada
Under Canadian law, although there is protection for Fair Dealing, there is no explicit protection for parody and satire. In Canwest v. Horizon, the publisher of the Vancouver Sun launched a lawsuitLawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
against a group which had published a pro-Palestinian
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
parody of the paper. Alan Donaldson, the judge in the case, ruled that parody is not a defence to a copyright
Canadian copyright law
The copyright law of Canada governs the legally enforceable rights to creative and artistic works under the laws of Canada. Canada passed its first colonial copyright statute in 1832 but was subject to imperial copyright law established by Britain until 1921...
claim.
United Kingdom
Under existing copyright legislation (principally the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 , also known as the CDPA, is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which received Royal Assent on 15 November 1988. It reformulates almost completely the statutory basis of copyright law in the United Kingdom, which had, until then, been...
), "There is currently no exception which covers the creation of parodies, caricatures or pastiches". Parodies of works protected by copyright require the consent or permission of the copyright owner, unless they fall under existing fair use/fair dealing exceptions:
- the part of the underlying work is not 'substantial'
- the use of the underlying work falls within the fair dealing exception for "criticism, review and news reporting"
- enforcement of copyright is contrary to the public interest.
In 2006 the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property
Gowers Review of Intellectual Property
The Gowers Review of Intellectual Property was an independent review of UK intellectual property focusing on UK copyright law that was published in December 2006. The then Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown commissioned Andrew Gowers to lead the review in December 2005. The Review was...
recommended that the UK should "Create an exception to copyright for the purpose of caricature, parody or pastiche by 2008". Following the first stage of a two-part public consultation, the Intellectual Property Office reported that the information received "was not sufficient to persuade us that the advantages of a new parody exception were sufficient to override the
disadvantages to the creators and owners of the underlying work. There is therefore no proposal to change the current approach to parody, caricature and pastiche in the UK."
Social and political uses
Parody is a frequent ingredient in satireSatire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
and is often used to make social and political points. Examples include Swift
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...
's A Modest Proposal
A Modest Proposal
A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland From Being a Burden on Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick, commonly referred to as A Modest Proposal, is a Juvenalian satirical essay written and published anonymously by Jonathan Swift in...
, which satirized English neglect of Ireland by parodying emotionally disengaged political tracts; and, recently, The Daily Show
The Daily Show
The Daily Show , is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn until December 1998...
and The Colbert Report, which parody a news broadcast and a talk show to satirize political and social trends and events. Some events, such as a national tragedy, can be difficult to handle. Chet Clem, Editorial Manager of the news parody publication The Onion
The Onion
The Onion is an American news satire organization. It is an entertainment newspaper and a website featuring satirical articles reporting on international, national, and local news, in addition to a non-satirical entertainment section known as The A.V. Club...
, told Wikinews
Wikinews
Wikinews is a free-content news source wiki and a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. The site works through collaborative journalism. Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has distinguished Wikinews from Wikipedia by saying "on Wikinews, each story is to be written as a news story as opposed to an...
in an interview the questions that are raised when addressing difficult topics:
Parody is by no means necessarily satirical, and may sometimes be done with respect and appreciation of the subject involved, while not being a heedless sarcastic attack.
Parody has also been used to facilitate dialogue between cultures or subcultures. Sociolinguist Mary Louise Pratt
Mary Louise Pratt
Mary Louise Pratt is a Silver Professor and Professor of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures at New York University.Her first book, Toward a Speech Act Theory of Literary Discourse, made an important contribution to critical theory by demonstrating that the foundation of written...
identifies parody as one of the "arts of the contact zone," through which marginalized or oppressed groups "selectively appropriate", or imitate and take over, aspects of more empowered cultures.
Shakespeare often uses a series of parodies to convey his meaning. In the social context of his era, an example can be seen in King Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
where the fool is introduced with his coxcomb to be a parody of the king.
Historic examples
- Sir ThopasChaucer's Tale of Sir TopasSir Thopas is a story in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales published in 1387.In Canterbury Tales, there is a character named Geoffrey Chaucer. Chaucer's portrait of himself is unflattering and humble. He presents himself as a reticent, maladroit figure who can barely summon a tale to mind...
in Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey ChaucerGeoffrey ChaucerGeoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey... - Don Quixote by Miguel CervantesCervantes-People:*Alfonso J. Cervantes , mayor of St. Louis, Missouri*Francisco Cervantes de Salazar, 16th-century man of letters*Ignacio Cervantes, Cuban composer*Jorge Cervantes, a world-renowned expert on indoor, outdoor, and greenhouse cannabis cultivation...
- Beware the Cat by William BaldwinWilliam Baldwin (author)-Life:From the West Country, England, Baldwin studied logic and philosophy at Oxford. On leaving Oxford, he became a corrector of the press to the printer Edward Whitchurch. During the reigns of Edward VI and Queen Mary, it appears that Baldwin was employed in preparing theatrical exhibitions for...
- The Knight of the Burning PestleThe Knight of the Burning PestleThe Knight of the Burning Pestle is a play by Francis Beaumont, first performed in 1607 and first published in a quarto in 1613. It is notable as the first whole parody play in English...
by Francis BeaumontFrancis BeaumontFrancis Beaumont was a dramatist in the English Renaissance theatre, most famous for his collaborations with John Fletcher....
and John FletcherJohn Fletcher (playwright)John Fletcher was a Jacobean playwright. Following William Shakespeare as house playwright for the King's Men, he was among the most prolific and influential dramatists of his day; both during his lifetime and in the early Restoration, his fame rivalled Shakespeare's... - Dragon of WantleyDragon of WantleyThe Dragon of Wantley is a 17th century satirical verse parody about a dragon and a brave knight. It was included in Thomas Percy's 1767 Reliques of Ancient Poetry....
, an anonymous 17th century ballad - HudibrasHudibrasHudibras is an English mock heroic narrative poem from the 17th century written by Samuel Butler.-Purpose:The work is a satirical polemic upon Roundheads, Puritans, Presbyterians and many of the other factions involved in the English Civil War...
by Samuel ButlerSamuel Butler (poet)Samuel Butler was a poet and satirist. Born in Strensham, Worcestershire and baptised 14 February 1613, he is remembered now chiefly for a long satirical burlesque poem on Puritanism entitled Hudibras.-Biography:... - "MacFlecknoeMacFlecknoeMac Flecknoe is a verse mock-heroic satire written by John Dryden. It is a direct attack on Thomas Shadwell, another prominent poet of the time...
", by John DrydenJohn DrydenJohn Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.Walter Scott called him "Glorious John." He was made Poet... - A Tale of a TubA Tale of a TubA Tale of a Tub was the first major work written by Jonathan Swift, composed between 1694 and 1697 and published in 1704. It is arguably his most difficult satire, and perhaps his most masterly...
by Jonathan SwiftJonathan SwiftJonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St... - The Rape of the LockThe Rape of the LockThe Rape of the Lock is a mock-heroic narrative poem written by Alexander Pope, first published anonymously in Lintot's Miscellany in May 1712 in two cantos , but then revised, expanded and reissued under Pope's name on March 2, 1714, in a much-expanded 5-canto version...
by Alexander PopeAlexander PopeAlexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson... - Namby PambyNamby PambyNamby Pamby is a term for affected, weak, and maudlin speech/verse. However, its origins are in Namby Pamby , by Henry Carey.Carey wrote the poem as a satire of Ambrose Philips and published it in his Poems on Several Occasions...
by Henry CareyHenry Carey (writer)Henry Carey was an English poet, dramatist and song-writer. He is remembered as an anti-Walpolean satirist and also as a patriot. Several of his melodies continue to be sung today, and he was widely praised in the generation after his death... - Northanger AbbeyNorthanger AbbeyNorthanger Abbey was the first of Jane Austen's novels to be completed for publication, though she had previously made a start on Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. According to Cassandra Austen's Memorandum, Susan was written approximately during 1798–99...
by Jane AustenJane AustenJane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived... - Gulliver's TravelsGulliver's TravelsTravels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships, better known simply as Gulliver's Travels , is a novel by Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of...
by Jonathan SwiftJonathan SwiftJonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St... - The DunciadThe DunciadThe Dunciad is a landmark literary satire by Alexander Pope published in three different versions at different times. The first version was published in 1728 anonymously. The second version, the Dunciad Variorum was published anonymously in 1729. The New Dunciad, in four books and with a...
by Alexander PopeAlexander PopeAlexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson... - Memoirs of Martinus ScriblerusMemoirs of Martinus ScriblerusThe Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus is an incomplete satirical work ostensibly by the members of the Scriblerus Club but which was principally written by John Arbuthnot. The only completed volume was published in 1741 as a part of Alexander Pope's Works. 'Martinus Scriblerus' was a pseudonym of...
by John GayJohn GayJohn Gay was an English poet and dramatist and member of the Scriblerus Club. He is best remembered for The Beggar's Opera , set to music by Johann Christoph Pepusch...
, Alexander Pope, John ArbuthnotJohn ArbuthnotJohn Arbuthnot, often known simply as Dr. Arbuthnot, , was a physician, satirist and polymath in London...
, et al. - The History of Rasselas, Prince of AbissiniaThe History of Rasselas, Prince of AbissiniaThe History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia, often abbreviated to Rasselas, is an apologue about happiness by Samuel Johnson. The book's original working title was “The Choice of Life". He wrote the piece to help support his seriously ill mother with an intended completion date of January 22, 1759...
[sicSicSic—generally inside square brackets, [sic], and occasionally parentheses, —when added just after a quote or reprinted text, indicates the passage appears exactly as in the original source...
] by Samuel JohnsonSamuel JohnsonSamuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer... - MozartWolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's A Musical JokeA Musical JokeA Musical Joke K. 522, is a composition by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; the composer entered it in his Verzeichnis aller meiner Werke on June 14, 1787...
(Ein musikalischer Spaß), K.522 (1787) - parody of incompetent contemporaries of Mozart, as assumed by some theorists - Sartor ResartusSartor ResartusThomas Carlyle's major work, Sartor Resartus , first published as a serial in 1833-34, purported to be a commentary on the thought and early life of a German philosopher called Diogenes Teufelsdröckh , author of a tome entitled "Clothes: their Origin and Influence" , but was actually a poioumenon...
by Thomas Carlysle - Ways and Means, or The aged, aged man, by Lewis CarrollLewis CarrollCharles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
. Much of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-GlassThrough the Looking-GlassThrough the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There is a work of literature by Lewis Carroll . It is the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland...
is parodic of VictorianVictorian eraThe Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
schooling. - BatrachomyomachiaBatrachomyomachiaBatrachomyomachia or the Battle of Frogs and Mice is a comic epic or parody on the Iliad, definitely attributed to Homer by the Romans, but according to Plutarch the work of Pigres of Halicarnassus, the brother of Artemisia, queen of Caria and ally of Xerxes...
(battle between frogs and mice), an IliadIliadThe Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...
parody by an unknown ancient Greek author - Britannia Sitting On An Egg a machine-printed illustrated envelopeEnvelopeAn envelope is a common packaging item, usually made of thin flat material. It is designed to contain a flat object, such as a letter or card....
published by the stationer W.R. Hume of Leith, Scotland, parodying the machine-printed illustrated envelope (commissioned by Rowland Hill (postal reformer)Rowland Hill (postal reformer)Sir Rowland Hill KCB, FRS was an English teacher, inventor and social reformer. He campaigned for a comprehensive reform of the postal system, based on the concept of penny postage and his solution of prepayment, facilitating the safe, speedy and cheap transfer of letters...
and designed by the artist William MulreadyWilliam MulreadyWilliam Mulready was an Irish genre painter living in London. He is best known for his romanticizing depictions of rural scenes, and for creating Mulready stationery letter sheets, issued at the same time as the Penny Black postage stamp.-Life and family:William Mulready was born in Ennis, County...
) used to launch the British postal service reforms of 1840.
See also
- AbridgementAbridgementAbridgement or abridgment is a term defined as "shortening" or "condensing" and is most commonly used in reference to the act of reducing a written work, typically a book, into a shorter form...
- DétournementDetournementA détournement is a technique developed in the 1950s by the Letterist International, and consist in "turning expressions of the capitalist system against itself." Détournement was prominently used to set up subversive political pranks, an influential tactic called situationist prank that was...
- Internet memeInternet memeThe term Internet meme is used to describe a concept that spreads via the Internet. The term is a reference to the concept of memes, although the latter concept refers to a much broader category of cultural information.-Description:...
- IntertextualityIntertextualityIntertextuality is the shaping of texts' meanings by other texts. It can include an author’s borrowing and transformation of a prior text or to a reader’s referencing of one text in reading another. The term “intertextuality” has, itself, been borrowed and transformed many times since it was coined...
- JokeJokeA joke is a phrase or a paragraph with a humorous twist. It can be in many different forms, such as a question or short story. To achieve this end, jokes may employ irony, sarcasm, word play and other devices...
- Literary techniqueLiterary techniqueA literary technique is any element or the entirety of elements a writer intentionally uses in the structure of their work...
- Parody advertisementParody advertisementA parody advertisement is a fictional advertisement for a non-existent product, either done within another advertisement for an actual product, or done simply as parody of advertisements—used either as a way of ridiculing or drawing negative attention towards a real advertisement or such an...
- Parody musicParody musicParody music, or musical parody, involves changing or recycling existing musical ideas or lyrics — or copying the peculiar style of a composer or artist, or even a general style of music. Although the result is often funny, and this is the usual intent — the term "parody" in musical terms also...
- Parody religionParody religionA parody religion or mock religion is a parody of a religion, sect or cult. A parody religion can be a parody of several religions, sects, gurus and cults at the same time. Or, it can be a parody of no particular religion, instead parodying the concept of religious belief...
- Parody scienceParody scienceParody science, sometimes called spoof science, is the act of mocking science in a satirical way. Science can be parodied for a purpose, ranging from social commentary and making political points, to humor for its own sake....
- SubvertisingSubvertisingSubvertising is a portmanteau of subvert and advertising. It refers to the practice of making spoofs or parodies of corporate and political advertisements. Subvertisements may take the form of a new image or an alteration to an existing image or icon, often in a satirical manner...