Parody

In contemporary usage, parody is a form of satire that imitates another work of art in order to ridicule it.

Examples

Historical examples

• Sir Thopas in Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer
• Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes
• Beware of the Cat by Thomas Nashe
• The Knight of the Burning Pestle by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher
• Dragon of Wantley, an anonymous 17th century ballad
• Hudibras by Samuel Butler
• "MacFlecknoe", by John Dryden
• A Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift
• The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope
• Namby Pamby by Henry Carey
• Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
• The Dunciad by Alexander Pope
• The Memoirs of Martinus Scribblerus by John Gay, Alexander Pope, John Arbuthnot, Earl of Oxford, et al.
• Rasselas, Prince of Persia by Samuel Johnson
• Mozart's A Musical Joke (Ein musikalischer Spaß), K.522 (1787) - parody of incompetent contemporaries of Mozart, as assumed by some theorists
• Sartor Resartus by Thomas Carlysle

Contemporary examples

• Airplane! - gag based parody of disaster films and air travel
• Anna Russell's musical comedy - parodies of Richard Wagner and Gilbert and Sullivan
• Austin Powers series - parodies of spy films, especially the James Bond series, and a broad range of popular culture.
• Avenue Q - parody of Sesame Street and children's television.
• Barry Trotter - parodies of Harry Potter books.
• Blazing Saddles - a movie by director Mel Brooks, parodying American westerns
• The Boomer Bible - a book by R. F. Laird, which parodies contemporary society and mores.
• Bored of the Rings - a parody of The Lord of the Rings
• The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) – a parody of all of the plays of William Shakespeare.
• Chappelle's Show - A sketch comedy series that parodies music videos, celebrities, advertisements, internet, and famous movies.
• French & Saunders - a comedy series which has featured parodies of several major hit films (including Titanic (1997), Misery, Braveheart, Thelma and Louise, Lord of the Rings)
• "I have terrible news." - a parody of a website 404 error.
• Kung Fu Hustle - a movie by Steven Chow parodying Chinese wuxia films, as well as gangster films in general
• MAD Magazine - parody of practically everything in American popular culture
• The Misprint - similar to The Onion, parodies politics in India
• Much of the repertoire of Monty Python's Flying Circus
• Chris Morris's The Day Today and Brass Eye - parodies of high paced self-important genre of TV news programmes
• The Onion - parody of newspaper and magazine journalism
• Parodius - parody of the side-scrolling video game Gradius as well as other Konami franchises
• Radio Active - BBC parody of poorly funded rural local commercial radio
• The Rerun Show - television series that parodies classic episodes of old shows
• Ripping Yarns - television tales penned by Michael Palin and Terry Jones to parody heroic stories/comics aimed at British boys during the 1920-1960 (?) period
• Rutland Weekend Television - Eric Idle inspired parody of low grade commercial television
• The Rutles - parody of The Beatles
• Spaceballs - Mel Brooks-directed parody of space opera, such as Star Wars and Star Trek
• The Sunday Format - BBC radio parody of vacuous lifestyle journalism
• Allan Sherman's and "Weird Al" Yankovic's innumerable song parodies
• This is Spinal Tap, a spoof of the heavy metal music business, by Rob Reiner
• Resistentialism, a parody of existentialism.
• Not Another Teen Movie, a movie that parodies teen flicks such as She's All That, American Pie, The Breakfast Club, Bring It On and various others.
• Scary Movie (Trilogy) - Parodies of horror movies such as Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Exorcist, The Haunting, Signs etc.