 Comedy: September 22, 2021 Issue [#10984] |
This week: Pen a Parody for Fun Edited by: Lornda~Thoughts with Bikerider  
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"So that's why one of my rules of parody writing is that it's gotta be funny regardless of whether you know the source material. It has to work on its own merit."
~ Weird Al Yankovic – Singer/Musician/Songwriter/Record Producer
"Well, you know, 'Spaceballs' is a weird combination, because it's a simple, sweet little fairytale, and it's crazy and out-there and making fun of and taking apart sci-fi, 'Star Wars', and 'Star Trek'. "
~ Mel Brooks – Actor/Comedian/Film Producer/Director
"I think this whole celebrity world is weird anyway. Weird and funny and kind of pathetic and yet so right for parody"
~ Ben Stiller — Actor/Comedian
 Write a parody to entertain and amuse people, and if writing humor scares you, it’s a fun way to get started.
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The purpose of a parody is for entertainment and amusement. It comes in different forms like movies from Mel Brooks, Robin Hood – Men in Tights to Weird Al Yankovic’s song parodies. Both these guys have made a huge career by writing parodies. Brooks is worth 100 million and Yankovic is worth 20 million. If you’re new to writing comedy or just want to challenge yourself with a parody, here are three main points to help:
 #1: The first one is easy so stop panicking. Find a story, song, or poem you’re familiar with to parody. You’re now one step ahead because the material is already written for you. How easy is that? Your job is to turn it around to be funny and entertaining.
#2:Think of something totally the opposite of the original subject matter. It’s key to making it humorous. For example, I wrote a parody in the early stages of learning comedy, and for my first attempt, I chose two Johnny Depp movies and mashed them together. Pirates of the Caribbean - The Curse of the Black Pearl and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory became Pirates of the Chocolate Factory - The Curse of Black Swirl. Captain Jack Sparrow was now Jack Marshmallow and Barbossa was now Bargrossa, so you can have fun changing the wording around to make it humorous.
A 2019 activity, challenged me to writing two parodies. One was a re-write of the famous Jabberwocky poem by Lewis Carroll and the other was to re-write a simple song. There was one problem with this scenario — I don’t write poetry. I had no choice but to force myself to try it and keep within my goal of writing in the comedy genre. With Jabberwocky, I turned it around and wrote about the stress of the challenge at that moment. The simple song I chose was Row, Row, Row, Your Boat. How much of an opposite turn did I go for that one? I used the subject matter of something I do every day – cook. My rendition of Stir, Stir, Stir, Your Pan not only showcased the cooking aspect but also how it’s not my favorite job in the world. The point of these examples is to show that sometimes you have to push yourself to try comedy and sometimes, you'll surprise yourself on what you write.
#3: The main trick for writing comedy is just as important if you try a parody — exaggerate. In the ... Stir, Your Pan example, in the first verse it's an ordinary stew cooking, but as it continues the food choices are exaggerated with the cooking of a shoe and ewe. With the Pirates parody, one of the exaggerations is the thick eyeliner Jack Sparrow wears in the movie. Make sure to read/watch the original material over a few times to choose the spots where you can exaggerate for the biggest laugh.
If you’re not confident in writing humor, challenge yourself to write a parody based on a simple song, poem, or movie. Follow the three points above and give it a try. If you don’t enjoy parodies, you should try one to expand your humorous horizons. You could be the next Mel Brooks or Weird Al Yankovic!
 Here is my all time favorite Weird Al Yankovic song parody:
"The Saga Begins / Original Song: American Pie"
The parody on the original lyrics are done to perfection. Study the wording on this one. I know the lyrics to this song better than its original of American Pie. The song parody that makes me laugh the most is Weird Al’s version called ‘White & Nerdy’. (Based on the original of, Chamillionaire - Ridin' ft. Krayzie Bone) If you can believe it, Donny Osmond makes an appearance, and the way he dances is hilarious. Now, that is taking the rule of an opposite to an extreme – need a backup dancer. Call Donny.
 Fun Parody Facts: ▼
 Star Wars creator, George Lucas, loved Spaceballs so much that he wrote Mel Brooks a letter saying that he laughed so hard he thought he was going to hurt himself.
 The Most Famous Parody Movies:
Austin Powers (character parody of James Bond)
Spaceballs (parody of Star Wars)
Young Frankenstein (parody of Frankenstein)
Robin Hood: Men in Tights (parody of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves)
Shaun of the Dead (parody of Dawn of the Dead)
 Popular Parody Novels: (The the titles will make you laugh.)
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Pride and Prejudice)
Bored of the Rings: A Parody of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings
Fifty Shames of Earl Grey
The Hunger Pains: A Parody
In case you want these for reference, here's the parody story, song, and poem:
"Pirates of the Chocolate Factory" [13+]
"Stir, Stir, Stir, Your Pan" [ASR]
"Scribble Scrabble Words" [E]
Since I referenced the activity that spawned a couple of new parodies, here's a Trinket for you!
"I. - Queen Alice"
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 Song Parodies. Meet the next bunch of Weird Al's. 
Parody Stories
 Poetry Parodies:
 If you pen a parody, consider entering it in a contest. Yes, that's a great idea. 
 ~ Opens October 1st ~
~ Opens November 1st ~
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 What’s your favorite parody movie, song, or poem? Have you tried to write a parody?
Here's another comment from a previous newsletter  "What Is Comedy?"
Elfin Dragon-finally published  : I love your Dad Jokes.  I think there's comedy all over the place and I love satire. Like many comedians, I think we worry too much about political correctness. We need to be able to laugh at ourselves. We also need to renew our love of words. I found this recently on YouTube."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_UegL1R3X8
I'm glad you love the dad jokes.  You're right about the political correctness. It's really hard to find any new jokes anymore, and I agree we have to laugh at ourselves — we'll never run out of material that way. Thanks for the comment and video. I laughed at how he re-told the three little pigs story, and I have no idea how he remembered all of it. 
 Feedback from my last newsletter, "Geeks and Nerds" :
Elfin Dragon-finally published : "Oh Man!!! I'm in big trouble. I'm both a Geek AND a Nerd!"
Lol! Nothing wrong with that at all.
Maryann  : ""Where should one store all the nerdy dad jokes? In a dada-base" Lornda, you are so much fun!! "
Lol! Glad you got a laugh out of that one! 
~SilverMoonNoel~  : "Apparently I raised one geek and one nerd. And loving it. One liked taking things apart to see how they worked and then put it back together. He also be ame a computer guru.
The other one not only took it apart, but added features to it the put it back together. He talks to me about things I can't understand because my focus is on many other things.
I think that makes us all unique in our own way."
Oh, that's awesome. Thanks for comment!
 Comments from the Newsfeed. Thank you!
Bilal Latif  : "I like the Angry Video Game Nerd."
Dave has company  : "I am a certified word nerd."
Elisa: Snowman Stik  : "I probably fit the nerd label most closely given that I've debated the differences between geeks, nerds, and dorks more than once." 
bryanmchunter: "@Bilal Latif I just saw the Angry Video Game Nerd's newest review; Greendog: The Beached Surfer Dude! for Sega Genesis."
Bride A. Livewire  : "Um...Im LITERALLY a comic book dealer..."
Kit MacPherson : "My main runs a D&D campaign, and her players got her a “#1 DAD” mug, which is her absolute favorite."
Santeven Quokklaus : "As a teenager, I identified with both groups, but never really fitted into either.
I read a lot and wrote a lot and played D&D a lot, but I was also a competition gymnast and then, when I was 17, started pro wrestling. I was in on the computer thing from 1983, one of the first in my home town of a million inhabitants to have the Internet, but the hardware of a computer I didn't care about.
I knew about music across the board, owned too many records and cassettes and, when they became a thing, CDs (to this day, my collection is ever-expanding, sitting at close to 4000), but I was also a drummer in a band. My string of girlfriends were really, really attractive, even though I looked (look...) like a reject from Freaks.
So, I had geek and nerd facets (and most of friends were geeks & nerds), but I never really fit in with all they did.
As to writing, yep - heaps of geek/nerd characters.
Favourite from a book I've read - Arnie in Christine by Stephen King."
Waltz Invictus  : "Everyone is a nerd about something."
DragonBlue : "Nerd, always and forever."
TheBusmanPoet  : "Probably a bit of both and no I haven't written anything about a character."
elephantsealer : "I would love to learn or rather I would love to do a comedy ... however, comedy is not one I can do at all...HELP..."
Zen : "I follow the weather on Mars; I've built a clock that tells the time anywhere on Mars; I've built an entire network to support my writing; I write software for writers to calculate orbits and related things; I have a music collection in excess of 35k tracks (in flac format where I can) and built two music systems (one for the house in general, one for my office); I call out hard sci-fi movies when they defy physics. My inner nerd shines bright, but I have a geeky side as well."
Bride A. Livewire : "@Zen- Nevermind us, sir...You win...LOL"
Eleanor : "I guess everyone is a nerd one way or another. As for characters... well, I had written a good number of nerds, but I like Mackenzie best."
keyisfake : "A little of both. One of my, main characters in my series, Patrick Valdez is both also. He cosplays and collects pulse he has a high IQ."
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