The Starving Games

When it comes to Friedberg/Seltzer, I’m usually out—their films often confuse parody with simply reenacting well-known scenes and adding the most painfully obvious punchline possible. The Starving Games is a good example: The basic Panem premise offered plenty of absurd material, but many of the gags feel more like a list of 2013 references. Taylor Swift, Psy, and Angry Birds probably make the film feel even more dated today.

That said, it can still work as a trashy movie night with friends, especially since it’s short and doesn’t require much concentration. I wouldn’t put it on the same level as Scary Movie, though—despite the silliness, that series often has better timing and more distinctive characters. Was there a scene or gag that actually landed for you, or was it more of a complete “so bad it’s funny again” experience?

I feel similarly. Even amid all the nonsense, Scary Movie often still shows a feel for timing and characters, whereas Die Pute von Panem feels more like: “You know this scene? Here it is again, only louder.” The 2013 references have also become more like little time capsules than actual jokes by now.

Still, it can serve its purpose for a tired evening with friends and suitably low expectations. But I wouldn’t watch it alone—you’d probably realize after ten minutes that the bag of chips has the better plot. Is there actually another parody from the Friedberg/Seltzer camp that genuinely worked for you?

For me, it would still be Fantastic Movie—but only because the film is so blatantly off the mark that, at times, it turns into its own form of trash entertainment. It really isn’t good, and the “Do you know this scene?” approach runs through it just as much.

The point about the bag of chips is pretty spot-on: on your own, it’s almost unbearable, but in a group, at least you can laugh yourselves silly together over the bad gags. Though I do wonder whether parodies like that would even work today—with the sheer volume of streaming series and memes, the references would probably already be outdated before the film was released.

Yes, parodies like that would probably become outdated even faster today. Back then, you could throw together a few major theatrical releases, a pop star, and a meme and at least feel like you had captured the zeitgeist. Today, you’d also have to cram in five streaming series, some random TikTok trend, and the latest Marvel cameo—all preferably within 83 minutes. It sounds exhausting just reading about it.

Maybe that’s why parodies work better when they don’t just recreate individual scenes, but take apart an entire genre. Hot Shots! and The Naked Gun are still funny partly because the jokes don’t depend on whether you still remember a particular movie from 1991. With Friedberg and Seltzer, the joke is often over as soon as you recognize the source material.

Fantastic Movie does at least have that completely unrestrained “How did anyone approve this?” factor. In the right company, that can genuinely be more entertaining than a carefully structured comedy. But on my own, I’d probably rather watch a documentary about how the movie was made—the story arc is probably better.

I’d be interested to know whether Scary Movie 3 still counts as a successful example for you, or whether it already veers too far in the same slapstick direction. It’s also completely idiotic, but in places it still has surprisingly good timing.

Hot Shots! is already pretty high up there, no question. The movie doesn’t just parody individual scenes—it sends the whole logic of melodrama and hero movies up the flagpole. On top of that, there are all these completely over-the-top visual gags that work even if you don’t know the source material inside out. That’s what The Starving Games is usually missing: The joke too often depends on recognizing a specific scene or celebrity.

For me, though, The Naked Gun is at least on par with it, and maybe even slightly ahead. Leslie Nielsen keeping a completely straight face amid all this madness is simply unbeatable. Which Hot Shots! scene is the definitive highlight for you—the hostage rescue or the legendary dogfight?

Hot Shots! and The Naked Gun are in a completely different league for me, too. With Turkey, the joke is often already over as soon as you recognize the source material. With Leslie Nielsen or Charlie Sheen, though, there’s still a completely absurd movie playing out in the background—even if you don’t know the reference at all.

My favorite scene from Hot Shots! is probably the ridiculously over-the-top romantic melodrama with the flowers and the wind, as if the end of the world were upon us. That dead-serious presentation of complete nonsense is exactly what most newer parodies lack. Which scene from Hot Shots! or The Naked Gun immediately comes to mind for you?

In Hot Shots!, the love letter scene is definitely near the top of my list—the wildly over-the-top heartbreak melodrama while complete nonsense is actually happening in the background. And in The Naked Gun, of course, the baseball game: Frank Drebin as an umpire is simply the perfect mix of a dead-serious expression and maximum chaos.

And that’s exactly where I see the difference compared with The Starving Games: the old movies have their own characters and their own absurd world. You don’t laugh just because a familiar scene is being copied, but because the gag itself works. With the Friedberg/Seltzer films, there often isn’t much left once you’ve recognized the reference. Is there a more recent parody that comes anywhere close to that old quality, or is the genre basically dead?