User:GreenC/List of film spoofs in Mad Magazine

This list of film spoofs in Mad includes films spoofed (parodied) by the American comic magazine Mad. Usually, an issue of Mad features a spoof of at least one feature film or television program. The works selected by the staff of Mad are typically from the cinema of the United States and the television in the United States, respectively.

The authors parody the original titles with puns or other wordplay. Characters are caricatured, and lampooned with joke names.

These articles typically cover five pages or more, and are presented as a sequential storyline with caricatures and word balloons. The opening page or two-page splash usually consists of the cast of the show introducing themselves directly to the reader; in some parodies, the writers sometimes attempt to circumvent this convention by presenting the characters without such direct exposition. (In 1973, the movie poster for The Long Goodbye was designed in the introductory style of a Mad parody, including the rectangular word balloons, and drawn by Mad regular Jack Davis.)

Many parodies end with the abrupt deus ex machina appearance of outside characters or pop culture figures who are similar in nature to the film or TV series being parodied, or who comment satirically on the theme. For example, Dr. Phil arrives to counsel the Desperate Housewives, or the cast of Sex and the City show up as the new hookers on Deadwood.

The parodies frequently make comedic use of the fourth wall, breaking character, and meta-references. Within an ostensibly self-contained storyline, the characters may refer to the technical aspects of filmmaking, the publicity, hype, or box office surrounding their project, their own past roles, any clichés being used, and so on. In 2013, Film Comment wrote, "While film studies majors gasp over the deconstruction of genre in the works of David Lynch and the meta-movies of Charlie Kaufman, 'the usual gang of idiots' over at MAD have been deconstructing, meta-narrativing, and postmodernizing motion pictures since the very first movie parody (Hah! Noon!) appeared in 1954" (though Mad's first movie parody was actually "Ping Pong").

Almost all of the parodies are of a single, particular film. However, Mad has occasionally done omnibus parodies of film series, such as the James Bond movies, the 1970s Planet of the Apes sequels, and the Twilight movies. It has also combined multiple mini-parodies of unrelated films into a single article.

Several actors and directors have said that they regarded ridicule by Mad as an indication of major success in their careers.

Total film spoofs and the most prolific writers and illustrators by decade
The following table indicated how many film spoofs in total were made in each decade as well as whom were the most prolific writers and illustrators in each decade.

Mad's most prolific film spoofs writers and illustrators of all-time
The following writers and illustrators, both past and current, are Mad's most prolific film spoofs writers and illustrators of all-time (as of April 4, 2012). A number of writers and illustrators whom appear in the following table created film spoofs on their own and also as part of a collaboration.