Spoof Vs. Satire: Or, Romance Among The Zombies
I can't help but feel I should bring up a few points about spoofs and satires in the wake of the release of Hot Fuzz and the renewed interest in its predecessor, Shaun of the Dead. It wasn't until I read an interview with Simon Pegg in which he said that "the word spoof must never be applicable to what we do" that it even occurred to me that some people might consider the films to be spoofs. I need to actually repeat that, emphatically: That some people might classify these films as spoofs never occurred to me at all. Not once.
Why? Because a spoof is an extended joke, and often a weak one, at the expense of the original film or genre that came before it. Films like Airplane, Hot Shots, and the execrable Scary Movie series exemplify the form in that they are nothing more than 90-minute riffs on the respective films/scenes that inspired them, and often do nothing more than re-create specific moments from the earlier movies to get a laugh instead of actually creating a new joke. But Shaun/Fuzz are different precisely because while certain — in fact, many — moments are inspired by earlier films, the scenes also stand on their own in the new film. For instance, toward the end of Hot Fuzz, when Danny (Nick Frost) refuses to shoot a criminal he loves and instead fires his gun into the air while yelling, the setup is a direct nod to the sweaty Keanu-Swayze relationship in Point Break. Except the scene isn't completely a nod to the earlier film. Danny and Nick (Pegg) had already bonded while watching Point Break, so Danny's firing into the air wasn't a spoof of Point Break; it was a callback to the fact that Danny and Nick had watched the movie, and Danny had expressed his desire to actually live that scene. When Danny acts it out, it's a completely organic moment in the film.
That's the other way Edgar Wright's films aren't spoofs: They have plots. No one watching Airplane thinks the plane is actually going to crash, or that anyone will actually "die" within the film's constructed universe. That's part of what makes Scary Movie so pointless, in addition to its stupefying masturbatory humor. It's ostensibly a film about a killer, but no one viewing the film is ever in danger of believing that the characters are actually progressing through a connected series of events; it's just 90 minutes of bad puns and clunky restagings of real films. Nobody labeled Scream as a spoof, because it was a legitimate thriller that happily played with the genre conventions that had made its existence possible. Similarly, Shaun of the Dead is a top-notch zombie movie because it never for a moment pretends that the zombies aren't real; despite the loving humor injected throughout, the plot takes itself seriously. The characters' lives are threatened by their circumstances, and several good guys get hurt along the way. That sense of legitimacy, of reality, is what makes the film so entertaining: There's a chance that Shaun and Liz might not actually wind up together, which makes us care about them the way we could never care about one of the gruff caricatures in some low-level spoof. Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz wouldn't exist without their forebears, but they also don't need them to survive. They're great films in their own right, and that's something a spoof can never be.
Comments: 7
Yeah, I know. Truth be told, I came up with the headline after I'd started writing but before I knew specifically where I'd go and how broad it would be, hence the mismatched headline. I was secretly hoping no one would call me on it. Damn you, Kyle. Damn you!
Kidding. Anyway, you should check out Hot Fuzz. And also The TV Set. You'd dig its look at actors.
Nice post... spoofs are the easy way out. It's what I used to do in junior high when we'd elect to do a 'play' for our English project. It's almost the lowest denomination of humour, since even slapstick requires strict timing.
What Pegg and Wright are doing with these two movies is almost worthy of its own genre, by genre-bending the genres that they love.
What's next? Kung-fu? Westerns?
Cibbuano -- I think "Kung Fu Hustle" fits as an example of that sort of thing -- a loving, playful homage that has comedy elements, but is all quite genuine and a good movie in its own right.
I described Hot Fuzz (and, implicitly, Shaun of the Dead) to my friends as a blend of a pastiche (i.e. imitation) of and an homage to buddy-cop action films. But yeah, like you said, they both stand on their own as well as adding an extra level of enjoyment for those who are familiar with the originals (and Hot Fuzz cleverly brought you up to speed by having Danny screen them for Nick). They're brilliantly done, both of them.
I wouldn't completely absolve Hot Fuzz from being a spoof.
I'm thinking of the intentionally ridiculous multiple endings, that no one, in any universe, could survive.
It turned into a different film as early as the (spoiler) village preservationists gather in the churchyard scene. How could they have killed so many people in such a short time? Didn't anyone notice all the teenagers had disappeared? And how could our heroes have fired off hundreds of rounds without killing or seriously hurting anybody? (spoiler)
I'm not putting it down -- it's a cute touch, and helps my crush on Nick Angel -- but it pushes HF far into spoof territory.
I would agree with kitkat that Kung-Fu Hustle fits into this sub-genre. I'm trying to think of a Western that does what Shaun... and Fuzz do and I can only think of Blazing Saddles. But most people would consider that movie a spoof, 1) because it has too many anacronisms to be considered spoof-free and 2) Most of Mel Brooks' subsequent movies were unabashed spoofs. Saddles, though is the least spoofy of all his spoofs.
You make some excellent points. I, too, would have never thought to label these movies spoofs. However, in the strictest and most commonly used sense of the word, they aren't satires either. A satire is generally taking aim at some sort of convention, political or otherwise. Satire usually has some sort of point or message being conveyed and, while I haven't seen Hot Fuzz yet, Shaun of the Dead was certainly not trying to ridicule or slander any real life entity. It was simply a really funny film. In a way, it's sort of it's own sub-genre.
Apr 26, 2007 6:25 AM