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Underground > Creation >

Satire and accuracy - what makes parody work?

We're The Great Old Ones Now

16:59 / 28.05.03

Whisky wrote: Not nearly dull and nonsensical enough to be a true parody of the original.

Soooo... how close does the parody have to be to satirise the original? Is that a valid criticism (not just of my Matrix II parody, but as a complaint against any parody?)

I would have thought that as long as you captured the essence you wanted, it didn't matter where you went from there. In other words, if it's clear what you're mocking, does it matter if the mockery is more intelligent than the original - in fact, isn't that the point?

Whisky Priestess

17:41 / 28.05.03

As far as I see it, satire can criticise pertty much anything in pretty much any way it chooses, but parody is limited to pointing up the flaws of an idea, story or style exclusively through the medium of imitation. Thus parody can (should?) imitate the bad as well as the good qualities of the original, e.g. it wouldn't be much use to do McGonagall parody with scanned lines and non-preposterous rhymes.

I reckon.

We're The Great Old Ones Now

22:32 / 28.05.03

Oookay... so if I cop to writing satire rather than parody, it doesn't matter that I didn't write as badly as they did?

I'm really not sure it was parody, in this case - I think I was trying to show up how mad it was, rather than make it look ridiculous - which, God knows, the movie doesn't need my help for.