History Main / NarrowParody

* ''Film/EpicMovie'' by Creator/SeltzerAndFriedberg, including parodies of such "[[YouKeepUsingThatWord epics]]" as ''Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' and ''NachoLibre''.

* A cartoon from [[TheNineties the late 1990s]] shows the Greek gods and goddesses of Olympus being portrayed by then-popular celebrities. Some of the cameos made a good deal of sense, like SylvesterStallone as Ares and {{Music/Madonna}} as Athena. But when it came to "casting" Poseidon (the god of the sea), the cartoonist awarded the role to...Tiger Woods, who has nothing at all to do with maritime or nautical themes. How did the cartoonist justify this move? By having Poseidon ''hit a golf ball with his trident''. Still a huge stretch.

* ''Film/EpicMovie'' by Creator/SeltzerAndFriedberg, including parodies of such "epics" as ''Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' and ''NachoLibre''.

The Narrow Parody occurs when the writers are afraid the target audience might be too young (or just [[ViewersAreMorons too stupid]]) to catch the expected references, and have no concept of ParentalBonus, so they just narrow the field down to [[FleetingDemographicRule things made in the last few years]]. This can work against the writers, as works hailed as "classics" make for good parody, while fluff often doesn't. In many cases, the parody itself is also painfully obvious and laboured, going for the cheap laugh rather than trying to make any kind of point about what is being parodied.

* ''Film/EpicMovie'' by SeltzerAndFriedberg, including parodies of such "epics" as ''Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' and ''NachoLibre''.

-->--'''[[http://www.agonybooth.com/agonizer/Disaster_Movie_2008.aspx Albert Walker]]''' on ''[[SeltzerAndFriedberg Disaster Movie]]''

* While most of the ''[[WesternAnimation/AlvinAndTheChipmunks Chipmunks Go to the Movies]]'' episodes spoofed movies that are still frequently recalled today, a few of the movies they parodied were merely popular when they came out in TheEighties / the top of TheNineties: ''{{Big}}'', ''Film/DickTracy'' and ''Film/{{Splash}}''.

* Many a sketch comedy show has fallen into this trap. ''SaturdayNightLive'' manages to avoid it most of the time, but some of the lesser seasons have succumbed.
* ''Series/SesameStreet'' often falls into this as part of its attempt to add {{Parental Bonus}}es. It's often borderline impossible to do a true parody of the subject matter, so they simply copy the title, the appearance of the characters, and the general setting. [[TrueBlood True Mud]], for example, was about a man's attempt to get a waitress to serve him Mud (as opposed to spud, cud, and a dud).

** To be honest, however, a lot of referential jokes and songs in Animaniacs went this way, especially if you did not live in the USA in the 1980s-early 1990s. Even their song listing all the countries of the world is dated now that Yugoslavia no longer exists.

* A cartoon from [[TheNineties the late 1990s]] shows the Greek gods and goddesses of Olympus being portrayed by then-popular celebrities. Some of the cameos made a good deal of sense, like SylvesterStallone as Ares and {{Madonna}} as Athena. But when it came to "casting" Poseidon (the god of the sea), the cartoonist awarded the role to...Tiger Woods, who has nothing at all to do with maritime or nautical themes. How did the cartoonist justify this move? By having Poseidon ''hit a golf ball with his trident''. Still a huge stretch.

* On that note, ''many'' LooneyTunes cartoons of the 30s and 40s are essentially this. Take, for example, "The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos," where most of the jokes are based upon the fact that a celebrity of the 1930s has been parodied as an animal.

* ''SeitokaiNoIchizon'' is very guilty of this, with nearly all of their parodies being of shows from the last 2-3 years (The closer the better), including series from the same season. The times they reference something older are few and mostly refer to super-popular series like ''DragonBall'' and one AppealToObscurity to make a "nobody will get this" joke.

* ''Film/DisasterMovie'' suffered from this as well. It has [[ShallowParody half-assed]] parodies of ''{{Juno}}'', ''Series/HannahMontana'', ''Film/IronMan'', ''SexAndTheCity'', ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'', ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'', ''Film/{{Hellboy}}'', ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', ''{{Hancock}}'', ''Film/AlvinAndTheChipmunks'', ''Film/{{Superbad}}'', ''Film/HighSchoolMusical'', ''TheLoveGuru'', ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull'', ''Film/{{Enchanted}}'', ''Film/{{Wanted}}'', ''Film/{{Beowulf}}'', ''Film/NightAtTheMuseum'', ''Film/{{Jumper}}'', and ''Film/TenThousandBC''. All of which are definitely not disaster films. Some even came out [[UpToEleven AFTER]] ''Disaster Movie'' was in theaters, which takes ShallowParody to a truly ridiculous extreme: There's skimping on the research, and then there's [[TheyJustDidntCare not even bothering to watch the movie you're supposed to be parodying!]]

* The later films in the ''ScaryMovie'' series ended up like this. Originally, they worked, as most HorrorTropes were [[TropeCodifier codified]] in TheEighties or earlier, so anyone with even a passing familiarity with the horror genre will get the jokes. However, later gags became a lot more obvious and telegraphed while the pool of references narrowed from broader subgenres of horror ({{slasher|Movie}}s in the first, HauntedHouse[=/=][[OurGhostsAreDifferent ghost]] movies in the second) to specific, recent movies (some of which weren't even horror). The first big complaint from fans was the inclusion in the third film of an extended parody of ''EightMile'', which had nothing to do with horror movies.

* ''Film/{{Enchanted}}'' is an inversion: the film is a very close parody of the at-the-time 48-year-old ''Disney/SleepingBeauty'', almost completely ignoring the much more recent DisneyRenaissance films. This is fitting, since ''Enchanted'' is targeted more towards adults who grew up with ''Sleeping Beauty'' than with the more nuanced or deconstructive Renaissance films.

* ''Film/EpicMovie'' by SeltzerAndFriedberg, including parodies of such "epics" as ''CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' and ''NachoLibre''.

* While most of the ''[[WesternAnimation/AlvinAndTheChipmunks Chipmunks Go to the Movies]]'' episodes parodied popular movies, a few of the movies they parodied ended up being {{Cult Classic}}s. Namely ''{{Big}}'', ''Film/DickTracy'' and ''Film/{{Splash}}''.

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* This can happen even in shows as acclaimed as ArrestedDevelopment. Some of the Iraq War references in particular more or less require one to be intimately familiar with 2002-2003's news about it.

** To be honest, however, a lot of referential jokes and songs in Animaniacs went this way, especially if you did not live in the USA in the 1980s-early 1990s.

* More recent episodes of ''TheSimpsons'' have fallen into this trap to an extent, with products like the [[{{Wii}} Funtendo Zii]] and the "Mypod" being referred to without making any sort of commentary on the product.

* ''Film/DisasterMovie'' suffered from this as well. It has [[ShallowParody half-assed]] parodies of ''{{Juno}}'', ''Series/HannahMontana'', ''Film/IronMan'', ''SexAndTheCity'', ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'', ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'', ''Film/{{Hellboy}}'', ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', ''{{Hancock}}'', ''Film/AlvinAndTheChipmunks'', ''Film/{{Superbad}}'', ''Film/HighSchoolMusical'', ''TheLoveGuru'', ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull'', ''Film/{{Enchanted}}'', ''Film/{{Wanted}}'', ''Film/{{Beowulf}}'', ''Film/NightAtTheMuseum'', ''Film/{{Jumper}}'', and ''Film/TenThousandBC''. All of which are definitely not disaster films. Some even came out [[UpToEleven AFTER]] ''Disaster Movie'' was in theaters, which takes ShallowParody to a truly ridiculous extreme: There's [[DidNotDoTheResearch skimping on the research]], and then there's [[TheyJustDidntCare not even bothering to watch the movie you're supposed to be parodying!]]

* ''Film/DisasterMovie'' suffered from this as well. It has [[ShallowParody half-assed]] parodies of ''{{Juno}}'', ''Series/HannahMontana'', ''Film/IronMan'', ''SexAndTheCity'', ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'', ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'', ''Film/{{Hellboy}}'', ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', ''{{Hancock}}'', ''Film/AlvinAndTheChipmunks'', ''Film/{{Superbad}}'', ''Film/HighSchoolMusical'', ''TheLoveGuru'', ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull'', ''Film/{{Enchanted}}'', ''Film/{{Wanted}}'', ''Film/{{Beowulf}}'', ''Film/NightAtTheMuseum'', ''Film/{{Jumper}}'', and ''Film/TenThousandBC''. All of which are definitely not disaster films. Some even came out [[UpToEleven AFTER]] ''Disaster Movie'' was in theaters.

** Parodied in 1954, before ''Mad'' even was a magazine, in a FauxToGuide parodying their imitators by introducing into a lampoon of ''Theatre/JuliusCaesar'' such unexplained elements as the ''Franchise/{{Dragnet}}'' theme and:

** Parodied in 1954, before ''Mad'' even was a magazine, in a FauxToGuide parodying their imitators by introducing into a lampoon of ''Theatre/JuliusCaesar'' such unexplained elements as the ''{{Dragnet}}'' theme and:

* While most of the ''[[AlvinAndTheChipmunks Chipmunks Go to the Movies]]'' episodes parodied popular movies, a few of the movies they parodied ended up being {{Cult Classic}}s. Namely ''{{Big}}'', ''Film/DickTracy'' and ''{{Splash}}''.