Parody Episode

A form of Formula-Breaking Episode. When a show, usually a comedy, abandons its usual format and spends most of the episode as a parody of another show, book, television show, movie, or genre. Popular, timeless, children's fantasy films are always the most targeted for this format, as they're recognizable by everybody. It is usually revealed that the whole thing was just a dream or fantasy, or a lengthly series of events will be required to set up the parody format.

The Onion noted that this can be a sign of total desperation, especially when the Wizard of Oz is used as the basis.

Compare Whole-Plot Reference. See Stock Parody for some more specific examples.

---

Examples:

Anime and Manga

• Bleach did an Arabian parody and a Monster Mash parody, both of which were dream sequences.
• The Excel♡Saga anime practically was this trope.
  • As was Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi.
• Half of all Galaxy Angel episodes. There was a Wild West episode, a joshikousei episode, a Magical Girl episode (which was really a Sailor Moon episode, but you can't blame them for having Small Reference Pools)...
• Gintama, something of a parody of shounen manga in itself, also features several parody episodes, mostly of Japanese series such as Dragon Ball Z and a bizarrely cast Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, not to mention a 2-part satire of Saw and a movie-parody episode that touched on everything from Star Wars to Millennium Actress. And of course the almost frame-for-frame End of Gintamangelion.
  • Hell, there's even parody arcs.
• In a chapter of Hoshin Engi, everyone thinks Taikobo is dead and therefore the series will be cancelled due to no more main character. Cue an opening with the worst sports manga ever.
• The Lupin III franchise frequently uses this trope. The original Manga stories simply used the Arsene Lupin Sansei character as a vehicle to drive a story, through whatever tale Monkey Punch wanted to tell.
• One Piece has done a few specials in this style. The "Detective Memoirs of Chief Straw-Hat Luffy" specials are a parody of Jidaigeki dramas with Luffy as a detective in feudal Japan, and the "Chopperman" specials feature Tony Tony Chopper as a superhero. The manga includes additional side comics, featuring the pirates as high school delinquents, mobsters, mythical monsters, and even middle-aged housewives.
• Ouran Highschool Host Club takes an episode to do a parody of Alice in Wonderland. The whole cast is desperately suppressing facepalms the whole time.
• Patalliro! Saiyuki is an entire series based around the concept of a parody episode, recasting the characters in a theme of Saiyuki or Journey to the West, usually to hilarious results.
• Most of the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann parallel works are these, although some have plot relevance. Not an episode perse, but they do feature new footage. The Manga version has quite a few more, and there's another, spin-off manga featuring the cast in a modern high school.
  • Episode 6 might get a distinction as a parody of a stereotypical Hot Springs Episode, considering the fact that it all goes to hell and what not. The same could be said of Episode 12, which is a parody of a stereotypical Beach Episode.

Literature

• The Doctor Who Eighth Doctor Adventures novel The Blue Angel is in part a parody of Star Trek.

Live-Action TV

• Our Miss Brooks: The second-half of "Postage Due" is a parody of Dragnet.
• The episode "And Then There Was Shawn" of Boy Meets World is a parody of horror movies.
• The doctors of Chicago Hope get blamed for the death of a famous actor. The episode is shown as an Entertainnment Tonight exclusive.
• Community loves these. It has done parody episodes of the Police Procedural, Courtroom Dramas, Glee, Star Wars, G.I. Joe, The Western, The Mafia, Doctor Who, War Movies, Pulp Fiction, The Caper, and even the Zombie Apocalypse. Roughly a quarter of the episodes do this, going so far as to be shot in the same fashion as whatever genre they are portraying.
• The Crusade episode "Visitors From Down the Street" was an extended parody of The X-Files, based around a Planet of Hats inspired by conspiracy theories.
• Farscape spent the majority of one episode inside the head of Crichton, the Fish out of Water sole human member of the cast, where everything was drawn in the style of the Looney Tunes cartoons. Great episode.
• Home Improvement had a parody of The X-Files, satirizing the title sequence and Mulder and Scully's thought process
  Tim: (As Mulder) The Truth Is Out There!
  Jill: (As Scully) You're out there.
  • And Tim's name was changed to ABC Taylor, after the network "Home Improvement" was on, parodying the FOX network's Fox Mulder.
• The It's Garry Shandling's Show episodes "The Graduate" and "The Fugitive". Since there's No Fourth Wall, the episodes openly referenced the originals, to the point of including clips.
• The Goldbergs has at least one episode each season (usually the season opener) that parodies an iconic 1980s movie. Often they would have a Special Edition Title that spoofs the movie poster of that particular film. Examples include "Goldbergs Never Say Die" (The Goonies), "Barry Goldberg's Day Off" (Ferris Bueller's Day Off), "The Breakfast Club" (The Breakfast Club), "Sixteen Candles" (Sixteen Candles), and so on.
• The Just Shoot Me! episode "How the Finch Stole Christmas" is, of course, a send-up of How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, complete with Seuss-like narration. Furthermore, it had subplots spoofing A Charlie Brown Christmas and Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus.
  • There was also the one where Maya befriends a guy who acts like Woody Allen.
• Moesha parodied The Cosby Show in an imaginatively titled episode 'Definitely Not The Cosbys' (which was originally the working title for Married... with Children).
• Mr. Robot has a darker take on this. The first half of "m4ster-s1ave.aes" is a dream of Elliot's that parodies 1990s sitcoms like Full House (complete with '90s-esque commercials for E Corp). Eventually, it is revealed to be a dreamworld created by Mr. Robot to spare Elliot the trauma of being beaten half to death.
• The NewsRadio episode "Sinking Ship" was a parody of the film Titanic (1997).
• Raising Hope parodied Modern Family and even My Name Is Earl with the original cast.
• Remember WENN did two — one parodying Casablanca and one parodying Sunset Boulevard.
• In the season seven finale of Roseanne, Dan wonders what it would be like if he finally finishes building his boat and he winds up having a fantasy that is a direct parody of Gilligan's Island, with him as the Skipper, Jackie as Gilligan, Roseanne as Ginger, Darlene as Mary-Ann, Mark as the professor and Leon and Bev as the Howells.
  • The end credits scene then shows a parody of the actual show with the surviving Gilligan cast members playing the characters, along with a cameo from Gilligan creator, Sherwood Schwartz.
• In the Sabrina the Teenage Witch episode "As Westbridge Turns", the usually realistic Urban Fantasy series parodies soap operas. Forbidden relationships, Serious Business, and improbable coincidences ('My long lost sister!') abound. Of course, the change is caused by Sabrina ingesting a magical 'can of worms' and everything is back to normal at the end of the episode.
• Done several times in Scrubs:
  • The 100th episode, "My Way Home", is a parody of... you guessed it... The Wizard of Oz, complete with a protagonist who just wants to go home, a search for a literal heart for a transplant, "Over the Rainbow," and a painted yellow floor... among other references.
  • Also, the episode "My Princess" which was told the style of a fairy tale with some Princess Bride references.
  • "My Life in Four Cameras" qualifies as well, being a parody of standard 80s-90s sitcoms with Studio Audience.
  • "My House" parodies House.
• They did not call an episode of a certain Anglo-Irish comedy "Speed 3" for no reason.
• The second season of Sledge Hammer! consisted almost entirely of these. ("Hammeroid" was a parody of RoboCop, "Vertical" was a parody of Vertigo, etc.)
• Stargate SG-1:
  • The 200th episode, "200", not only parodies everything to do with TV and movie writing and production (ranging from the actors wanting more money to references to Jumping the Shark and a Lampshade Hanging about... Lampshade Hanging). It also parodies everything from The Wizard of Oz, Star Trek, and Farscape to Supermarionation shows (like the original Thunderbirds), zombie movies, teen dramas, and, of course, itself. To actually list all of the parodies including the self-parodying inside jokes would take up this entire page, so if you're interested in hearing all of them, see what the Stargate Wiki's page on it has listed.
  • Similarly, the episode to which "200" is a sequel, "Wormhole X-Treme!" from the show's fifth season, is also a Parody Episode, a self-parody as well as parodying both the TV production process and Science Fiction in general.
    Producer: You know what this show needs? A sexy female alien.
• The Stargate Atlantis episode "Vegas" starts out as a CSI parody episode, but rapidly gets serious until it hits a Tear Jerker ending.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
  • "Our Man Bashir" riffs on espionage movies like James Bond and Our Man Flint.
  • "Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang" is a parody of Ocean's Eleven-style heist capers.
• Star Trek: Voyager homages the early sci-fi serials like Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon with the "Captain Proton" holoprogram, most notably in the episode "Bride of Chaotica!".
• Supernatural likes to play with this trope once a season (in its second half) — while the Winchester brothers are still chasing a mystery, the format and/or subject matter of the episode (and their case) takes a comedic tone and it becomes obvious that it's parodying something: in Season 1, they make fun of Ghostbusters in "Hell House"; in Season 2, they do "Hollywood Babylon", an Affectionate Parody of the show itself with some blink-and-you'll-miss-'em Take Thats to the WB/CW executives; Season 3 has "Ghostfacers", a parody of both Ghost Hunters and The Blair Witch Project. Universal Studio's classic monster movies are awesomely and affectionately homaged in Season 4's aptly named "Monster Movie". Season 5 brings us the instant-classic "Changing Channels", which parodies Grey's Anatomy, a typical three-camera laugh-track sitcom, Knight Rider, a commercial for a genital herpes prescription medication, and absolutely skewers CSI. Then Season 6 gives the ultimate Self-Parody with "The French Mistake", in which the show mercilessly satirizes itself and everyone working on it.
• Married... with Children and That '70s Show had episodes parodying It's a Wonderful Life.
  • That '70s Show's Halloween episode was a homage to Alfred Hitchcock films.
  • While it didn't actually last an entire episode, the show had an Off to See the Wizard fantasy scene courtsy of Jackie. She casts herself as Dorothy, Kelso as the scarecrow, Hyde as the tinman, Fez as the lion, Donna as the Wicked Witch and Eric as her flying monkey.
• Psych:
  • The Twin Peaks homage episode "Dual Spires", with the added bonus of the original cast of the show being parodied providing copious amounts of Adam Westing.
  • "Heeeeere's Lassie!", about Carlton moving into a (presumably haunted) apartment, is a parody of The Shining. His annoying neighbors are parodies of the main characters from Rosemary's Baby.
• The X-Files:
  • In "X-Cops", Mulder and Scully appear on COPS (1989).
  • Also, "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'" can be seen as the series parodying itself. The plot for that episode is just ridiculous, but hilarious.

Podcasts

• Done Disappeared episode "*Bonus Episode*" parodies the True Crime review podcast Crime Writers On with a review from Crime Writers Off.

Radio

• That Gosh Darn Hippie Show: The show did a parody of the episode "It's a Good Life" from The Twilight Zone (1959). The Manhattan Transfer song "Twilight Zone" even plays at the very end.

Web Animation

• The Misfortune Of Being Ned episode Ned and the Beanstalk, obviously parodying Jack and the Beanstalk.
  • There's also Hogwarts, which parodies Harry Potter.

Webcomics

• Mr. Boop: Strip #55 is a panel for panel remake of the infamous loss.jpg
  • Again (inverted this time) in Strip #90.

Web Original

• Park Bench tried to do this in Episode 16, but the professor messed it up. (The parodies attempted were of Final Fantasy, Doctor Who, and Dragons' Den.)
• Seth Mac Farlanes Cavalcade Of Cartoon Comedy has "Mario Saves the Princess".
• Squaresville follows three realistic high-school outcasts (NOT Clark Kenting spies/superstars/gangsters). Then, suddenly, it has one wonderful Deconstructor Fleet of teen drama, where the glamorous, incestuous socialitizing is interrupted by the protagonists storming in and ruining the mood. It has to be seen to be believed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6ZAsOnX6Bk.

Western Animation

• DuckTales (1987): "Scroogerello" is All Just a Dream and a parody of Cinderella.
• The Simpsons did this several times.
  • A Mary Poppins parody episode.
  • "24 Minutes", a parody of 24 (including the voices of Kiefer Sutherland and Mary Lynn Rajskub).
  • "The Blunder Years", primarily a parody of Stand by Me, with a title from its Spiritual Successor The Wonder Years.
  • "Dangerous Curves" is an unusual example. It's basically a parody of Two for the Road, but it's done so subtly and the film is more of a Cult Classic than a widely-known landmark film, so a lot of viewers might not even be aware that it's a parody.
  • "Lisa the Drama Queen" is a parody of Heavenly Creatures, minus the murder pact and the Les Yay.
  • "The President Wore Pearls", a parody of the musical Evita.
    • Lampshaded at the end:
    Subtitle: The creators, based on the advice of their lawyers, would like to state that they have never heard of a musical based on the life of Eva Perón.
  • "Behind the Laughter" which was a parody of VH1 style documentaries.
  • Treehouse of Horror segments were originally strictly parodies of horror stories and The Twilight Zone episodes but now encompass whatever the creators haven't parodied yet. There's also been non-Halloween stories with the same format.
  • The Citizen Kane parody episode "Rosebud" (the one where Mr. Burns finds out that the teddy bear he left behind when he was adopted as a child to a twisted, loveless billionaire is in the hands of Maggie Simpson).
  • "The Book Job" was about how Bart, Homer and Neil Gaiman tried to their young adult novel published which somehow turned into a parody of Ocean's Eleven.
  • "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" parodies the career of The Beatles.
• Futurama had both "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" (Star Trek) and "Fry and the Slurm Factory" (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory).
  • It also had a The Wizard of Oz parody in "Anthology of Interest II".
  • Also "Love and Rocket", which pays homage primarily to the HAL-9000 scenes of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
  • And "Reincarnation", a three-parter non-canon episode parodying respectively, Max Fleischer 20s cartoons, 80s video-games and 70s anime.
  • There's "Saturday Morning Fun Pit", which parodied 1980s cartoons.
• The Family Guy episode "Meet the Quagmires" was a total sendup of the Back to the Future movies. They also did a half-episode parody of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ("Wasted Talent" — the episode where Lois discovers that Peter can play the piano like a pro while drunk). "Family Guy Presents: Laugh It Up, Fuzzball" for Star Wars.
  • All three segments of "Three Kings" were, as the name implies, parodies of Stephen King films adapted from books: Stand by Me, Misery, and The Shawshank Redemption.
  • An episode about Lois becoming a boxer becomes a parody of Rocky III.
  • The episode "Leggo My Meg-O" was a parody to Taken.
  • Brian's plot in "Crimes and Meg's Demeanor" was a parody to Rear Window.
• Glitch Techs: "Castle Crawl" is a homage to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, right down to the infamously cheesy English translation and how the duo must turn the castle upside down in order to reach the True Final Boss.
• South Park:
  • The show has had a few of these, as well: "Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow", "Free Willzyx" (Free Willy) and "Tsst" (The Dog Whisperer).
  • Going back a few years, you have "Free Hat" (Raiders of the Lost Ark) and "The Return of The Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers" (The Lord of the Rings).
  • "Grey Dawn" is basically Red Dawn (1984) but with old people instead of Russians.
  • There's also "The Snuke" (24), "Fantastic Easter Special" (The Da Vinci Code), and "Die Hippie Die" (The Core). As well as "Behind the Blow" (VH1 documentaries). Basically, Trey Parker and Matt Stone are in love with this trope.
  • "Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery" (Scooby-Doo)
  • "Insheeption" (which actually was revealed to be a Shallow Parody of Inception)
  • "I Should Have Never Gone Ziplining", a parody of "I Shouldn't Be Alive" and other documentary shows of its ilk. The entire final third of the episode becomes a poorly-acted, poorly-casted live-action dramatization.
  • "Pip" is a parody of Great Expectations.
  • "Good Times With Weapons" alternates between the usual South Park universe and a Shōnen anime parody.
  • The primary storyline of "D'Yikes!" is a parody of 300.
  • "Britney's New Look" parodies The Lottery.
  • "A History Channel Thanksgiving" parodies The Mighty Thor.
  • "Word War Zimmerman" is a parody to World War Z.
• The Rugrats episode "Wash/Dry Story" was a parody of West Side Story. In a laundrette.
  • "Radio Daze" is a parody of The Maltese Falcon.
• The Kim Possible episode "Dimension Twist" parodied famous TV shows under the guise of being sucked into TV Land.
  • The Fairly Oddparents did this with their first movie, "Channel Chasers", but it had a lot to do with the plot/overall aesop.
• Phineas and Ferb
  • One entire episode is splitted into parodies of different formats of TV shows, and it ends up not having a plot at all.
  • One episode homaged old detective shows like Starsky & Hutch, Miami Vice and CSI: Miami.
• Animaniacs is 95% these, e.g. "Super Strong Warner Siblings"
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998) did one where Fuzzy Lumpkin, Mojo Jojo, Princess, & HIM form "The Beat-Alls".
  • The girls do a parody of themselves in "The Powerpuff Girls' Best Rainy Day Adventure Ever."
  • And an episode in the style of Rocky and Bullwinkle ("I See a Funny Cartoon In Your Future").
• Dexter's Laboratory did a Die Hard parody. They also did Speed Racer and Wacky Races parodies. As well as a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
  • So did The Cleveland Show.
• The Hey Arnold! Halloween episode was a homage to Orson Welles films.
  • Or alternatively, a parody of the panic created when an Orson Wells story was mistaken for an actual alien invasion by a great number of radio listeners.
• Kappa Mikey had one in the form of The Wizard of Oz, It's A Wonderful Life (crossed with A Christmas Carol) and surprisingly enough, The Ring.
• Rocky and Bullwinkle had a parody of children's television shows of The Mickey Mouse Club kind.
• Beavis And Butthead's Christmas Episode killed two birds with one stone — Part One is Yet Another Christmas Carol. Part Two? It's a Wonderful Plot.
• One episode of The Angry Beavers, "El Grapadura y El Castor Malo", inexplicably featured a parody of Mexican Masked Luchador action films, staring masked wrestler El Grapadura (The Stapler) and Norbert as detectives. It was also voiced entirely in Spanish, with English subtitles that were at times a rather loose translation of what was being said (for example, "Señor Daggeto" being translated as "Mr. Stupid").
  • The same happened with a parody of Miami Vice in style of an actual 80s cop-show episode.
• ReBoot's episode Firewall is a parody of James Bond. That episode even got a unique title sequence similar to Bond movies.
• Each and every episode of Walter Melon is based on this. Whenever heroes get in trouble or get sick, Melon and his assistant Bitterbug take their places temporarily. They replaced characters such as Superman, The Hulk, James Bond, Batman and Robin, Kirk and Spock, Tarzan, etc, in spoofs of their movies or TV shows.
• Johnny Bravo had "The Zone Where Normal Things Don't Happen Very Often" (not an episode title but the setting for "Little Talky Tabitha!," "The Man Who Cried Clown" and "Johnny Very Good" - respectively parodying the episodes "Living Doll," "Nightmare At 20,000 Feet" and "It's A Good Life").
  • "The Unsinkable Johnny Bravo" parodied Titanic (1997).
• Many, many, MANY episodes of Codename: Kids Next Door. To the point that it was becoming the regular formula for every episode. Most notably was The Animatrix parody that worked out really well, and one episode parodying The Matrix again, superhero comics, children books, Dragon Ball Z, and... The Pink Panther? All in one episode.
  • The Christmas Episode was a huge reference to an X-Men story arc.
• Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island did a parody of Final Fantasy VII ... with a little bit of Donkey Kong and The Legend of Zelda on the side. Does the idea of a coconut dressed like Cloud Strife and an bully apple dressed like Sephiroth raise a few eyebrows?
• Pinky and the Brain parodied Chinatown.
• "Semi-Die Hard" on The Cleveland Show
  Cleveland Jr.: Will you tell us the sequel next Christmas, Dad?
  Cleveland: Let's wait and see how the Internet responds to this one first.
• Tiny Toon Adventures frequently did parodies, of Citizen Kane, Kon-Tiki and thirtysomething, among others.
• Time Squad: White House Weirdness which parodies a Scooby-Doo show in the White House haunted by supposedly ghosts.
• The Goode Family episode "Gerold's Way or The Highway" parodies Gangster films and DeNiro films.
• Marsupilami episode "The Wizard of Mars" parodies The Wizard of Oz
• Scaredy Squirrel has an episode were they make fun of Halloween and called it Halloweekend.
• The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius does quite a lot of these.
  • Lights! Camera! Danger! is notable for combining parodies of The Matrix, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and Chicago, and references a truckload more.
  • Specific targets for a single parody episode include Jaws, Fantastic Voyage, and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, of all things.
  • There's one episode devoted to poking fun at various superhero movies.
  • One episode is devoted to old horror monsters like the ones from Frankenstein (1931), Dracula (1931), and The Wolf Man (1941).
  • Not even Macbeth and Star Wars were immune. In the same episode. At the same time.
• Beetlejuice sends up "The Wizard Of Oz," "It's A Wonderful Life" and "The Twilight Zone."
• The Recess episode "Schoolworld" was a parody episode of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
• American Dad! did parody episodes of The Lord of the Rings, Goodfellas and one which was a parody of movies about The Vietnam War.
  • One episode had a side story that was a parody to What's Eating Gilbert Grape. With squirrels.
• CatDog: "The Canine Mutiny" is a parody of The Caine Mutiny in which CatDog end up stranded at sea in a makeshift boat with Mr. Sunshine and Mervis. Cat becomes captain, and quickly goes mad with power.
• Eek! The Cat: Besides its usual plots, the show had several episodes like this, including a parody of Apocalypse Now, Star Trek, Jaws, and The Exorcist.
• Episode 69 of Kaeloo is a parody of Dora the Explorer.
• The Bakshi Mighty Mouse episode "Don't Touch That Dial" is both a group parody and Take That! to Saturday morning TV of the time. Skewered were a Flintstones/Jetsons mash-up, Scooby-Doo, Rocky & Bullwinkle (which was spared a Take That!) and The Real Ghostbusters.
• Subverted on Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja with a Ferris Bueller's Day Off parody where Randy actually gets put in quarantine for the fake disease he made up.

---