Narrative technique · used in 6 films
Imitating a known genre, author or famous scene with affection or mockery, so the audience's familiarity with the original drives the humor and the commentary.
Examples
Woody Allen · 1972
A NASA-like control center sits inside a man's brain, and sperm are dispatched paratrooper style. Allen plays one of them. The segment spoofs science fiction and mission control, and the jokes work because everyone sounds so professional.
Where to see it: What Happens During Ejaculation?: A control center inside a man's head prepares the sperm, who are sent out like paratroopers.
Woody Allen · 1975
The dialogue parodies Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy. Characters argue about God, death and love in solemn voices and then undercut themselves with a joke. You enjoy the debate and laugh at how seriously everyone takes it.
Where to see it: Sonja and Natasha: Sonja shares her philosophical views on love and suffering with her friend Natasha Petrovna.
Steven Spielberg · 1979
The film opens with a nod to Jaws. Susan Backlinie, the first victim in that film, has a cameo. Spielberg pokes fun at his own hit and tells you right away that this is a comedy.
Where to see it: The opening scene. It plays like a send-up of the famous opening of Jaws, and Backlinie appears again.
Joel Coen, Ethan Coen · 1994
The Coens drew on screwball comedies of the 1940s. Amy Archer talks in the rapid style of the reporters in the old pictures, and Norville is an innocent who fits the Capra mold. The film does not mock these films, and it treats them as something to enjoy.
Where to see it: Amy's arrival at the company. She pretends to be a desperate graduate from Norville's college so she can become his secretary and write a story about him.
Wes Anderson · 2004
Zissou is both a parody of and a homage to Jacques Cousteau. The film laughs at his ego while it takes his grief seriously. At the end he finds the shark and decides not to kill it.
Where to see it: The jaguar shark encounter: Zissou finally finds the shark and decides not to kill it.
Todd Haynes · 2007
Haynes imitates other films and eras with affection. The Jude Quinn scenes with the Beatles use sped-up film speed in the style of Richard Lester's A Hard Day's Night. Knowing the original adds the joke.
Where to see it: The Beatles scene. Jude and the Beatles appear in a sped-up sequence that echoes A Hard Day's Night.
Questions