Everybody remembers Scooby Doo, right? It was one of the pop-cultural milestones of our childhood, and is still going on today (in crappy reboot form, but still). Everybody loved the original show as a kid, and even some of the newer shows, which mocked the old one's tropes.
But here's the thing: The original Scooby Doo show was actually a parody of the horror movies that came before it.
Exhibit A: the monsters. Of course, this was one of the most memorable parts of the show. At the end of the day, the monster was just a man in a costume. Now, you or I probably weren't old enough to know this, but in the 50s and 60s, old monster movies, without the benefit of modern CGI, had guys in costumes that were so painfully ridiculous, it was obvious that they were simply guys in costumes. So Scooby Doo was actually making meta commentary for an audience that wasn't nearly old enough to get it.
The characters are another example. The five members of 'the gang' are the old slasher movie rogue's gallery to a T, and they act the part: The eager but clueless leader who, after showing up in an incredibly foreboding and hostile environment, idiotically suggests splitting up and sending the two comic relief characters off to die; said comic relief characters, who behave so stupidly that one of them is actually an animal; the hot chick, who might as well wear a neon sign saying 'third to die'; and the smart, shy girl, who would normally be the last survivor.
So, why did this fact get lost to the millennia? Well, the target audience was too young to get it, but they still loved it, enough to make it into a major cultural icon. And the fate of a parody show is to go on for years, making fun of any pop culture cornerstone that pops up over the years. And what happens when your parody show BECOMES a pop culture cornerstone?
That's right, the following shows based around the characters turned to self-parody, making fun of the tropes of the original show - despite the fact that those tropes were parodies in and of themselves. Oh my god, has anyone ever noticed we always split up exactly the same way? Hey, there's a character whose name is Red Herring! Get it? Hey, isn't Freddy kind of an idiot?
This is not a bad way to live; indeed, that format kept the IP alive through numerous spinoff shows, and is what most children of today, now thoroughly incapable of getting the old references of the original, love about the show. But isn't that kind of ironic? That a show that set out to make fun of old horror clichés became cliché itself? And that almost nobody got the joke?
But here's the thing: The original Scooby Doo show was actually a parody of the horror movies that came before it.
Exhibit A: the monsters. Of course, this was one of the most memorable parts of the show. At the end of the day, the monster was just a man in a costume. Now, you or I probably weren't old enough to know this, but in the 50s and 60s, old monster movies, without the benefit of modern CGI, had guys in costumes that were so painfully ridiculous, it was obvious that they were simply guys in costumes. So Scooby Doo was actually making meta commentary for an audience that wasn't nearly old enough to get it.
The characters are another example. The five members of 'the gang' are the old slasher movie rogue's gallery to a T, and they act the part: The eager but clueless leader who, after showing up in an incredibly foreboding and hostile environment, idiotically suggests splitting up and sending the two comic relief characters off to die; said comic relief characters, who behave so stupidly that one of them is actually an animal; the hot chick, who might as well wear a neon sign saying 'third to die'; and the smart, shy girl, who would normally be the last survivor.
So, why did this fact get lost to the millennia? Well, the target audience was too young to get it, but they still loved it, enough to make it into a major cultural icon. And the fate of a parody show is to go on for years, making fun of any pop culture cornerstone that pops up over the years. And what happens when your parody show BECOMES a pop culture cornerstone?
That's right, the following shows based around the characters turned to self-parody, making fun of the tropes of the original show - despite the fact that those tropes were parodies in and of themselves. Oh my god, has anyone ever noticed we always split up exactly the same way? Hey, there's a character whose name is Red Herring! Get it? Hey, isn't Freddy kind of an idiot?
This is not a bad way to live; indeed, that format kept the IP alive through numerous spinoff shows, and is what most children of today, now thoroughly incapable of getting the old references of the original, love about the show. But isn't that kind of ironic? That a show that set out to make fun of old horror clichés became cliché itself? And that almost nobody got the joke?
lol.
