the difference between a spoof and a parody?

[shootthebandit]

With two very similar games coming out very soon (GTA and saints row). Both of these tiles have similar ideas eg they are both open world crime games with very similar gameplay and both have thier own unique humour but they have one big difference. One is a parody the other is a spoof. These two terms are often said to mean the same thing but they are different

Here is another example:
Kickass is a parody of superhero movies yet superhero movie is a spoof. Spoofs rely on more over the top humour and slapstick which is loosely based on the subject. whereas a parody essentially replicates the subject matter but with a comedic twist. eg shrek is a parody of fairytales but it follows the same story arch as your bog standard fairy tale with the twist that the "good" guy is actually seen as the "bad" guy in normal fairy tales

Dont get me wrong im not saying one is better than the other but i prefer GTA however saints row are still very good and there are loads of good spoof out there (the original scary movies, hotshots, naked gun and airplane)

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I think "spoof" is a very loose term but most people will agree parody is the higher form of comedy and usually involves the deconstuction of semantic and syntactic tropes (aka the things on which genres are built, as in "the things you show and the way you show them")... whereas spoof can be anything from that to simply directly quoting from another movie and trying to find humor through repetition. The Scary Movies and such do that a lot.

 

[shogunblade]

I think "spoof" is a very loose term but most people will agree parody is the higher form of comedy and usually involves the deconstruction of semantic and syntactic tropes (aka the things on which genres are built, as in "the things you show and the way you show them")... whereas spoof can be anything from that to simply directly quoting from another movie and trying to find humor through repetition. The Scary Movies and such do that a lot.

To make Johnny Novgorod's example stick a little bit too,

I would consider "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" to be a Parody of music Biopic films. It analyzes a lot of the tropes and ideas that make those movies what they are and then over-exaggerates them to comedic effect. The film that tries to be a parody has an immense amount of respect for the movies they are making fun of, it tries to keep a tone that is appropriate to what it is trying to laugh with. "Airplane!" and "Top Secret" did this very well, and lest we not forget "Naked Gun". You try to show your actors having fun with the movie, but they play it quite campy.

Any number of the "Scary Movie" franchise would be a spoof because it's taking something and then simply making fun of it, but it is almost doing it in a scattershot sort of manner (You are more or less referencing things, you don't have to keep a consistent tone because you are trying to replicate a sort of MAD magazine feel by being as over the top as you can, albeit with just a few touches to be as close to the material you try to laugh at). I would even call "Hot Shots!" and it's sequel more spoof movies then they are Parody, just because they go so far out to be ludicrous and almost cartoonish, to a degree.

I wouldn't consider anything by Aaron Seltzer or Jason Friedburg (The "Movie" movies, Spy Hard, Meet the Spartans, Vampires Suck or even The Hungry Games) a spoof, but you could classify their "Movies" as spoofs.

 

[antidonkey]

For me it all depends on what they're trying to do. If the intention is for pure comedy, then it tends to be a spoof. If it's trying to point out some flaw or how crazy the source material is, then it tends to be a parody though satire fits this description as well. These days though, the terms are pretty much used interchangeably.

 

[Raikas]

Here is another example:
Kickass is a parody of superhero movies yet superhero movie is a spoof.

I'd actually say that KA is a satire more than a parody, and that the difference between a parody and a spoof is minimal at best.

To make Johnny Novgorod's example stick a little bit too,

I would consider "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" to be a Parody of music Biopic films. It analyzes a lot of the tropes and ideas that make those movies what they are and then over-exaggerates them to comedic effect. The film that tries to be a parody has an immense amount of respect for the movies they are making fun of, it tries to keep a tone that is appropriate to what it is trying to laugh with. "Airplane!" and "Top Secret" did this very well, and lest we not forget "Naked Gun". You try to show your actors having fun with the movie, but they play it quite campy.

Interesting - for those same reasons, I'd call "Walk Hard" a satire, but would be happy calling "Naked Gun" (and similar movies) either a parody or a spoof.

 

[Scarim Coral]

The way I see it, parody is like making fun of several movies at once like e.g. Scary Movies film are parodies of the horror movies out there (SAW, Scream etc) while Spoof is making fun of something singular per say like Hot Shot was based mostly making fun of Top Gun and Naked Gun was more like a parody on cop films in general.
Granted I wouldn't say this is a proper way of seeing the differences between the two.

 

[shogunblade]

Here is another example:
Kickass is a parody of superhero movies yet superhero movie is a spoof.

I'd actually say that KA is a satire more than a parody, and that the difference between a parody and a spoof is minimal at best.

To make Johnny Novgorod's example stick a little bit too,

I would consider "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" to be a Parody of music Biopic films. It analyzes a lot of the tropes and ideas that make those movies what they are and then over-exaggerates them to comedic effect. The film that tries to be a parody has an immense amount of respect for the movies they are making fun of, it tries to keep a tone that is appropriate to what it is trying to laugh with. "Airplane!" and "Top Secret" did this very well, and lest we not forget "Naked Gun". You try to show your actors having fun with the movie, but they play it quite campy.

Interesting - for those same reasons, I'd call "Walk Hard" a satire, but would be happy calling "Naked Gun" (and similar movies) either a parody or a spoof.

I neglected to remember that Satire is a word that exists, since spoof and parody are so predominantly used and interchangeable.

 

[evilengine]

It's a tricky subject, but I think there's isn't really a difference between them. Personally I think a spoof has to take it's source material seriously and to heart when making fun of it, by pushing what was silly in the original but playing it just as straight as the actors used to do, though more often then not there is an almost fourthwall breaking self awareness to the whole thing. Classic example is Airplane! which spoofs the hell out of those disaster movies like Zero Hour and Airport, however alot of the jokes are quotes of situations lifted straight out of the films it's spoofing, with little or no change at all:

 

[shootthebandit]

The way I see it, parody is like making fun of several movies at once like e.g. Scary Movies film are parodies of the horror movies out there (SAW, Scream etc) while Spoof is making fun of something singular per say like Hot Shot was based mostly making fun of Top Gun and Naked Gun was more like a parody on cop films in general.
Granted I wouldn't say this is a proper way of seeing the differences between the two.

Id say all the movies you mentioned are spoofs because the humour is all over the place and very random whereas a parody tends to get its humour mostly from source material and tends to have a bit more of a serious tone eg shrek is a perfect example of a parody of fairytail classics. It gets most of its humour from source material and characterisation and still follows a linear fairy tale style path whereas say there was a film "not another fairytale movie" it would be a spoof purely because it may reference its source material but get most of its jokes from randomness andother pop culture references

 

[Camaranth]

I think the difference is that a parody takes itself seriously but the only the audience knows the whole thing is a joke, like Airplane! or Space Balls
and the other is in on the joke too, more hey look how stupid this is with nods to the camera and breaking of the fourth wall. I'm not really sure which label would apply.

I think the difficulty comes because you can have films that parody a genre or trope (Naked Gun) and ones that parody a specific film (Robin hood men in tights).