The 25 Best Scenes in Comedy Spoof Movies

It's about time that someone pointed out the found-footage technique's various clichés, inadequacies, and comedic fodder. And who better than one of the Wayans brothers to do so? Continuing the family's tradition of parodying Hollywood's most tired practices (see: I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, the first two Scary Movie franchise entries), Marlon Wayans—the fam's youngest member—is back in witty form in A Haunted House, which he stars in, co-wrote, and produced all without any of his siblings.

In theaters nationwide this Friday, A Haunted House takes humorous, playful shots at the Paranormal Activity flicks (as well as found-footage joints like The Blair Witch Project, The Devil Inside, and [REC]). It's the latest in the comedy genre's long-standing proclivity for making fun of cinema's biggest, most overdone formulas and trends. And as you'll see in the following countdown of The 25 Best Scenes in Comedy Spoof Movies, it's been hilariously fruitful.

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Written by Matt Barone (@MBarone)

Movie: High School High (1996)

If there's ever been a cinematic subgenre that's clichéd enough to deserve a parody, it's the teacher-saves-urban-kids film, with entries like Dangerous Minds, Stand and Deliver, and Lean on Me. Back in 1996, High School High (co-written by Airplane! co-director David Zucker) rightfully lampooned those kinds of movies. Jon Lovitz played Richard Clark, the far-from-hood, square teacher starting a new job inside an inner-city high school occupied by gangsters, pregnant teenagers, and scared, useless professors.

While chaperoning the school dance, Mr. Clark tires of hearing nothing but hip-hop music and gives the DJ a vinyl copy of his favorite record, country singer Glen Campbell's "Rhinestone Cowboy." He thinks "the kids will enjoy a nice song with a melody." Unsurprisingly the students stop dancing once it drops and look around confused, until the DJ proceeds to scratch the shit out of Mr. Clark's "rare, original pressing," much to the adult's horror.

Movie: Scary Movie 3 (2003)

Scary Movie 3, the first of the parody franchise's entries made without any of the Wayans brothers' involvement, is comedic gold when compared to the awful Scary Movie 4, but it's still mostly crap. One of the sequel's few redeeming moments comes near the end, when the "Billy" puppet from the Saw series makes an appearance as Cindy (Anna Faris) and Brenda (Regina Hall) are stuck in one of its elaborate traps.

Unlike most of the Saw victims, simple Cindy actually mans up and attempts to free herself from the bear trap around her neck. The Billy puppet, rightfully stunned that she's going through with it, calls in one of his twin Billy pals, saying, "Hey, come in here! This one's gonna do it!" Two leering, disbelieving Billy puppets are glued to the feed as if Cindy is about to swap spit with Brenda, not save herself.

Movie: Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)

Though it's not exactly uproarious, director Jake Kasdan's 2007 send-up of conventional biopics, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (co-written with Judd Apatow), has its fair share of memorable jokes and visual gags, chief of which is the pun-filled song "Let's Duet."

Crooned in collaboration by Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly) and Darlene Madison (Jenna Fischer in person, Angela Correa on vocals), it's a ridiculous track that's made funny due to how straightforward it's delivered by all involved. Dewey sings, "In my dreams, you're blowing me…some kisses." Later, Darlene belts out, "You can always come in my backdoor." Romance, by way of Apatowian perversion.

Movie: Hysterical (1983)

Hysterical—from the comedic siblings Bill (father of Kate Hudson), Brett, and Mark Hudson, collectively known as, simply, the Hudson Brothers—was really ahead of its time.

Sadly, the years following its initial release haven't been too kind to the 1983 horror-comedy spoof, which has lied dormant in obscurity, not even receiving a proper DVD release. It's a shame, too, because, while by no means a brilliant piece of filmmaking, Hysterical has enough clever horror-centric jokes to make knowledgeable fans of 1970s and early '80s genre flicks chuckle quite a bit.

The film's best joke is a running gag revolving around an old, local nut job named Ralph (Robert Donner), who repeatedly pops up to warn everyone in sight that "You're doomed!" It's a humorous goof on the original Friday the 13th's own Ralph (Walt Gorney), who offers a few stern warnings to soon-to-get-slaughtered folks that the town is cursed.

Movie: I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988)

Long before he changed the game with the first two Scary Movie entries, Keenen Ivory Wayans wrote, directed, and starred in one of the most underrated spoof comedies of all time, I'm Gonna Git You Sucka. Having fun with the tropes of 1970s blaxploitation films, Wayans' 1988 parody picture features him playing Jack Spade, an Army veteran trying to avenge his brother's death by killing a local crime boss named "Mr. Big" (John Vernon).

Surrounding Spade are several colorful characters, including one starving but financially strapped rib eatery patron (played by a young Chris Rock). With Spade's friend Hammer (Isaac Hayes) working the register, the customer balks at the restaurant's five-ribs-for-$2.50 deal. His cheap ass asks for just "one rib," as well as a "sip" of soda for $0.15, going so far as to reason, "Fuck the cup, pour it in my hand for a dime!" And then kicker: "You got change for a hundred?"

Movie: Not Another Teen Movie (2001)

In the popular 1999 teen drama flick Cruel Intentions, there's a tame but still rather hot kissing scene between attractive stars Sarah Michelle Gellar and Selma Blair. The former is sexually promiscuous and very experienced, while the latter is prudish, timid, yet looking to expand her horizons, so to speak. And their tongue-wrestling bout is quite titillating.

In the teen-movie-spoofing film Not Another Teen Movie, there's a similar moment shared between gorgeous, young actress Mia Kirshner (taking Gellar's position) and the elderly but game Beverly Polcyn (imitating Blair's naiveté). It's not hot—rather, it's pretty damn gross. Fortunately, it's also damn funny, extending Kirshner's intimacy with Polcyn by connecting their mouths with the longest strand of saliva imaginable.

Movie: Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993)

Back when Charlie Sheen was a respectably funny actor, he starred in two Hot Shots! movies, a pair of goofy, witty action cinema spoofs. Looking like a poor man's Rambo and acting like a muscular nincompoop, the heroic Topper Harley (Sheen) constantly finds himself in all kinds of dangerous, violent situations.

In the 1993 sequel, Hot Shots! Part Deux, Harley ends up in a gritty, Thai-styled fight that's straight out of the 1989 Jean-Claude Van Damme flick Kickboxer (Rambo III also gets the cinematic gas face here). By the time the brawl starts, both pugilists are well, if not overly, prepared. Topper shows off preposterous, unnecessary, but funny pre-fight intimidation practices: twirling a lasso, dipping his wrapped-up fists in an makeshift ice cream bar's fix-ins.

Once the match finally begins, Topper's reckless opponent keeps missing with kicks that crash into the beams holding spectators up on the balconies. Audience members crash down upon the commentator's booth and the hard floor. Only a few are able to watch Topper finish the other guy by tickling his stomach and kneeing him so hard in the testicles that actual nuts fall out of his mouth.

Movie: Scary Movie (2000)

Like its primary inspirational source, Wes Craven's slasher flick Scream, the Wayans Brothers-overseen 2000 comedy Scary Movie adheres to the old horror movie rule that "final girls" be innocent, sweet virgins. Thus, Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris) has never gotten it on with a man. Until Scary Movie's final act, during which she finally lets boyfriend Bobby (Jon Abrahams) tap that ass.

Before he can lay the pipe, though, Bobby has to contend with all the byproducts of never exposing one's private region. Her massive hill of unshaved pubic hair requires him to use a weed-whacker. Going down on her leaves his mouth filled with hair, causing him to gag.

Then things get exceedingly freaky, with Cindy talking dirty, growling, and riding Bobby so hard that his enormous ejaculation deflates him like a popped blow-up doll, his super-sperm forming a geyser and pinning Cindy to the ceiling.

Movie: Don't Be a Menace in South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996)

Clowning "hood flicks" like Boyz n the Hood and Menace II Society, the Wayans-made comedy, and too longly titled, Don't Be a Menace in South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood features Marlon Wayans playing a heightened version of Menace's troublemaking O-Dog (portrayed by Larenz Tate in the Hughes Brothers' film). Named Loc Dog, he's an exaggeration of every urban drama's resident, trigger-happy hot-head.

At one point, Loc Dog starts having sex with a sweet, angelic girl who's his polar opposite in terms of personality. Or so he seems. As she's passionately riding him, the good girl turns evil, not bad. With a demon's face and voice, she says, "All right, motherfucker: Let's get it on!" Loc Dog screams like a scared little girl as she rips his shirt open, pounds his chest, and stops his attempt to flee with, "Oh, no, n***er—you ain't going nowhere!"

Movie: This is Spinal Tap (1983)

A sharp, altogether convincing roast of rock music's lamest characters, the mockumentary This is Spinal Tap presents three of the most lunk-headed musicians ever put to celluloid: Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer). And, like most successful rock acts, their fame eventually deteriorates and album sales go down the crapper.

Trying to regain popularity, the Spinal Tap fellas dream up a real attention-grabber for their concert tour: They erect a huge Stonehenge megalith on stage to accompany an operatic, overly melodramatic song about England's prehistoric monument.

There's just one problem: They requested an 18-foot-tall construction, but what lowers onto the stage measures at 18 inches. It's an epic fail, and Hubbins sums it up best, with, "I do not, for one, think the problem was that the band was down. I think that the problem may have been that there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf."

Movie: CB4 (1993)

Giving the hip-hop community its own version of Rob Reiner's rock-geared This is Spinal Tap, director Tamra Davis and writers Chris Rock, Nelson George, and Robert LoCash poked tons of fun at the gangster rap subculture in CB4. The film's funniest moments are its fake rap songs and accompanying music videos, like the N.W.A.-spoofing "Straight Outta Locash."

And then there's "Sweat of My Balls," a send-up of Kool G Rap & DJ Polo's raunchy "Talk Like Sex." It's CB4's crowning achievement in absurdist humor, complete with profound lyrics like, "For demonstrations, watch us slam her/ Steady poundin' like a jackhammer." And, "I do a damn good job / And bitches on my dick like a human shish-ka-bob."

Movie: Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)

You really can't go wrong with a Will Ferrell cameo. Case in point: The funnyman's short but sweet appearance in fellow Saturday Night Live alum Mike Myers' 007-spoofing hit Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. Playing a bad guy named Mustafa, Ferrell works alongside Myers as the latter is in Dr. Evil mode, and it's one of the film's better scenes.

Mustafa is to blame for Dr. Evil's cat's (Mr. Bigglesworth) complete loss of hair, the result of the inept henchman screwing up the de-freezing process. As Mustafa tries to defend his mistake, the bald doctor pushes a button and sends the poor bastard down into a fiery death trap.

Only, Mustafa won't die. "Someone help me! I'm still alive, I'm just very badly burned." Dr. Evil tries dictating the rest of his sinister plan, but Mustafa won't shut up from inside the flame-engulfed dungeon: "Can someone call an ambulance? I'm in quite a lot of pain!" His pleading gets interrupted by gunshots, to which he yells, "You shot me! You shot me right in the arm! Why did you—" Then, one final kill-shot.

Movie: Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974)

On their highly influential and subversively masterful variety show, Monty Python's Flying Circus, the British comedy troupe (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam, and Terry Jones) redefined everything viewers and critics knew about humor with social commentary, a no-rules format, and rampant quirkiness. On the big screen, they were just as efficient, kicking off a string of grade-A, satirical comedies with 1974's Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Interpreting the medieval legend of King Arthur and his Round Table with smartly moronic touch, Holy Grail presents its dim-witted but regal characters with a series of mirthful set pieces. In one hilarious scene, they enter a dark, empty castle and discover some writing on one of its walls. Hoping the message will help them find the elusive Grail, King Arthur asks Brother Maynard (Idle) to read the Aramaic engraving. It turns out to be "the last words of Joseph of Arimathea," saying, "He who is valiant and pure of spirit may find the Holy Grail in the Castle of Aaargh…"

It's as if the author died in mid-writing. As Arthur points out, "If he was dying, he wouldn't bother to carve 'Aaargh.' He'd just say it." Sir Galahad's (Michael Palin) buffoonish reasoning? "Perhaps he was dictating."

Movie: Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)

Get used to seeing Mel Brooks' name on this countdown—he's the almighty champion of cinematic parodies. Trying his hand at the most well-known of English folklore heroes, Brooks conceived the excellent Robin Hood: Men in Tights in 1993, acknowledging all of the original folk tale's characters, but, of course, giving each a satirical twist.

In Little John's (Eric Allan Kramer) case, he's just as prone to seeing ludicrously matched fights through as Robin Hood (Cary Elwes) himself. Their first meeting breaks out into a duel with long, hard sticks (not those, pervs), which each of them continually use even as the sticks keep breaking and shrinking.

Eventually, all that's left in each man's hand is a wooden nub, and Robin gets the best of John, knocking him off the bridge and into the world's shallowest river. The water barely soaks through John's clothes as he lies in it, writhing in fear and shouting, "Help! I can't swim!"

Movie: Airplane! (1980)

In the endlessly funny Airplane!, whenever the aircraft's co-pilot Roger Murdock (Kareem Abdul Jabbar) needs a break, it's time to bring in the auto pilot. Which, in true first-class comedy fashion, turns out to be an inflatable doll made up to look like a pilot, and named Otto.

And, unavoidably, Otto sometimes loses too much air and deflates. So, ever the team-playing trooper, stewardess Elaine Dickinson (Julie Hagerty) has to blow air back into Otto. Where exactly? Into the little tube that protrudes from his crotch area. Once he's back in action, fully inflated, Otto's face shows a grin beaming from fake ear to fake ear.

Movie: Black Dynamite (2009)

Black Dynamite just might be the funniest new millennium movie that hardly anyone ever talks about. Spoofing the cheap production values, overacting, and overused narrative devices in 1970s blaxploitation flicks, the Michael Jai White-spawned (no pun intended), independent comedy is an end-to-end success, packed with numerous one-liners and a wonderfully in-the-zone performance from White as the titular badass.

Near the film's end, Dynamite confronts the "Fiendish" Dr. Wu (Roger Yuan), but he doesn't whoop his ass: Before any fisticuffs happen, a random boomerang crashes through a window and severs Wu's arm from the elbow down. Dynamite's emphatic response to the dismemberment: "Ha ha! I threw that shit before I walked in the room!"

Movie: Spaceballs (1987)

Oftentimes it's the simplest jokes that work the best. Mel Brooks' sci-fi comedy Spaceballs is filled with high-concept gags, from "Pizza the Hut" to a merchandise-hawking Yoda character. Amidst the loftier jokes, though, rests a brief but awesomely funny sequence that doesn't plum Star Wars as much as it takes a literal representation of an old phrase and milks all of its possible humor.

On President Skroob's (Brooks) orders, Lord Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis) orders his men to "comb the desert" in hopes of locating Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga). Six of Helmet's underlings literally drag an oversized black comb across the hot sand. His right-hand man, Colonel Sandurz (George Wyner), asks him, point blank, "Sir, are we being too literal?" "No, you fool," says Helmet, "We were told to comb the desert, so we're combing it."

Helmet asks each twosome if they've found anything yet. The first pair's response: "Nothing yet, sir." The second: "Not a thing, sir." The last, and angriest: "We ain't found shit!"

Movie: Scary Movie (2000)

Yes, everything is funner when Mary Jane's presence is felt, but that's not the only reason why Scary Movie's extended weed-smoking sequence also happens to be the movie's best moment. It's just downright hilarious.

While their friends party downstairs, stoner extraordinaire Shorty (Marlon Wayans) tokes up with a bunch of his pals upstairs. Higher than our nation's debt figures, Shorty reenacts his favorite scene from The Sixth Sense—you know, the one about seeing dead people. When, out of nowhere, the Ghostface-masked killer shows up ready to slice and dice.

Except, Mr. Ghostface can't resist some potent sticky icky. He takes a massive bong hit, his mask contorts into a heavy-lidded stoner face, and he mocks the "Jay, Jay, ba, ba, ba" chant from the Friday the 13th flicks. A few threatening prank phone calls later ("I'm gonna gut you like a fish! Ha ha ha!"), Ghostface animatedly drops a few freestyle rhymes ("I'm gonna slash and gash, cut into the hole in your ass!") and unknowingly hacks up Shorty's buddies as his flailing arms emphasize each word.

To paraphrase Shorty, "That's some funny shit, son!"

Movie: Young Frankenstein (1974)

If you've never seen Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein, make that your homework assignment for this upcoming weekend. You don't even have to possess an awareness or affinity for Mary Shelley's seminal horror novel Frankenstein or director James Whale's pair of classic monster movies (Frankenstein, 1931, and Bride of Frankenstein, 1935) inspired by Shelley's book to appreciate it—the jokes work on every possible level.

At the heart of Young Frankenstein is a big musical number, performed by Dr. Victor Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) and his undead creature creation (Peter Boyle). In what appears to be a cabaret-like venue, Victor intends to show a crowd of spectators that the monster is obedient. The demonstration culminates in a lively rendition of the 1929 tune "Puttin' on the Ritz," though the monster can only grunt his lines in a high pitch. It can, however, dance up a storm with its surprisingly happy and graceful feet.

Movie: Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)

It's the funniest central joke throughout the whole Austin Powers movie franchise: He's a world-renown secret agent, a la James Bond, so, even though he's quite repulsive-looking, women can't resist him. As a result Austin (Mike Myers) eventually takes the intensely beautiful Vanessa Kensington (Elizabeth Hurley) to bed. It was inevitable.

The morning after one of their back-smacking sessions, Austin and Vanessa answer a ringing videophone totally naked, yet (in his case, thankfully; in her case, regretfully) we never see their privates. Through a series of strategically placed, and well-choreographed, inanimate objects throughout the room, director Jay Roach keeps Myers' member covered.

The props used, in no particular order, include: two pineapples and two melons (to hide Hurley's breasts), a painting of a woman's boobs (again, for Hurley's knockers), a wrapped present (for Myers' wang), and a fancy water pitcher.

Movie: This is Spinal Tap (1983)

In director Rob Reiner's classic, alarmingly realistic music industry satire This is Spinal Tap, Reiner's three co-writers—Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, and Michael McKean—play the aloof, self-involved members of the chart-topping British rock group Spinal Tap. Idiotic frontman Nigel Tufnel (Guest) brings documentarian Marty DiBergi (Reiner) into his guitar room to show the filmmaker all of his musical toys.

Nigel's prized possession is an amplifier on which all of the various nobs go "up to 11," while most, if not all, other amps go up to 10. Marty can't help but ask if that numerical oddity means that Nigel's amp is louder than others, to which the rocker replies, "It's one louder…. Most blokes play on their guitar, and they get to 10—where can you go from there? Nowhere!"

To get "that extra push over the cliff, the Spinal Tap fellas put their amp to 11, a pointless strategy that Marty questions with, "Why don't you just make 10 louder and make 10 be the top number and make that a little louder." Nigel looks bewildered: "These go to 11."

Movie: Airplane! (1980)

Deservedly regarded as one of the most quotable movies ever, the 1980 comedy classic Airplane! plays like a Master's class in silly yet intelligent humor. The film's arguable (but undeniably riotous) zenith of inappropriate laughter comes from pilot Clarence Oveur (Peter Graves), who invites an innocent little boy to visit the cockpit where he and co-pilot Roger Murdock (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) handle their business.

Showing young Joey how everything works, Clarence first hands the boy a toy plane, reserved for "our special visitors." Then come a series of questions, starting with the harmless, "Have you ever been in a cockpit before?" Followed by, "Have you ever seen a grown man naked?" Then, "Joey, you ever hang around the gymnasium?" And, eventually, "Joey, have you ever been in a Turkish prison?"

Movie: Blazing Saddles (1974)

Granted, Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained has much more blood, profanity, and cartoonish violence, yet it'd be criminal to not pay homage to Mel Brooks' similarly minded Blazing Saddles as the originator. And in the film's funniest scene, the racial satirization is both spot-on and playfully hilarious.

Hired to lay down track, a group of black men start getting heckled by a douchebag honkey who asks them why they're not singing like the slaves used to do back in the day. When the guy asks them to croon a "good old n***er work song," they bust out into barbershop-quartet-like tune that's immaculately sung.

The white asshole interrupts them and suggests they sing something more along the lines of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." Or, as he and his honky buddies show in full-blown song-and-dance fashion, "Camptown Ladies." Which their even more despicable boss stops dead in its melodic tracks, saying, ""What in the wide, wide world of sports is a-goin' on here?! I hired you to lay down tracks, not prance around like Kansas City f****ts!"

Movie: Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974)

It's nearly impossible to pick one "best scene" in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the flawlessly executed parody of King Arthur's tale from the iconic British comedy group Monty Python. But, if you'd put a gun to our heads, we'd have to go with the Black Knight sequence.

King Arthur (Graham Chapman) and his loyal sidekick Patsy (Terry Gilliam) come across a bridge that's being guarded by the aforementioned Black Knight (John Cleese). Arthur offers the knight a spot on the court of his Round Table, but the stubborn knight refuses, instead challenging Arthur to a sword fight. Which Arthur readily wins, chopping off all of the knight's limbs.

That doesn't stop the Black Knight from talking smack, though. When his left arm gets lopped off, he says, "'Tis but a scratch," and that he's "had worse." Next goes the right arm, to which the loser says, "It's just a flesh wound!" Before long, Arthur leaves the knight with only his left leg for an appendage, and asks the bullheaded chap if he's going to "bleed on me" to win.

As Arthur and Patsy make their triumphant exit, the Black Knight, who's just a stump with a head attached at this point, shouts, "Running away, eh? You yellow bastards! Come back here and take what's coming to ya! I'll bite your legs off!"

Movie: Spaceballs (1987)

In Mel Brooks' Spaceballs, a lighthearted send-up of George Lucas' Star Wars universe, a joke aimed directly at Ridley Scott's decidedly darker, scarier Alienwasn't the least bit expected. But it was most certainly welcomed with open arms and busted guts.

Inside an intergalactic diner, an anonymous customer (played by Alien's actual victim, John Hurt) starts having chest pains before a little E.T. creature bursts out of him.

In Alien, it's a horrifying moment that remains one of cinema's all-time great shocks. In Spaceballs, it's brilliant comedy: After greeting the little monster with, "Oh, no, not again!" Hurt checks out and the mini alien puts on a cute little hat and starts singing show tunes as it makes its way down the counter top. Once again proving that, in the world of big-screen parodies, Mel Brooks is, and will always be, the undisputed king.