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Here's a clip from an episode of Gilmore Girls.
Although I don't think it's been confirmed by the show's creators, the clip looks suspiciously similar to the dinner scene in Eraserhead, including the awkward silences and dialog, the shot of the clock, and the concept of the boyfriend meeting the girlfriend's parents, who want what's best for their daughter. A couple of people agree that it might be a parody of the scene, including this lady (check the third paragraph of the article).
Here's my issue with it. This scene can't measure up to the scene it's based on, and honestly, it's not as funny as the original. Sure, it is funny, but only if you know the show well enough. So what are we supposed to do with a parody based on a more explicit work? Gilmore Girls is, of course, a more family-friendly program than Eraserhead, and therefore, it's not as ironic. A parody of Winnie the Pooh in which Pooh dresses as a dominatrix and Eeyore threatens to kill himself is probably more ironic than a parody of a controversial movie on a not-so-controversial TV show.
There was also a parody of Eraserhead in the first episode of Tiny Toons, where Babs puts an eraser on her head and says, "Look! I'm Eraserhead!" Though I couldn't find a clip of it for you.
What I really wonder is, do you agree that a parody or pastiche is more successful if it's more controversial than the original work, or can it still be as much of a success due to other factors?
2 comments:
i don't think it's a question of whether or not placing a parody of eraserhead in an episode of gilmore girls is ironic; i don't personally consider it ironic and don't think it was intended to be. i think it more or less probably was just a parody.
as to the question of the success of a parody, i think that's relative depending on what point you're trying to make. if you're parodying an original work to make a commentary on something or to re-interpret a concept in your own way (like don quixote did), i think that's much different than just using the parody to be funny, which i think is probably what they were going for in the gilmore girls episode (you know, what with the break dancing and all).
if there's a conscious effort made to make a parody more controversial than the original work, there should be a reason behind it. if it's controversial just to be controversial, that doesn't really make a lot of sense to me. but if added controversy helps drive your point home better, than by all means, shock away.
parodies are made for a reason-- because there was something that already existed that you could use in some way to create a new vision from; otherwise you'd just make your own original work. similarly, parodies only really work as parodies themselves when the references to the original work are clear or familiar to the audience. anyone who watches that scene from gilmore girls who hasn't seen eraserhead won't know it's a nod to the film. they'll just take it at face value as part of the television show.
i think this particular parody was meant just to be funny, as opposed to ironic or ever making a deep reference to the film. if people who saw the episode had also seen eraserhead and drew some connections that added another layer of humor for them, then that's great, but i would guess there probably wasn't much more to it than that.
Fair enough. I'm probably overanalyzing it, but it's been on my mind a lot lately.
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