List of James Bond parodies and spin-offs

The James Bond series of novels and films have been parodied numerous times in a number of different media including books, films, video games, and television shows. Most notable of all these parodies is the 1967 spoof Casino Royale, which was produced using the actual film rights purchased from Ian Fleming over a decade prior to its release. Unlike an imitation, a spoof is usually protected from lawsuits by the people whose property is being parodied.

Nature of James Bond parody

James Bond parodies generally contain several elements, adopted from the James Bond novels and films, which are featured in these parody works. These usually include the following:

There are also various subgenres, within this style. Some of the most notable variants include: a female protagonist(s) (in place of the male), child protagonists, a strong science fiction element (known as spy-fi) and the erotic (adult) spy novel, comic, or film. The term Eurospy refers to the large number of films within this genre, which were produced in Europe. Although many of the James Bond parodies were produced in the United States or Europe, the genre is very much an international one, with novels, comics and films being produced across the globe.

Novels and comic books

Films

In addition to the above, there have been literally hundreds of films made around the world parodying the spy film genre of the 1960s, if not directly parodying James Bond. One example is the 1966 film Modesty Blaise, which was a parody of the spy genre rather than a faithful adaptation of the (generally serious) comic strip.

Matt Helm

First published in 1960, Matt Helm is a fictional character created by author Donald Hamilton. The character is not meant to be a spoof of James Bond, rather having attributes of an homage, but not in the strict sense. Film versions of Matt Helm, as played by Dean Martin, were meant to spoof the 007 movies as well as the character James Bond. The four movies made took their titles from Hamilton's novels, though the movies had little in common with the books of the same name. The Silencers and Murderers' Row were released in 1966. The Ambushers in 1967 and The Wrecking Crew in 1969.

Austin Powers

Austin Powers is a film franchise by British-Canadian comedian Mike Myers. Many of the characters throughout the franchise are parodies of Bond characters, including Myers' main character of the same name. Myers has said that Sean Connery was the inspiration for his character, especially Powers' thick chest hair. In addition, the names of the films are also parodies of Bond novels and films.

Films

Characters

2012 London Summer Olympics

In an advertisement for London's 2012 Olympic bid, Roger Moore and Samantha Bond played Bond and Miss Moneypenny.[5]

Daniel Craig played Bond in a short film, Happy and Glorious, made by the BBC, produced by Lisa Osborne and directed by Danny Boyle as part of the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics. In the film, Bond is summoned to Buckingham Palace by Queen Elizabeth II—played by herself—and escorts her by helicopter to the Olympic Stadium.[6] Bond and the Queen jump from the helicopter into the stadium with Union Flag parachutes. After the film was shown, the Queen appeared and formally opened the Games.[7]

Imitations

There have also been numerous films that have attempted to use the James Bond formula. Some films that have been made have also used the character of James Bond unofficially.

Television

The animation Danger Mouse is a British parody.

NBC broadcast The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,[11] from 1964-68. [12] Ian Fleming provided a number of ideas for the series, including the names of characters Napoleon Solo and April Dancer.[13][lower-alpha 1]

Maxwell also portrays Moneypenny in the 1967 television special Welcome to Japan, Mr. Bond, produced by Eon Productions. The programme was intended to promote You Only Live Twice, and contained a storyline of Moneypenny trying to establish the identity of Bond's bride.[15]

The American television series Get Smart (1965-70) featured Don Adams as the consummate Bond spoof, Maxwell Smart, a self-assured but incompetent bungler (the character was also inspired by Inspector Clouseau as played by Peter Sellers) who got by on a combination of luck and the help of his savvy female counterpart Agent 99 in an ongoing battle with a quasi-Soviet enemy entity known as KAOS, with use of esoteric and often unreliable or useless gadgets such as his shoe phone; the series was also turned into a movie in the 2000s. Don Adams also voiced the title character in the Inspector Gadget, an animated Get Smart parody.


"For Your Files Only"

Jane Bond is the name of a fictional spy played by supermodel Claudia Schiffer in the first season of MADtv. In an obvious spoof of James Bond ("For Your Eyes Only"), Jane Bond went undercover as a temporary office secretary in order to stop an evil corporation (led by Dr. Boss, played by Mary Scheer and her office manager, Part-Time Job, played by Artie Lange) from taking over the world. Instead of having a licence to kill like James Bond, Jane Bond has a licence to collate. Immediately after making her famous introduction, "[My/The name is] Bond, Jane Bond" to Dr. Boss, Bond proceeds to remove the clip that was holding her hair up (and then shaking it out in a prolonged slow motion shot).

Jane Bond's gadgets includes standard office supplies like slingshot-like rubber bands (which she uses during a major office shootout), an extremely sharpened right index fingernail (which she uses to free herself from being tied up in rope) Whack Out (which she uses to subdue Part-Time Job, after initially seducing him), and a stapler (which she uses to defeat Dr. Boss, who had plans on killing Bond via a nitroglycerin filled water cooler). After defeating Dr. Boss, Bond proclaims that she likes her villains "Stapled, not stirred!"

"International Super Spy"

The Backyardigans double-length episode "International Super Spy" portrays Pablo as a parody of James Bond. He wears a tuxedo in the episode and is seen adjusting his bow tie frequently. He goes through the episode trying to recover the 3 Silver Containers before the Lady In Pink (Uniqua) and her henchman (Tyrone) does. Tasha plays the head of the International Super Spy Agency, an obvious parody of M and Austin plays his secret contact throughout the film. Austin may be a parody of Q because he gives Pablo a video phone disguised as a banana split, a cell phone disguised as a hot dog, an astral projection device that is disguised as a snow cone, and finally he gives him a jet pack disguised as a pizza and a pizza shaped parachute. He also has a car with many different flying attachments (like a jet, helicopter and a glider). Like the real James Bond, Pablo is able to withstand torture when he is subjected to the Lady in Pink's tickle table and he likes his apple juice, "Shaken Not Stirred".

In the episode "The Invasion", aired during the third season of "Gilligan's Island", Gilligan dreams he is a superspy with the number 0014. When Mrs. Howell (playing one of the villains) is asked why his number is 0014, she replies, "Because he's twice as good as 007."

"Spy Buddies"

The SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Spy Buddies" has a parody. When SpongeBob is told that Mr. Krabs wants him to spy on Plankton, SpongeBob gets excited and a scene similar to the James Bond gun barrel sequence starts. SpongeBob walks into the circle, only to find that the circle is Patrick looking through a straw.

"For Black Eyes Only"

The series American Dad! made a parody of "For Your Eyes Only" The character Stan Smith plays as himself, but he acts like James Bond. He marries Sexpun T' Come (Francine) after "Tearjerker", but Black Villian (Lewis) and kills his wife by accident ( he was actually going to kill Stan, but misses and shoots Sexpun instead) One year later, Stan heards that Black Villain will do something evil by melting the Arctic with hair dryers, and his boss tolds Stan that Tearjerker (Roger) is still alive. He then finds Tearjerker in an underground jail and tells him to partner up with Stan. Tearjerker said that he used to work for Black Villain, but he betrays him. They then go to a market to find Tearjerker's partner (Klaus as a human), but he was killed by an black mysterious woman. Stan finds out that the black woman was Sexpun (a clone that Black Villain created, but makes her black) Tearjerker betrays Stan and works for Black Villain again. Stan tells Sexpun that he is her husband, but she disagrees (Stan gives Sexpun a photo locket of their wedding, but she throws it in a fire). He brings back her memories by sucking his toes (Sexpun did the same before Black Villian kills her) and teams up with Stan to stop Tearjerker and Black Villain. Black Villain then starts the hair dryers to melt the Arctic before Stan and Sexpun appears. The two villains try to stop the two by releasing clones of Tearjerker, but fails (the clones attack each other, then kiss each other before committing suicide). Then a big wave of water appears, but Stan, Sexpun, and Tearjerker escape while Black Villain was left behind and drown to his death. While they escape, Sexpun asked why they helped Tearjerker escape and kicks him and is stabbed by a pointed shark. Stan and Sexpun make out until his boss called him. He congratulates Stan for his work, even when the half of the world was drowned and sees the two making out. Meanwhile, Tearjerker survives and was to come out of the shark, but a killer whale appears and grabs the shark's tail and drags the both of them when white letters appears on the top of the screen, saying "To be continued" and "Or was it?". Saying that it might be Tearjerker's final days.

"You Only Move Twice"

An episode of The Simpsons, "You Only Move Twice", features the supervillain, Hank Scorpio. The James Bond analogue, "Mr. Bont", is based on Sean Connery's portrayal but he is captured and killed because Homer Simpson interferes with his attempted escape from captivity.

The final scene at Globex contains references to several James Bond films. The episode title and many references are from You Only Live Twice, with A View to a Kill also being referenced.[16] A character modeled after Sean Connery's Bond is tackled by Homer and killed after a parody of the laser scene from Goldfinger.[17] Mrs. Goodthighs from the 1967 James Bond spoof Casino Royale makes an appearance in the episode and a character based on Norman Schwarzkopf is attacked by Goodthighs.[18] The incident is also a reference to the character Xenia Onatopp, from GoldenEye, who specialises in crushing men between her thighs.[19]

The song at the end of the show, written by Ken Keeler, is a parody of various Bond themes. Keeler originally wrote it to be three seconds longer and sound more like the Goldfinger theme, but the final version was shorter and the lyrics were sped up.[20] The writers wanted the song to be sung by Shirley Bassey, who sang several Bond themes, but they could not get her to record the part.[17]

This is not the only James Bond homage in The Simpsons, however—the "Chief Wiggum P.I." segment of "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase" episode borrows heavily from Live and Let Die, even duplicating certain shots. Also, in an alleged "deleted scene" from $pringfield from The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular clip show, Homer, working as a blackjack dealer, causes James Bond to lose to Blofeld, with Oddjob and Jaws as his henchmen, when Homer fails to take out the Joker card and a card for the "Rules for Draw and Stud Poker" out of a playing deck. In addition, an opening couch gag features Homer as Bond in the gun barrel sequence that opens the Bond films. The character Rainier Wolfcastle, an action movie actor, also regularly references Bond. Also, one Halloween episode featured a computer run house with a selection of actor voices. When Bart suggests some 007, Marge asks "George Lazenby?" only to get slightly disappointed when Lisa says "No, Pierce Brosnan."

Video games

Music

Internet

See also

Notes and references

Notes

  1. ↑ Fleming withdrew from the project following a request from Eon Productions, who were keen to avoid any legal problems that might occur if the project overlapped with the Bond films.[14]

References

  1. ↑ , Paperback Fanatic Vol. 15, 2010.
  2. ↑ The Life and Death of Clyde Allison (A William Henley Knoles Biography) By Lynn Munroe, originally published at eFanzines.com, Vol. 2, No. 2, April 2002.
  3. ↑ Scarlet Succubus Press
  4. ↑ Pfeiffer & Worrall 1998, p. 210.
  5. ↑ "Roger Moore Biography". Bio. (UK). Retrieved 17 November 2012.
  6. ↑ Brown, Nic (27 July 2012). "How James Bond whisked the Queen to the Olympics". BBC News. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  7. ↑ Harish, Alon (27 July 2012). "2012 London Olympics: Opening Ceremony Recounts British History - Then Rocks". ABC World News (ABC News). Retrieved 27 July 2012.
  8. ↑ "G-2 (1965)".
  9. ↑ "Agent X-44 (Character)".
  10. ↑ "MANLY MAN IN MANILA".
  11. ↑ Geraghty 2009, p. 42.
  12. ↑ Walker, Cynthia W. "Man From U.N.C.L.E., The". Museum of Broadcast Communications. Retrieved 16 November 2012.
  13. ↑ Benson 1988, p. 26.
  14. ↑ Britton 2004, p. 36.
  15. ↑ Pfeiffer & Worrall 1998, p. 65.
  16. ↑ Martyn, Warren; Wood, Adrian (2000). You Only Move Twice. BBC. Retrieved on 27 March 2007.
  17. 1 2 Weinstein, Josh. (2006). The Simpsons season 8 DVD commentary for the episode "You Only Move Twice" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  18. ↑ Castellaneta, Dan (2006). The Simpsons season 8 DVD commentary for the episode "You Only Move Twice" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  19. ↑ Anderson, Mike B.. (2006). The Simpsons season 8 DVD commentary for the episode "You Only Move Twice" [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
  20. ↑ Keeler, Ken (2006). The Simpsons season 8 DVD commentary for the episode "You Only Move Twice" (DVD). 20th Century Fox.
  21. ↑ Operation Thunderbowel Release information
  22. ↑ The Operative: No One Lives Forever for Windows - MobyGames
  23. ↑ Michael and Joel at the Movies
  24. ↑ Coalfinger

Bibliography

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