- Self-parody
A self-parody is a
parody of oneself or one's own work. As an artist accomplishes it by imitating his or her own characteristics, a self-parody is potentially difficult to distinguish from especially characteristic productions ("exempli gratia": a situation in which alitterateur 's mannerisms are typically ponderous, , and Latinizing).Sometimes critics use the word figuratively to mean the artist's style and preoccupations appear as strongly (and perhaps as ineptly) in some work as they would in a parody. Such works may result from habit, self-indulgence, or an effort to please an audience by providing something familiar.
Ernest Hemingway has frequently been a target for such comments. An example from Paul Johnson's book "Intellectuals"::Some [of Hemingway's later writing] was published nonetheless, and was seen to be inferior, even a parody of his earlier work. There were one or two exceptions, notably "
The Old Man and the Sea ", though there was an element of self-parody in that too.Political polemicists use the term similarly, as in this headline of a
2004 blog posting. "We Would Satirize Their Debate And Post-Debate Coverage, But They Are So Absurd At This Point They Are Their Own Self-Parody". [http://www.moderateindependent.com/v2i2debate.htm]Examples of self-parody
The following are deliberate self-parodies or are at least often considered to be so:
*Chaucer's "Tale of Sir Topas" in "
The Canterbury Tales " shows "Geoffrey Chaucer" as a timid writer of doggerel. It has been argued that the tale parodies, among other romances, Chaucer's own "Troilus and Criseyde ". [http://www.press.uillinois.edu/f98/excerpts/bradbury/chap5.html]
*"Nephelidia", [http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poem2096.html] a poem by A. C. Swinburne.
*"Municipal", a poem byRudyard Kipling . [http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/municipal.html]
*"L'Art" and "To Hulme (T. E.) and Fitzgerald (A Certain)", [http://books.google.com/books?id=-cNm2TYIn5wC&pg=PA163] poems byEzra Pound . [cite book | last = Gibson | first = Mary Ellis | year = 1995 | title = Epic Reinvented: Ezra Pound and the Victorians | publisher = Cornell University Press | pages = 71–72 | id = ISBN 0-8014-3133-6]
*"Afternoon of a Cow", a short story byWilliam Faulkner .
*"Pale Fire ", a novel byVladimir Nabokov in the form of a long, pedantic, self-centered commentary on a much shorter poem. It may parody his commentary on his translation of Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin "; the commentary was highly detailed and much longer than the poem.
*"Errantry", [http://www.xs4all.nl/~gnieveld/tolkienpages/Tolkien_208x.html] a poem byJ. R. R. Tolkien that parodies his "Eärendil was a Mariner".
*The song "Chicken in Black", byJohnny Cash , parodies his persona as "the Man in Black". The accompanying video shows Cash robbing a bank dressed as a chicken.
*Several actors in "Airplane! "
*In the film "The Running Man", the actorRichard Dawson parodied his performances as the host of the game show "Family Feud ".
*The laterJames Bond films have often been called self-parodies. [http://web.archive.org/web/20040213232825/http://www.filmtribune.com/dieanotherday.html]
*In the film "The Cannonball Run",Roger Moore plays a dentist, Dr. Seymour Goldfarb, Jr., who believes himself to be Moore in the James Bond role.
*"Neko Majin Z", amanga byAkira Toriyama , parodies his successful manga "Dragon Ball" and "Dragon Ball Z ".
*Konami's "Parodius" series of video games, a parody of "Gradius", features many characters from the company's many various series. "Parodius" is the only series that parodies the other games made by the same company; other companies have made games that parody themselves, but have not dedicated a full-fledged series to self-parody.
*Hideo Kojima often parodies his own works in the "Metal Gear" series ofvideo game s. The minor character in ' was a parody of Raiden, the protagonist of '. The charactersSolid Snake and Raiden were also parodied in an early E3 2005 promotional trailer for "". A sequel to this parody entitled "Metal Gear Raiden: Snake Eraser" was shown at TGS 2005.
*The television actress and hostess Kelly Ripa has parodied her own work and public image on TV comedies.
*Manycomedian s, likeDrew Carey ,Jerry Seinfeld andRay Romano , have parodied their own personalities and stand-up material on successful sitcoms.
*Arnold Schwarzenegger engaged in 130 minutes of intentional self-parody in the movie "Last Action Hero ", where he steps off-screen into the Real World. (In the Movie World, he notices a standee toutingSylvester Stallone starring in "".)
*Robert De Niro in "Meet the Parents " and "Analyze This ".
*Ricky Gervais in "Extras".
*Julia Roberts in "Ocean's Twelve ": her character Tess Ocean unsuccessfully impersonates Julia Roberts.
*Adam West has often parodied his work from the old "Batman " TV series, including his role as Mayor Adam West of Quahog,Rhode Island , in theFOX television show "Family Guy ".
*William Shatner and his rendition ofRocket Man at the 1978 Sci-Fi Film Awards.
* The "Stargate SG-1 " episodes "Wormhole X-Treme! " and "200" were largely self-parodies filled within-joke s that celebrated the show's 100th and 200th episodes, respectively.
* "David Hasselhoff " in "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie ".
* Alan Menken's song, "That's How You Know" from "Enchanted " is a self-parody of songs such as "Be our Guest" and "Under the Sea"
* A series ofGeico car-insurance commercials involve testimonials from customers while celebrities re-iterate the stories their own way.Don LaFontaine presents the story as he would voice a movie trailer, andJoan Rivers periodically comments that she can't feel her face.
*Samuel L. Jackson in "Snakes on a Plane " blatantly showcases the attributes he is known for portraying, especially his use of profanity.
*Neil Patrick Harris parodies himself in theHarold & Kumar series of comedy films. His persona in the films is that of a partying womanizer. However, he came out as being gay prior to the release of "Harold & Kumar: Escape From Guantanamo Bay".
*Creed Bratton parodies himself on the NBC sitcom "The Office ".External links
* [http://www.press.uillinois.edu/f98/excerpts/bradbury/chap5.html "Sir Thopas" and the Minstrel Style in "Troilus"] from "Writing Aloud" (see References)
* [http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poem2096.html "Nephelidia" from Representative Poetry Online]
* [http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/verse/p2/municipal.html "Municipal" by Rudyard Kipling]
* [http://www.xs4all.nl/~gnieveld/tolkienpages/Tolkien_208x.html "Errantry" from AntarcticaGalleries]
* [http://www.filmtribune.com/dieanotherday.html A review of the Bond film "Die Another Day" from The Film Tribune]
* [http://www.moderateindependent.com/v2i2debate.htm The Moderate Independent accuses Fox News of inadvertent self-parody]References
* Paul Johnson, "Intellectuals" (
1988 ), ISBN 0-297-79395-0
* Nancy Mason Bradbury, "Writing Aloud: Storytelling in Late Medieval England" (1998 ), ISBN 0-252-02403-6
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