Immortality through plagiarism
Aug. 4th, 2011 05:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cmdr_zoomIt's strange to consider that two of the most long-lived (in various incarnations and re-makes) and famous animated series are rather obvious knock-offs of classic live-action TV shows. I'm referring, of course, to The Honeymooners and... Dobie Gillis. (Okay, so one's a bit better remembered, half a century later, than the other.)
What makes this a little less surprising is that "copy what works" was pretty much Hanna and Barbera's stock in trade (along with cheap, limited animation *rimshot*). Not only do you have the official adaptions - of everything from I Dream of Jeannie and The Addams Family to Godzilla - and the endless further mutations of the basic Scooby-Doo formula, one of which replaced the dog with Curly Howard in a shark suit; there's also the expies, like Top Cat (Phil Silvers' Sgt. Bilko) and, for god's sake, Yogi Bear (who, despite being named for a baseball player, is really more a case of H-B going back to the well of Art Carney for another drink).
You can't really call these parody, IMO, as they don't really make fun of the source - they just copy and transplant it, more or less entire, to a new milieu. The modern equivalent would be the AU fanfic. And in many cases, the mannerisms and such become more associated with the animated character than the actor/comedian who originated them. (How many people know who first said most of Bugs Bunny's funniest lines?) The content lives on, without its original context.
What makes this a little less surprising is that "copy what works" was pretty much Hanna and Barbera's stock in trade (along with cheap, limited animation *rimshot*). Not only do you have the official adaptions - of everything from I Dream of Jeannie and The Addams Family to Godzilla - and the endless further mutations of the basic Scooby-Doo formula, one of which replaced the dog with Curly Howard in a shark suit; there's also the expies, like Top Cat (Phil Silvers' Sgt. Bilko) and, for god's sake, Yogi Bear (who, despite being named for a baseball player, is really more a case of H-B going back to the well of Art Carney for another drink).
You can't really call these parody, IMO, as they don't really make fun of the source - they just copy and transplant it, more or less entire, to a new milieu. The modern equivalent would be the AU fanfic. And in many cases, the mannerisms and such become more associated with the animated character than the actor/comedian who originated them. (How many people know who first said most of Bugs Bunny's funniest lines?) The content lives on, without its original context.
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(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-05 01:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-05 01:51 am (UTC)Now, what's the most crackful AU you can come up with for those archetypes? (Feel free to add or dispense with the animal mascot.) I tried the new Enterprise crew, but it doesn't quite fit...
(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-05 07:20 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-05 07:42 pm (UTC)... and one of the fingers on the button will be German
(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-06 12:25 am (UTC)"Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down?
That's not my department," says Wernher Von Braun."
I know, different song, but thematically linked. ;)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-05 07:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-05 08:11 pm (UTC)That was a favorite show of mine as a kid, and one of my inspirations when making a (half) "Muggleborn" character for a HP game a few years back.