Top 5 ‘Star Wars’ Parodies That You Must Watch Now!
Star Wars fans can be rabid sometimes. We do not have to go far back into the history of the series to see examples of how we as fans can act. And yet Star Wars has lent itself to numerous spoofs and parodies over the years where they just slip under the radar for most fans or are brushed off as an adorable musing from some faraway place. Even doing my own deep dive into the world of Star Wars parody, I came across a couple things I have never seen or heard of before.
Now to go over some ground rules for determining the list. I only covered movies, shows, or short films. If you want songs, books, or comics we can talk about that in a future article. So, for those fans of Bill Murray’s Star Wars theme or Weird Al’s “The Saga Begins,” this isn’t for you. Secondly, I think it is safe to say that we have probably all watched Spaceballs. While it would probably be number 1 on everyone’s list, we are going to skip it this time around. Finally, some of these are tough pills to swallow even on the ironic side of things so while a ranking would be a tough ask, let’s just present this to you in no particular order.
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5. Hyperspace Aka. Gremloids (1984)
Now some of my friends in the UK probably recognize the villain who plays the Darth Vader figure of this movie, Lord Buckethead. Lord Buckethead ran for UK parliament in 1987 and 1992 elections under the Gremloid Party. The movie opened with a Star Wars style text crawl which discussed how Princess Serina (aka. Leia) had stolen some important radio transmissions and was being pursued by the galactic alliance. Due to some bad calculations in the nav-computer our villain found himself on planet Earth. However, due to his ineptitude as a leader he did not realize this and began running amok in a small town in middle America. I won’t give away too much more but feel free to watch the movie here because this is a sight to behold.
Some recognizable faces included comedy actor Chris Elliott (most recently as the mayor from Schitt’s Creek), Alan Marx (from Alien Outlaw, and Goremet, Zombie Chef from Hell), and Paula Poundstone (the often in and out of trouble comedian). The film was written and directed by the creator of the Hotel Transylvania franchise Todd Durham who studied comedy at USC. There were some funny parts, but the movie overall leaves much to be desired.
4. Hardware Wars (1978)
Hardware Wars was one of the earliest parodies of the Star Wars franchise both literally and figuratively. It was actually released about 18 months after A New Hope, and was seen by many as the pioneer of Star Wars parodies. This film set the bar high for future parodies to come with pun-filled names and over the top recreations of iconic scenes from the source material. Clearly the budget was pretty light for this work as a lot of household items were used as stand-ins for props (hence the title Hardware Wars), but I think it added to both the maverick film style and the parody overtones. In the dark days before the internet, you have to wonder how this was allowed to happen without it being buried deep in a dark cave by Lucas himself. Reports have actually come out saying Lucas was quite the fan of the parody himself. Even Lucasfilm honored it with the Pioneer Award in 2003. Take a watch here.
3. Os Trapalhões Na Guerra Dos Planetas (1978)
From the land of Brazil came a fairly heavy parody of A New Hope, translated as The Bumbling Ones in the War of the Planets. Released around the same time as Hardware Wars this came from a famous Brazilian comedy troupe called Os Trapalhões, which gained popularity in Brazil because they liked to take on multiple genres like sci-fi and superhero movies and give it their brand of comedy. Obviously when the group’s name is “Bumbling Ones,” you know exactly what you were getting.
As you can see, little was done to hide the fact that this is a parody. The characters were pretty much on par with their originals. Bonzo was 100% Chewbacca. Despite its glamorous house coat, that was definitely 100% Darth Vader. Most of the story was also pretty close in beats. The special effects were not bad considering but this was like giving the Three Stooges the ability to do Star Wars. They seemed to have a slightly higher budget than most.
2. Thumb Wars (1999)
This one certainly was a nostalgia trip for me. I remember going to the local movie rental place just a little after The Phantom Menace was released, seeing this on the shelf, and wondering what this is (it did have a late night television release on the now defunct UPN network). A couple years later they would develop other parodies like Titanic, The Blair Witch Project, Frankenstein, and The Godfather. The pedigree for comedy was well represented with the creator Steve Odekerk, the man who brought us the Ace Ventura franchise, The Nutty Professor remakes with Eddie Murphy, and Bruce Almighty. He was also the writer, director, and star of the cult film comedy Kung Pow! Enter the Fist. So you know this Star Wars parody was in the right hands.
The movie did its best to meld all the original trilogy by showing us all the players from Luke (Loke Groundrunner) to Jabba the Hutt (Gabba the Butt) in a funny way. The humor sometimes was a bit dated but I got some genuine laughs. Black Helmet Man (Darth Vader) saying he was Loke’s mother was one which got me to literally laugh out loud. The technology to make the thumbs talk was pretty good at the time, but it definitely looked aged in today’s standards. Be the judge for yourself here.
1. Troops (1997)
If Hardware Wars was the grandfather of Star Wars parodies then Troops is the father of Star Wars parodies. Written and directed by Kevin Rubio this short was believed to be the pioneer not only for the Star Wars parodies but also one of the forefathers of the internet craze, which was a relatively unknown medium in 1997. Rubio was able to harness the internet for cheap distribution along with cheaper production materials and fans with their own costumes to make a COPS/Star Wars parody.
In this short, we followed the Black Sheep Squadron as they work on Tatooine, trying to keep peace in the galaxy. It was in the documentary style with which COPS was built around. What was refreshing about this parody was that they steer away from the main Star Wars story (just a little nod at the end to an issue at the Mos Eisley Cantina). Take the official story of what happened with Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru with a grain of salt, as things were not always as they appeared.
This film with its original content had become so entrenched in parody psyche that even Lucasfilm honored the film with the inaugural Pioneer Award at their Fan Film Awards (another award recipient being Hardware Wars).
And there you have it! This was quite the trip down memory lane, and honestly I think all of these parodies are definitely worthy of your time. Thankfully, these are pretty quick views so they do not take too much of your time. They are definite must watches for any avid Star Wars fan.
Do you think I nailed the list? Is there something on here I might have forgotten? Drop me a comment and maybe I will feature it in a future post!
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