The Encyclopedia Of Smut: P Is For Parody

When you feel like having a giggle as you get off, you can always turn to parody porn. It's kind of miraculous when you think about it: both your sense of humor and your sexuality are extremely unique and private parts of your personality, and yet there's a whole genre of film dedicated to stimulating both at once! How could this be?

Parodies Old and New

Porn has always kept an eye on mainstream media and responded to what it produces, so parody porn is nothing new. However, the majority of satirical titles throughout pornographic history are just that: hardcore films with pun-loaded names that have nothing to do with the content. You can probably think of at least four silly titles off the top of your head ("Forest Hump," "A Tale of Two Titties," "The Count of Monte Fisto," and "Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Orgy"); we guarantee at least one of them has probably been made. And skilled punmanship wasn't just found in titles, but in porn pseudonyms, too. The last time we found a fresh faced pornstar with a silly name was back in February when we met Paige Turnah--it was a good day.

Anyhow, the parody game changed in 2007 when Will Ryder and X-Play came out with "Not the Bradys XXX." We don't know if this was the first example of a porno being completely dedicated to the slutty satirization of some source material (we doubt it, though it's difficult to wade through porn history to prove or disprove anything), but this punless film marked the beginning of a huge wave of parody porn. Hustler, New Sensations, Adam & Eve, Wicked, Smash, and countless other studios started clamoring to call dibs on whatever movie or TV show was popular at the moment so they could put "Not" or "This Ain't" in front of it, "XXX" behind it, and make something that appealed to fans based on name recognition alone. In 2009, the AVN Awards added Best Sex Parody as a new category, which they later separated into Drama and Comedy. (Funny fact: Gotham's favorite superhero cleaned up in 2011, with Vivid's "Batman XXX: A Porn Parody" winning the comedy award and Bluebird's "BatfXXX: Dark Night" taking the drama one.)

[Above: we had no idea Spock had such a huge cock until we saw "This Ain't Star Trek XXX"]

The Fans and the Filmmakers

Do you remember how huge parody porn became? How out of control it seemed? First, the studios used up all the current TV shows and movies that had female characters, then they started digging through old favorites like "The Dukes of Hazzard" and "Rocky," reality TV came next, then game shows, individual celebrities got their own parody films, superheroes started screwing, commercials got carnal, and even entire TV networks got naughty! And what's more: the people ate it up! Of course they were going to keep churning this stuff out.

A big reason why the studios were so gung-ho about making parodies is that they seemed to work against piracy. Gonzo and vignette-style smut can be chopped up and put on tube sites rather easily, but big and story-driven movies are less appealing when presented this way, so it behooved consumers to just fork over the cash and enjoy the entire thing (especially when 3D technology got mixed in with parody porn and you needed the weird specs to watch anything). Yes, torrents are still an issue, but no one can forget the time that Axel Braun tried to sue 7,000 people with a single suit for downloading his Batman parody through BitTorrent. What's a porn director supposed to do when there's no RIAA or MPAA to back him up?

The point is that pornographers seem to be searching for a difficult balance: they want to make something that is instantly recognizable and appealing to fans so they'll buy a DVD, but if it's too accessible, it's just more likely to show up on the top list of pirated porn films. (Statistics say that porn makes up 35.8% of all pirated content online, and nobody wants to be the king of that pile.)

[Above: Ashlynn Brooke lets a vampire eat her (out) in "Tru: A XXX Parody"]

Parody Pitfalls

Balance really is the keyword when it comes to making parody porn. How do you balance and transition between the parts that make you laugh and the parts that make you horny? Or if you're making a dramatic parody, how do you keep tension in the plot and between the characters when you have to chop up the story with sex? These are big questions, and every studio, director, writer, and actor deals with them differently depending on the source material. However, having watched a truckload of the stuff over the years, we've noticed some ideas and issues that affect the quality of parody porn, and we'd like to share them with you in case you ever decide to make one for yourself. The spoof craze may have faded, but that doesn't mean you can't revive it with your own creation!

Don't
· Add too many random characters - Sometimes you need an extra body in a scene and you need to go against canon to fit them in. It's understandable. However, clogging a well-known story up with invented characters sort of defeats the purpose of parody porn.
· Use source material involving minors - It's quite awkward when some beloved juvenile character loudly claims, "Gosh, I can't believe I'm finally 18!"
· Plagiarize - There are some movies (we're looking at you, "Bridesmaids XXX") that have clearly lifted large portions of the original script and made a few minor porny alterations. It saddens us, and it will bring lawsuits.
· Forget the details - A porn parody is essentially a piece of fan fiction, and every little character quirk means something to someone. If you were to spoof the latest "Spider-Man" movie franchise, you would gain so much love from viewers if you make sure to include a sex scene that involves the upside-down kiss between Spidey and Mary Jane. (Fortunately, that's exactly what happened in "Spider-Man XXX: A Porn Parody.")

Do
· Have pornstars fuck like their characters - It's not easy, but it's always appreciated. We're not saying the Hulk needs to have non-stop wrathful sex for twenty minutes straight, but a little "Hulk smash!" every now and then makes all the difference
· Make sure important characters fuck the most - Tori Black was such a hot Wonder Woman in "Wonder Woman XXX," but she only had one sex scene! It broke our hearts.
· Use public domain source material - We know we said "don't plagiarize," but we loved how Lee Roy Myers weaved actual Shakespeare into his parody of "Romeo and Juliet." More people should go back to the classics and reinvent them, not just because there's a lack of copyright to worry about, but also because there are timeless stories that should be retold with cumshots.
· Forget some of the details - You might be tempted to cram everything you know about "Doctor Who" into your masterpiece of a script, but you do not want to overshadow your smut with story otherwise the sex will fill like an interruption rather than an integral part of the film. You see what we said about balance? It's tricky!

[Above: those masks are a definite don't, via "An American Werewolf In London XXX Parody"]

Our Favorite Parodies

"The Simpsons: The XXX Parody" - Many parody porns involve fat male protagonists who anchor the show but don't get to have any sex, but that's not how Lee Roy Myers rolls. He found the perfect Homer Simpson impersonator, recorded his voice, and had Anthony Rosano play stunt cock. Brilliant. Plus, the yellow skin is kind of sexy.
"Batman XXX: A Porn Parody" - We think this is the best movie Axel Braun ever made. The sets are gorgeous, the retro duds are flawless, and the carnal antics fits the campy Adam West-era Gotham so perfectly that we conducted research to find out if Adam ever tried to get with Catwoman (Julie Newmar, Eartha Kitt, maybe both).
"Halloween: XXX Porn Parody" - This modern take on the old classic horror sticks rather close to the source material without feeling like it was plagiarized. Not only does Lily LaBeau make an excellent Laurie, but since the whole movie deals with the dynamic between the sinful and the innocent, it works perfectly as porn.
"Spider-Man XXX: A Porn Parody" - As you can probably tell, we liked this one a lot. One of the best things about this film is that people actually have sex using their superpowers! Electro (played by Dick Delaware) actually shocks his partner to death when he comes. We don't normally condone violence, but we don't normally see lightning bolts shoot out of a guy's cock.
"The SEX Files: A Dark XXX Parody" - Mulder and Scully needed to have sex, and director Sam Hain knew exactly how to get them there.
"The Human Sexipede: First Sequence" - Lee Roy Myers and Tom Byron Pictures teamed up and turned one of the most disgusting horror films of all time into one of the funniest parody porns of all time. Of course, the sex is damn spicy, too (as you can see above).
"Here Cums the President" - We know, we're riding Lee Roy's jock a tad too hard. We don't care. This movie rules: George Washington narrates a journey through American history that shows us some of the well-known, the assumed, and the secret sexual relations that the commanders-in-chief have engaged in, and even if you're not big on history, you'll love some of the most powerful men in the world banging their broads.

[Above: one of our favorite porns of all time, "The Human Sexipede." All clips courtesy of AEBN Porn Pay Per View Network and Adult Video On Demand (theater.aebn.net)]

[At top: Black Cat demonstrates how to fight a crime-fighter by sucking off Spider-Man (Brooklyn Lee and Xander Corvus), via "Spider-Man XXX: A Porn Parody"]