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Best Parody Movies

Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of parody cinema — measured across 2,210 indexed frames from 29 films, against a 408,752-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.

Parody films over-index on tunic, tuxedo and beard — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.

  1. 1

    Shrek (2001)

    Andrew Adamson, Vicky JensonIMDb 7.9TMDB 7.8See in full on FrameThrower →

    When a green ogre named Shrek discovers his swamp has been 'swamped' with all sorts of fairytale creatures by the scheming Lord Farquaad, Shrek sets out with a very loud donkey by his side to 'persuade' Farquaad to give Shrek his swamp back. Instead, a deal is made. Farquaad, who wants to become the King, sends Shrek to rescue Princess Fiona, who is awaiting her true love in a tower guarded by a fire-breathing dragon. But once they head back with Fiona, it starts to become apparent that not only does Shrek, an ugly ogre, begin to fall in love with the lovely princess, but Fiona is also hiding a huge secret.

  2. 2

    Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult (1994)

    Peter SegalDP Robert M. StevensIMDb 6.5TMDB 6.5See in full on FrameThrower →

    Tasting the fruit of his labor with his wife Jane Spencer (Priscilla Presley), the maladroit and now retired Police Squad Lieutenant, Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen), secretly dreams of getting back in action. Before long, his old partners, Ed Hocken (George Kennedy) and Nordberg (O.J. Simpson), will have to enlist the help of their loose-cannon friend, when Rocco (Fred Ward), the deranged terrorist, intends on blowing the annual Academy Awards ceremony to smithereens. Once more, Drebin goes undercover, interrogating dangerous blonde bombshells, and putting his precious, but fragile marriage in jeopardy. Are this year's Oscars doomed to disaster?

  3. 3

    Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

    Terry Jones, Terry GilliamDP Terry BedfordIMDb 8.2TMDB 7.8See in full on FrameThrower →

    History is turned on its comic head when, in tenth-century England, King Arthur travels the countryside to find knights who will join him at the Round Table in Camelot. Gathering up the men is a tale in itself but after a bit of a party at Camelot, many decide to leave only to be stopped by God, who sends them on a quest: to find the Holy Grail. After a series of individual adventures, the knights are reunited but must face a wizard named Tim the Enchanter, killer rabbits and lessons in the use of holy hand grenades. Their quest comes to an end however when the Police intervene - just what you would expect in a Monty Python movie.

  4. 4

    Life of Brian (1979)

    Terry JonesDP Peter BiziouIMDb 8.0TMDB 7.8See in full on FrameThrower →

    The story of Brian of Nazareth (Graham Chapman), born on the same day as Jesus of Nazareth, who takes a different path in life that leads to the same conclusion. Brian joins a political resistance movement aiming to get the Romans out of Judea. Brian scores a victory of sorts when he manages to paint political slogans on an entire wall in the city of Jerusalem. The movement is not very effective but somehow Brian becomes a prophet and gathers his own following. His fate is sealed however and he lives a very short life.

  5. 5

    The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)

    David ZuckerDP Robert M. StevensIMDb 7.6TMDB 7.3See in full on FrameThrower →

    A rerun of many of the gags from the television series Police Squad! (1982). An Airplane! (1980)-type spoof, this time with the an incompetent Lieutenant Frank Drebin, who always "gets his man". Visual gags come thick and fast, and it's impossible to catch them all with one viewing. The plot: Queen Elizabeth II of England is coming to town, and Vincent Ludwig has plans to assassinate her using a brainwashed baseball player.

  6. 6

    Meet the Spartans (2008)

    Jason Friedberg, Aaron SeltzerDP Shawn MaurerIMDb 2.8TMDB 4.1See in full on FrameThrower →

    The heroic Leonidas, armed with nothing but leather underwear and a cape, leads a ragtag group of thirteen Spartans to defend their homeland against the invading Persians (whose ranks include Ghost Rider, Rocky Balboa, the Transformers, and a hunchbacked Paris Hilton). No one is safe when the Spartans take on the biggest icons in pop culture!

  7. 7

    Die Hart (2023)

    Eric AppelIMDb 5.2TMDB 5.9See in full on FrameThrower →

    Kevin Hart - playing a version of himself - is on a death-defying quest to become an action star. And with a little help from John Travolta, Nathalie Emmanuel, and Josh Hartnett - he just might pull it off.

  8. 8

    Team America: World Police

    Trey ParkerDP Bill PopeIMDb 7.2TMDB 6.7See in full on FrameThrower →

    The North American counter-terrorism force Team America attacks a group of terrorists in Paris. Later, the leader of the organization, Spottswoode, invites the famous Broadway actor Gary Johnston to join his world police and work undercover in Cairo, infiltrating a terrorist organization in the hope they will disclose their plan of destroying the world. Team America destroy the cell of terrorists, but then the Panama Canal is attacked by the criminals as a payback. Gary feels responsible for the death of many innocents and leaves the counter-terrorism organization. When the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Il, joins a group of pacifist actors and actresses with the intention of using weapons of massive destruction, Team America tries to avoid the destruction of the world.

  9. 9

    Epic Movie (2007)

    Jason Friedberg, Aaron SeltzerDP Shawn MaurerIMDb 2.4TMDB 3.9See in full on FrameThrower →

    Four troubled orphans from four separate movie scenarios who are bound together in a wacky chocolate factory after receiving golden tickets to go on an 'epic adventure.' After they escape from the clutches of a very scary Willy Wonka they discover the magical world of 'Gnarnia' through an enchanted wardrobe. There they must seek the help of a randy lion, a hoard of mutants from the x academy, students of witchcraft and wizardry, funky swash-buckling pirates and a mischievous beaver to defeat the evil white bitch!

  10. 10

    Hot Fuzz (2007)

    Edgar WrightDP Jess HallIMDb 7.8TMDB 7.6See in full on FrameThrower →

    Top London cop PC Nicholas Angel is good. Too good. To stop the rest of his team looking bad, he is reassigned to the quiet town of Sandford. He is paired with Danny Butterman, who endlessly questions him on the action lifestyle. Everything seems quiet for Angel until two actors are found decapitated. It is called an accident, but Angel won't accept that, especially when more and more people turn up dead. Angel and Danny clash with everyone while they try to uncover the truth behind the mystery of the apparent "accidents".

What parody films are made of

How much more often each element appears in a parody frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — tunic is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.

  • tunic5.2×
  • tuxedo4.9×
  • beard2.0×
  • vest1.9×
  • plaid shirt1.7×
  • necktie1.7×
  • stone wall1.7×
  • tie1.6×

How parody films are shot

Weaker signals than the objects above, and worth saying so: most dramatic genres skew dark and night-heavy, so these numbers separate parody from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.

  • 12%interior indeterminatevs 7% baseline
  • 19%high keyvs 12% baseline
  • 31%low keyvs 40% baseline
  • 84%eye levelvs 69% baseline

What breaks the pattern

Sausage Party (2016) is the least typical film here — it carries the least of what the rest of this list is made of. Which is either a failure of the genre label, or the most interesting film on the page.

Method

Every frame in the FrameThrower catalogue is tagged for shot size, lighting, time of day, camera angle, colour and the objects visible in it. This page aggregates those tags across 2,210 frames from 29 films carrying the parody label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (408,752 frames). Films are ranked by how closely they match the theme’s over-indexed elements, weighted by how distinctive each element is; one film per series. Only films with at least 20 indexed frames and 500 TMDB votes are listed.

Machine-readable: /api/list/parody

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These are real movie frames, shown at reduced resolution. All rights remain with their respective owners; they appear here for study, commentary and education under fair-use principles. How these are meant to be used