For the last week of December, we’re re-posting some of our favorite posts from 2011.
————————
A good mockery can go a long way towards exposing cultural trends. And this faux “Trailer for Every Oscar-Winning Movie Ever,” sent along by Ben N., does a fabulous job of revealing just how damn formulaic American movies can be. It’s a treat:
See also: mocking tampon commercials.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 32
Kelly Lenza — June 22, 2011
I feel terrible because "ohhhh CATCH PHRASE" is now my new humorous catch phrase. It cracks me up. Aghhhhhhh
Natalie Red Morse-Noland — June 22, 2011
Laugh laugh laugh laugh laugh.
Yrro Simyarin — June 22, 2011
Cracked is awesome.
Unfortunately, the more I watch foreign media, the more I realize that much of what I at first thought was new and creative is just a different set of formulaic themes.
Samrogo79 — June 22, 2011
Dont forget the Parody of the Modern Church Service. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RJBd8zE48A
Emmy — June 22, 2011
Is it wrong that I would pay good money to see this movie?
Elena — June 22, 2011
They even used a Trajan-like font. Perfect. :___D
George — June 22, 2011
Two thoughts come to mind when I saw this -
1. There's a book by Joseph Campbell showing that mythological stories from many different cultures had similar themes/tropes. Maybe someday there will be a similar book about American movies. Instead of being parody all this will be very scholarly.
2. I've seen so many parodies on this subject that it's time for someone to do some kind of meta-parody.
Anonymous — June 22, 2011
The Rotten Tomatoes show even made a parody song about the formula of indie flicks. When you look outside the box, you look into another Box...
jamy barab — June 22, 2011
I wish they'd included this voice over, "Female characters as development points for the male lead, but with no independent story lines of their own!" Otherwise, spot-on.
Kelly — June 22, 2011
This reminds me of "Title of the Song," a parody of most boy band hits:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoCGKFg-WYw.
Links for Fun and Profit « Intractable Bibliophilia — June 23, 2011
[...] In the category “not a book but still awesome” : the trailer for every Oscar-winning movie ever made. [...]
Ctl — June 23, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcPsZkcO9ys
Obnoxious comment suggesting lack of originality in relation to theme of lamp-shading narrative dialogue. Wouldn't that make me an ass?
Anonymous — June 24, 2011
Lisa: I think this clip originated last year and interestingly, HBO's new ad campaign for their HBO Go service does much the same: http://www.adweek.com/video/advertising-branding/ad-flashback-hbo-go-132145
Yeggplant — June 25, 2011
Just wanted to mention that this video features BriTANicK, a youtube comedy duo.
If anyone wants to check out some of their other stuff, you can find them at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/BriTANicKdotcom
Duncytait — July 1, 2011
My favourite part was "Laugh laugh laugh. It's not going to be an entirely dramatic film... Because we laughed there."
đorđe mirnić — July 1, 2011
This is Sooooo true!!!!
Hit List: July 1-4, 2011 « IMDb: All the Latest — July 1, 2011
[...] Formula for a Successful American Movie from Sociological Images (Suggested by reelgrrls) [...]
scribbler — July 4, 2011
Funny but Steven Soderbergh did this in '96 with his brilliant Schizopolis
Casper Friendly — July 6, 2011
Comment of approval. Laugh laugh laugh laugh.
Laura — December 29, 2011
I like how they called the black guy that was being accused of something a "human male"...what? could I not tell that already? they could have used that moment to comment on how he was the token black guy or "magical negro" but no. Not to mention all of the whiteness in this film. wish there were more comments about that and able bodiedness like, the actor who was playing that was ablebodied or that the able bodied protagonist can feel so good about himself for being the white dude, abele-bodied savior.
Di_calca — December 29, 2011
this was very funny
Kick-ass trailer | Critical Sass — January 1, 2012
[...] too. To make life simple, I’m settling for reposting this kick-ass trailer, via Lisa Wade of Sociological Images. As Wade notes, this trailer perfectly illustrates the formulaic quality of many American movies. [...]
tubenext — May 11, 2022
Hollywood movies always become a successful because of there investment, creativity and marketing