In 1999, Steve Oedekerk created a Star Wars parody using thumbs as puppets. Thumb Wars: The Phantom Cuticle is the first of what would become Thumbs!, a series of thumb-puppet parodies that included short films like Bat Thumb (2001), The Blair Thumb (2002), and Thumbtanic (2002).
These were low-budget but visually tight films that packed jokes into every line. I was a bit too young for Airplane! and it would be a year or two before I would experience a Family Guy cut scene; the Thumbs! series was likely my first exposure to parody. Aside from the gimmick of human features on disembodies thumbs, Oedekerk added original jokes to real script moments from the original films that were sometimes commentary on the film itself, other times non sequiturs that I still quote (“I hate to break it to you but deers don’t have dorsal fins, okay?”).
While they initially aired on Cartoon Network, I experienced them through sketchy Kazaa/Limewire downloads and would watch each of them on-repeat.
Independent parody had its full circle moment this Thanksgiving when comedian Grace Reiter released The Hunger Games (but better) – A Parody, a 40-minute film shot over a 3-day weekend and subsequently published on YouTube. Currently surpassing 4.7 million views, it’s the most-watched video on Reiter’s channel, one already brimming with original short form content and skits.
Reiter and the extended crew are all incredibly talented, and inspired casting choices utilize the small crew to hilarious advantage. Like Oedekerk’s Thumbs!, The Hunger Games (but better) – A Parody (THGBBAP) mashes earnest deliveries with pure absurdity. An a cappella performance of a song that officially classifies this as a holiday film is followed by the recreation of a scene from the original film that creeps in with sweeping horns and a fully committed performance from Reiter that almost had me tearing up.
Parody is comedy’s approach to high-concept. That is, it explores the idea that restrictions force creative innovation. In parody, an existing world, plot, and characters are the framework that creativity flourishes within. Oedekerk and Reiter play with those frameworks in ways that are deeply reverent for both the source material and the creative process of making moving pictures.
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