There’s a fine line in movies between a farcical comedy and a straight-up spoof. Whether they take direct inspiration from a specific film, or just mock the stereotypes of an entire genre, parody movies are the cinematic equivalent of a Wierd Al Yankovic song. Wryly poking fun at some of the most popular movies ever made, spoof films are rarely blockbusters but have fervent fan followings in their own right. Some have even become franchises themselves.

While the spoof genre is one that Hollywood hardly seems to make anymore, there have been quite a few throughout history that have become classics. Whether they’re lampooning the biggest hits or obscure fan favorites, they all deliver loads of laugh while delivering pointed satire. Hailing from the minds of creators like Mel Brooks, the Zucker brothers, and the Wayans, we’ve found the best that the genre has to offer, from “Scary Movie” to “Spaceballs” and beyond. 

In 1996 came “Scream,” prompting a slew of imitators, and four years later the Wayans brothers took their crack at a parody with “Scary Movie.” The only movie on this list to spoof a film that was already a satire, “Scary Movie” took the stinging genre meta-commentary of “Scream” and dialed it up to 11. Taking jabs at the inherent silliness present in even the most visceral horror movies, the Wayans tell the story of a group of troublemaking teens who accidentally kill a man and hope to keep their crime a secret. 

Beyond “Scream,” the film makes light of many other horror classics, from “I Know What You Did Last Summer” to “Friday the 13th.” The Wayans also ushered in a new kind of spoof with “Scary Movie,” lampooning the trendiest current movies in a series of rapid-fire gags that cover more than one genre. Its slasher tropes are complimented by laughs at the expense of “The Matrix” and “The Usual Suspects,” among many others. Not only did “Scary Movie” also yield multiple sequels, but it started a veritable franchise of its own with entries like “Date Movie,” “Epic Movie,” and “Disaster Movie.”

More than just a spoof, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” took the top spot in our ranked list of the best comedy movies of all time. The cast and writers of the hit British sketch comedy show “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” turn the tale of King Arthur, his Round Table and their quest to find Christ’s cup from the Last Supper into a feature-length story, with the cast all playing multiple parts. 

Released in 1975, “Holy Grail” is a broad satire of historical epics and a direct spoof of medieval movies like “Camelot” and “Lancelot of the Lake,” which was released the previous year. It redefined what a comedy could be with a perfect mix of sharp wit, slapstick humor, sight gags, and plenty of meta humor. From start to finish the film lampoons everything from Frenchmen to the movie business itself, while essentially being a series of mini-sketches tied together with a very basic plot. It delivers some of the best lines in comedy history and is still eminently quotable decades later.

In 1991, Kevin Costner starred in the blockbuster adventure “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,” and two years later came the spoof version of the story, “Robin Hood: Men in Tights.” Featuring “The Princess Bride” star Cary Elwes in the title role, the throwback comedy was again directed and co-written by Mel Brooks, and co-starred comic legend Richard Lewis while giving Dave Chapelle his first big screen role as merry man Achoo.

Beyond gags at the expense of the Costner flick, the movie does what any good parody does, finding laughs in smashing together wildly different personalities and modern tropes in anachronistic ways. But part of what makes it so iconic isn’t just that it’s hilarious, but also its impressive cast. Beyond Elwes, Lewis, and Chappelle, the likes of Patrick Stewart, Gene Wilder, Isaac Hayes, and Tracey Ullman also make memorable appearances. Brooks himself even gets in on the fun, playing a Jewish version of Friar Tuck, Rabbi Tuckman. Not as well-remembered as “The Naked Gun” or “Hot Shots!,” “Men in Tights” might be one of the more underrated ’90s spoofs.

After “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka,” Wayans brothers Marlon and Shawn took aim at another sub-genre with 1996’s “Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood.” The wordy title is a direct parody of “Menace II Society,” “Juice,” and “Boyz N the Hood,” and the film acts as a spoof of those and other so-called ‘hood flicks of the early ’90s.

Mashing together the plots of those movies, “Don’t Be a Menace” has Shawn Wayans playing Tray, a young man sent to live on the mean streets of South Central Los Angeles with his father. There, he reconnects with his wilder cousin Loc Dog (Marlon Wayans). But Tray soon finds trouble when he hooks up with Dashiki (Tracey Cherelle Jones), the ex-girlfriend of Toothpick (Darrell Heath), a local gangbanger just released from prison. Absurdist humor at its finest, “Don’t Be a Menace” peels away the emotional weight and grim stories of more serious urban films until all that’s left are laughs.

A direct spoof of “Star Trek,” the 1997 sci-fi comedy “Galaxy Quest” satirizes the classic 1960s TV series and the genre as a whole, as well as the fandom surrounding it. But it’s also more of a tribute and love letter to “Trek” rather than a takedown of that property. The story concerns the fictional cast of an iconic space adventure show getting mistaken for their on-screen characters by a group of aliens who visit Earth while on the run from space terrorists.

Starring Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Sam Rockwell, and Tony Shalhoub, “Galaxy Quest” skirts the line between ordinary comedy and a spoof. While the film was never a huge hit at the box office, it has since gained a fervent fan following. Perhaps surprisingly, it’s become a favorite of “Star Trek” fans — the very people the movie pokes fun at — with many Trekkies considering it a better “Trek” film than some of the real ones. But you don’t have to be a fan of William Shatner to love it, and that’s what makes it so good.

Rudy Ray Moore may have been the king of blaxploitation comedy, but it’s the Wayans who made the best spoof of the genre, 1988’s “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka.” Keenan Ivory Wayans wrote, directed, and also stars in the movie alongside family members Damon, Kim, Marlon, Shawn, and Nadia. But it’s ’70s blaxploitation stars Isaac Hayes and Jim Brown who get the big roles.

The film sees Wayans playing Jack Spade, who returns home to discover the streets are ruled by thugs. The people of Any Ghetto, U.S.A., live in fear of drug kingpin Mr. Big (John Vernon), and it’s up to Spade to stop him. Thankfully he has help: a gang of street toughs with nicknames like Hammer (Hayes), Slammer (Brown), and Flyguy (Antonion Fargas).

Owing debts to the likes of “Shaft” and “Foxy Brown,” the Wayans’ “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka” does what any good parody does, taking tropes from those genre staples and turning them into over-the-top laughs.

Long before Austin Powers came on the scene, there was “Our Man Flint,” a more direct spoof of the James Bond franchise. But this version puts a dramatic actor — not a comedian — in the title role, with James Coburn from “The Magnificent Seven” starring as Derek Flint, a retired secret agent who suits up once more when a group of diabolical madmen threatens the world.

Taking every stereotype of the spy movie to the extreme, “Our Man Flint” has the hero cavorting with a bevy of babes and making impossible escapes. The movie also yielded a sequel, “In Like Flint,” yet not before Woody Allen and Peter Sellers rode the film’s coattails in 1967 with the first “official” James Bond parody, “Casino Royale.” But that’s not the strangest thing about the film, as modern rewatches reveal one of the movie’s terrorist villains to be named Hans Gruber — yes, just like the bad guy in “Die Hard.”

The only movie on our list to parody an international film, 2004’s “Kung Pow: Enter the Fist” was a self-effacing sendup of Hong Kong cinema and martial arts films that had gained greater popularity in America around the turn of the millennium. But the film does more than just make jokes about the genre, as the film’s writer and director, Steve Oedekerk, uses VFX to add himself to the 1971 Cantonese-language film “Savage Killers.” 

With some clever camera tricks, digital enhancements, and purposefully bad English dubbing, Oedekerk mixes scenes from “Savage Killers” with newly-shot sequences to deliver an entirely new story. This time, it’s about a kung fu master, known only as ‘The Chosen One,’ who seeks out bloody vengeance against the man who murdered his family — an insidious killer named Master Pain.

The humor is cheap and the jokes are juvenile, but the cleverness of the concept makes “Kung Pow: Enter the Fist” worth watching. More ambitious than it is great, it’s a truly unique spoof experience.

Following “Airplane!,” Jim Abrahams and the Zucker brothers returned in 1984 with the less-heralded “Top Secret!,” which continued their tradition of putting an exclamation point in the title. A more broad parody film than their previous effort, the movie spoofs multiple films and disparate genres. Gags are sourced from “The Dirty Dozen” and “The Wizard of Oz,” and it even mocks Elvis Presley, with Kilmer taking part in a romantic musical number.

Kilmer plays American rock n’ roller Nick Rivers, who heads out on a European tour during the Cold War, which the East German government decides is the perfect distraction for an invasion of the West. Hilarity ensues in classic Zucker/Abrahams fashion as Rivers is forced to become an unlikely hero and stop an all-out war. But the brilliance of “Top Secret!” lies in its ability to pack every minute with sarcastic jokes, physical humor, multiple sight gags, and clever wordplay. One interesting bit of trivia, of course, is that the head mold made for Peter Cushing’s prosthetics in the film was later used to help create the CGI Grand Moff Tarkin in “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.”

The ’80s saw the proliferation of buddy cop action-comedies followed by multiple sequels, and in 1991, National Lampoon decided to make a joke about it with “Loaded Weapon 1.” Starring Emilio Estevez and Samuel L. Jackson as a pair of Los Angeles cops out to stop a vicious drug lord named Mr. Jigsaw (Tim Curry), the movie is a clear parody of “Lethal Weapon.” It even features a quirky mobster informant played by Jon Lovitz, doing an intentionally awful impersonation of Joe Pesci from the “Lethal Weapon” sequels.

More than most spoofs, “Loaded Weapon 1” loads up on the celebrity cameos, including Erik Estrada and Larry Wilcox from “CHiPs,” Bruce Willis as John McClane, and James Doohan reprising his role as Scotty from “Star Trek.” William Shatner even plays a supporting role as a military general. Just a year before “Pulp Fiction,” Jackson shows he might be even better at comedy than drama. The movie makes all the obvious jokes but gets in plenty of clever ones too, and while it never got a sequel, we’re still hoping for a prequel, “Loaded Weapon 0.” 

Possibly the most famous spoof ever made — and certainly one of the best — “Airplane!” does what few could ever imagine: making a parody of a movie few people even saw. Based on the little-remembered 1957 movie “Zero Hour!,” the Zucker brothers’ classic is also influenced by disaster movies of the 1970s, most notably the three “Airport” films starring George Kennedy. 

In this one, Robert Hayes plays washed-up pilot Ted Striker, who must shake off the rust and put down the booze to take the stick of a jetliner after the pilot and many of its passengers fall suddenly ill. Loaded with some of the most iconic moments in comedy history, “Airplane!” practically created the blueprint for how to make a modern film parody. And what it made it so brilliant is that the audience didn’t even need to have seen “Zero Hour!” to get the joke. If you’ve never seen it, “Airplane!” is wall-to-wall laughs, with too many famous gags to mention, which helped earn its place as one of the most rewatchable comedy movies ever.

Spoofs of the horror genre are fairly common, from “Scary Movie” to “Dracula: Dead and Loving It,” but it was “Young Frankenstein” that wrote the book on the subject. Directed by Mel Brooks from a script by Brooks and Gene Wilder, the film pays homage to classic Universal Studios horror movies of the 1930s, right down to being filmed in black and white. 

Wilder also stars for his “Blazing Saddles” director as Dr. Frederick “Fronkensteen,” grandson of the infamous Victor Frankenstein. Not thrilled to be related to a mad scientist (hence the different pronunciation of his name), Frederick heads to Transylvania to take control of the family estate where he meets the hunchback Igor (Marty Feldman) and follows in his family tradition by bringing a dead body back to life. What really makes “Young Frankenstein” pop is Wilder’s performance: the actor’s work turns what could have been a one-note joke into a hysterical feature-length farce that’s also a loving homage to its genre.

With the success of “The Naked Gun,” spoof movies were back in a big way for a few years. Jim Abrahams ditched the Zucker Brothers in 1991 to write and direct “Hot Shots!,” a parody of one of the biggest action movies of the era, “Top Gun.” Leading the film is Charlie Sheen as maverick pilot Sean Harley, aka “Topper,” while Cary Elwes co-stars as rival pilot Kent Gregory, whose callsign is “Pirate.” They duel it out in the skies and on the ground, all for the love of a stereotyped love interest, Ramada Thompson (Valerie Gurino).

A slapstick farce, “Hot Shots!” uses the cliche story beats from the Tom Cruise classic to dish out goofy one-liners and put its star cast through even sillier pratfalls. It all may seem like grade school fun but that’s also part of its charm, as it reduces a box office smash to little more than childish backyard humor. It earned a sequel, “Hot Shots! Part Deux,” and some may debate which is better, but for our money the original comes out on top.

Out of the many movie spoofs you never knew existed, “High Anxiety” might be the best among them. A direct send-up of the Alfred Hitchcock classic “Vertigo,” the 1977 Mel Brooks cult classic stars Brooks alongside a cavalcade of his friends including Cloris Leachman, Harvey Korman, and Madeline Kahn. The film takes aim at other Hitchcock classics too, while also finding humor in the ridiculousness of the psychoanalysis movement of the 1970s. 

As in “Vertigo,” the protagonist, Dr. RIchard Thorndyke (Brooks) suffers from a new, clinically diagnosed form of acrophobia, or fear of heights, called “High Anxiety.” The film focuses on the odd occurrences that go on while he’s employed at the Psycho-Neurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous, including at least one mysterious death.

“High Anxiety” is often overlooked in favor of Brooks’ more famous films. But as a stinging takedown of Alfred Hitchcock’s over-the-top stories, it revels in pointing out just how silly legitimate thrillers can be when you sit down and really think about them.

Few people at the time probably realized it, but the 1988 comedy “The Naked Gun” was a movie adaptation of the extremely short-lived 1982 TV flop “Police Squad,” starring Leslie Nielsen as goofball Detective Frank Drebin. Esteemed actor George Kennedy and NFL star O.J. Simpson played his colleagues in the film, Captain Ed Hocken and Detective Nordberg. The plot involved an assassination attempt on the life of Queen Elizabeth II.

Created by Jim Abrahams and the Zucker brothers (David and Jerry), “The Naked Gun” kicked off a run of parody movies after it totaled more than $78 million at the box office, and has only gotten funnier as the years have worn on. It has one of the most hilarious final acts on this list, with baseball legend Reggie Jackson playing himself as a would-be royal assassin. It’s also the first parody film to get a full trilogy, with “Naked Gun 2 1/2” and “Naked Gun 3 1/3” following it, and is the rare spoof to earn a remake: Liam Neeson inherits the role of Drebin in a new “Naked Gun” movie currently scheduled for 2025.

There are many imitators, spoofs, and weird rip-offs of “Star Wars” out there, but only Mel Brooks’ “Spaceballs” stands the test of time. That’s largely thanks to its side-splitting critique of George Lucas’ space fantasy, sci-fi as a whole, and the movie business’ obsession with blockbusters and merchandising. Despite satirizing a world-famous film populated by some of the most beloved fictional characters of all time, it somehow manages to create its own iconic heroes and villains, including the bumbling baddie Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis), the loveable furball Barf (John Candy), and the uptight android Dot Matrix (voiced by Joan Rivers).

A pitch-perfect cast also includes Bill Pullman as the roguish hero Lone Starr, Daphne Zuniga as Princess Vespa, and of course Brooks in dual roles as President Skroob and the sagely Yogurt. John Hurt even pops up to recreate his infamous chest-bursting scene from “Alien,” while future “Star Trek” star Tim Russ has one of the movie’s funniest moments. An all-time classic, “Spaceballs” might be the most perfect spoof movie ever made.