Thanks to the Warner Brothers Blu-ray Elite program, I recently received a free copy of Gone With the Wind (1939). The holiday weekend afforded me a chance to re-visit the sweeping epic. I’ll have a review up soon enough, but for now, I’d like to discuss the copious amount of times the film has been parodied. As I re-watched it, I couldn’t help but think of many, many times it’s been spoofed through the years. Here are my eight favorites.
Goon With the Wind, The Muppets
Leave it to the Muppets to create a great spoof of a classic film. I particularly enjoy hearing Miss Piggy’s faux southern accent.
Went With the Wind, The Carol Burnett Show
This particular parody is the first one I thought of when I was re-watching the original. The people who put this show together were comic geniuses and parodies like this prove it. Harvey Korman is great as always, but Carol Burnett steals the show with her dress.
Monkey-ed Movie: Gone With the Wind
The 1990s saw a strange phenomenon. TBS aired a series of classic movie scenes, re-enacted with monkeys. Part of me realizes that it isn’t THAT funny. And yet another part of me will always think that monkeys doing human things is hilarious.
The ending of Albert Brooks’ Real Life (1979)
I guess this is a spoiler alert, but it isn’t exactly the kind of movie where anyone should care about spoilers. In the film, Brooks’ faux reality show has fallen to pieces and he’s desperately trying to find a way to end it. His solution is to borrow from great films. His natural conclusion is to burn his documentary subjects’ house down in hilarious fashion while the original Gone With the Wind score blares. “It’s beautiful, it’s so beautiful”, he says, while wearing a clown suit. Here’s the clip, and I can’t recommend the movie enough to begin with.
Samantha Goes South for a Spell, Bewitched
There was an entire episode of Bewitched in which Samantha is sent to the antebellum south. My favorite part- Isabel Sanford (a.k.a. Louise Jefferson from The Jeffersons) plays the part of Mammy.
Gone With the Wind: Edited for Seniors, The Simpsons, The Old Man and the C Student
In the “edited for seniors” version, Rhett asks Scarlett to remarry him (in a voice that’s clearly not Clark Gable). I can’t find an embeddable version but you can see it here. And frankly, my dear, you should give a damn that the Simpsons have parodied Gone With the Wind quite a few other times.
Bunnies: Gone With the Wind
Taking a cue from TBS in the 90s, the Starz network came up with movie parodies featuring cartoon bunnies in the 2000s. Their parody of Gone With the Wind actually serves as a great summary of the film.
French and Saunders
Seeing British people spoof accents from the American south is fertile ground for humor, along with some of the social conventions of the antebellum south.
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Holy crap, I forgot about the TBS monkey thing. Thanks for posting.
One day at work, after a meeting, several of us projected one after another of those on the wall. It was great.
The Simpsons’ episode where they have a trampoline and we have a look at their backyard full of hurt kids just like the original full of hundreds of extras… Ah nice memories!
Yes! I knew The Simpsons had done one (of literally everything, ever!), but I couldn’t place it. Thank you.
Other times The Simpsons have referenced it: Homer yelling out “As God is my witness, I’ll always be hungry again!”; Bart yelling out “As God is my witness, I shall pass the fourth grade!”; Skinner saying “Tomorrow is another school day” against a backdrop that looks just like the one when Scarlett utters her “hungry” line; and the one Michael mentioned.
The funny thing about that reference is that I’ve seen it before but never had a clue what it was from, or even that it was a reference to something.
I actually saw The Simpsons episode many years before I watched Gone With the Wind and the reference immediately popped rioght before my eyes while I was seing it in GWTW.
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Great list! Thanks for posting.
You’re welcome, Brittani!
There was also a Laugh-In (I think) parody with the Rhett character quoting, “Frankly, my dear, I’m going to build a dam…”!