The Naked Gun marks the return of the classic movie series, reviving a comedy style that hasn’t been seen in years. No, it’s not another legacy sequel or Liam Neeson action flick (though the busy Irish actor still churns out a few of those annually). Like the original films, this new installment is a spoof—a genre capable of producing both comedy masterpieces and outright flops. Maybe that’s why these movies, despite modest budgets and decent success, often vanish for long stretches.
Now, at a time when pure comedies rarely break $100 million at the U.S. box office, The Naked Gun appears to be sparking a revival. A This Is Spinal Tap sequel arrives next month, new Scary Movie and Spaceballs installments are in the works, and rumors of Austin Powers 4 are swirling.
This resurgence traces back to comedy legends—not just the original Naked Gun, but more importantly Airplane! (1980), the genre-defining disaster-movie spoof from the trio of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker (known as ZAZ). While they didn’t invent parody, Airplane! perfected it with relentless deadpan humor and razor-sharp wit, dethroning Mel Brooks (Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles) as the king of spoofs.
Unlike Brooks, who often starred in his films, ZAZ relied on actors like Leslie Nielsen, whose deadpan brilliance in Airplane! (“I am serious… and stop calling me Shirley”) made him the face of their work. After the short-lived but hilarious TV series Police Squad!, Nielsen led The Naked Gun (1988), which, oddly, wasn’t a direct parody of any specific genre. Instead, it blended cop-show tropes with noir elements—and plenty of random movie references—to become a hit that spawned sequels and countless imitators.
The ’90s saw a spoof boom, with films like Loaded Weapon 1, Fatal Instinct, Hot Shots! Part Deux, and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Later, Don’t Be a Menace… launched the Wayans brothers into Scary Movie, which surprisingly outgrossed its meta-horror target, Scream. The 2000s brought a new wave of spoofs, some from Scary Movie writers Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, who carried the torch—for better or worse—into the next era.Watching Friedberg and Seltzer’s 2000s spoofs like Date Movie, Epic Movie, and Meet the Spartans feels like watching kids try to copy Looney Tunes or perform Saturday Night Live sketches—they vaguely grasp the concept (and love dropping objects on characters) but lack even basic skill, falling far short of amateurish. At times, their films, like Disaster Movie, barely seem to understand what a spoof is. They know it involves referencing other movies or pop culture, so they do it constantly, but it’s just a shallow imitation. Look, I’m Iron Man! I’m Juno! I’m Miley Cyrus! Splat! (And of course, the most frequent targets are “annoying” women.)
Like a thousand-times-worse version of Nielsen’s post-ZAZ work, Friedberg and Seltzer churned out so many terrible spoofs that their box office decline felt like a mercy. That loud, clumsy style now thrives on YouTube and TikTok, where at least amateurs aren’t charging $10 for subpar skits. Even decent spoofs often feel stretched at 85 minutes—maybe rapid-fire jokes work better in shorter formats.
Perhaps recognizing this, or simply wanting to channel Police Squad! rather than the mugging-heavy sequels, the new Naked Gun avoids direct scene parodies. Its opening nods to The Dark Knight’s bank heist in style and music, but no one shows up in Joker makeup. Director Akiva Schaffer (of Lonely Island fame) resists the urge to mock current trends like superhero films—an instinct that made Walk Hard, one of the last great spoofs, a flop in 2007. Instead, The Naked Gun sticks to cop-movie clichés and absurd gags (a “cold case” stored in a fridge, a car wreck cleaned up with a claw machine), with Neeson delivering deadpan perfection.
So what does it take for spoofs to thrive? Follow-ups to Scary Movie or Spaceballs seem overdue, given the endless horror trends and Star Wars sequels. But hyper-specific parodies are risky—done well (Young Frankenstein, Walk Hard), they’re sharp; done poorly, they’re just unfunny mashups. Then again, what exactly is the new Naked Gun spoofing?
Schaffer pokes fun at aging white men griping about the world while clinging to power. Mostly, though, this revival offers the joy of watching a deliberately silly movie in a theater, laughing with strangers. Spoofs can work on TikTok or streaming, but gags that play with cinematic reality land best on the big screen. The Naked Gun understands this better than any cop-movie trend—it delivers the rare experience of laughing nonstop at something gloriously dumb, as relentless as any 2020s blockbuster. If this remake becomes the year’s biggest comedy, maybe spoofs aren’t dead after all.Over time, this could help moviegoers rediscover their love for the theater. If even a subgenre known for producing some of the worst comedies can still make people laugh, perhaps comedy as a whole will have a chance to make a comeback.
