In Theaters 37 Years Ago, the Most Underrated Parody Movie Ever Roasted Indiana Jones, Conan & More

Although its star has been a musical icon for decades and its story spoofed everything from Conan the Barbarian to Indiana Jones, one of the best parody movies of all time went largely unnoticed when it was released 37 years ago. The Scary Movie series proves that parody movies can be box office hits even if they confound critics, since the franchise has never managed to win over mainstream reviewers but has consistently dominated at the box office.

While 1980s classic Airplane and the recently rebooted Naked Gun franchise managed to earn both critical acclaim and commercial success, many other classic parody movies were less fortunate. Charlie Sheen’s classic parodies of Top Gun and Rambo III, Hot Shots and Hot Shots: Part Deux, were huge box office hits but failed to win over critics, while Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s sports movie spoof BASEketball was both a financial and critical flop despite South Park’s popularity. Meanwhile, Weird Al Yankovic’s masterpiece UHF took years to find its audience.

UHF! Was Released On July 21, 1989

Released on July 21, 1989, UHF stars Yankovic as George Newman, a slacker who becomes an unlikely star of the entertainment business after his uncle wins a radio station in a high-stakes poker game. With Fran Drescher as the station’s secretary, who soon becomes a reporter, and Seinfeld’s Michael Richards as the janitor who becomes the station’s star children’s host, UHF has no shortage of notable names from ’80s and ’90s comedy among its cast members.

However, it is not any one actor, but rather the sheer chaotic absurdity of the movie’s relentless stream of parodies that makes UHF a true cult classic. Despite ostensibly focusing on a small radio station’s rise to prominence, the movie manages to cram in spoofs of Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Beverly Hillbillies, the Rambo franchise, and even the historical biopic Gandhi. Like Weird Al’s many iconic song parodies, the movie maintains a relentless pace where four or five jokes are often packed into a single minute of screen time.

Weird Al Yankovic’s Cult Movie Deserved To Be A Bigger Success

While long-running shows like American Dad have popularised surreal comedy in the decades since, UHF was a touch too much for mainstream audiences in 1989. Dubbed “Bizarre” by critics upon its initial release, UHF earned a rare 0-star rating from Gene Siskel and a mixed review from Roger Ebert, who argued that Yankovic’s style of comedy didn’t translate well to a feature-length runtime. Sadly, the movie was also a financial failure, earning only $6 million on a budget of $5 million.

Fortunately, time has been kind to UHF, which was a movie released ahead of its time if ever there was one. The anarchic pace of the movie’s skits calls to mind the goofy, anything-goes nature of Internet meme culture, and UHF’s live-action cartoon tone has more energy and verve than otherwise comparable efforts from the same era, such as Amazon Women on the Moon and The Kentucky Fried Movie. Thus, comedy fans should seek out Weird Al Yankovic’s UHF, despite its disappointing box office performance upon the movie’s original release.

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