There’s some room in Star Wars to poke some fun at the far, far away galaxy a long time ago. While Star Wars has some perfect moments, none of the films are perfect. While shows like Andor have lifted the quality level some, it is still, ultimately, a story “for twelve-year-olds” about a kid with magic powers and a laser sword who manages to both save the galaxy and be related to every other character in the franchise. Star Wars is best enjoyed as an emotional and sensory experience more than an intellectual one.
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To that end, parodies and comedic references to Star Wars have piled up over the years. Some takes are more mean-spirited than others, leading, of course, to the point that it’s hard to make a good satire of something if you don’t actually get why it’s so beloved. The ten parodies featured here do get Star Wars, and they approach it with the good-natured manner of fans who can balance loving the franchise with acknowledging some of the more ridiculous parts of it.
1) Spaceballs
You can’t get more established as an essential of cinema than being parodied by Mel Brooks. Spaceballs debuted ten years after Star Wars did, so it’s not the first parody of it, and it definitely wouldn’t be the last. It’s probably the most prominent early attempt to take on the ridiculousness of Star Wars, though, and even if some of what’s being satirized feels more like the prequels and the sequels than the original trilogy, somehow, Spaceballs is both utterly dedicated to making fun of certain aspects of Star Wars and also utterly dedicated to building its own unique version of a space opera. The sequel, planned for 2027, has a lot more material to draw upon than the original did, that’s for sure.
2) “The Saga Begins” by “Weird” Al Yankovic
“Weird” Al Yankovic’s “The Saga Begins” thanks to Internet spoilers; the song recaps The Phantom Menace and was written and recorded before the film actually released. Yankovic mixes Don McLean’s “American Pie” with the new lore of the prequels, as his version of Obi-Wan Kenobi retells the origins of Anakin Skywalker. Even though Lucasfilm refused to let Yankovic see the movie early, he managed to see an early charity screening, and along with the Internet spoilers he’d collected, the rest is history. Of all the humorous parodies and references to Star Wars in pop culture, this one did give George Lucas a smile, in the end.
3) Buzz Lightyear’s Backstory (Toy Story 2)
There are hints that Buzz Lightyear’s backstory as the lead of some sci-fi cartoon is more Star Wars than Star Trek in the original Toy Story, but Toy Story 2 fully embraces that lore. The Buzz from the toy store relives cartoon Buzz’s story, as the toy version of the evil Emperor Zurg reveals that he’s Buzz’s father in an affectionate replay of the iconic Luke-Vader showdown on Bespin. Both the cartoon series Buzz Lightyear of Star Command and Lightyear build upon the lore from the films, with even more send-ups of Star Wars.
4) Robot Chicken
Robot Chicken often parodied pop culture, but the stop motion show seemed to enjoy its artistic premise the most when playing with Star Wars action figures. The best part of Robot Chicken was probably their version of Emperor Palpatine, who read as an utterly vain bureaucrat. Palpatine can be tricky for humorists to satirize, but he’s ludicrous at his core, so it was nice to see Robot Chicken fully play with the theatricality of the character as established in the prequels.
5) Lego Star Wars: The Video Game
As the Lego Star Wars franchise as moved along, the games have gotten more sincere, but when the series started out in 2005, it took the source material less seriously. You got moments like the above, where Qui-Gon’s death is taken as a joke, with the X’s replacing his eyes. Early Lego Star Wars leaned into the slapstick, as well as the core idea that these were just minifigs pretending to be our favorite characters. Minifigs are just plastic, after all, and their physics are all over the place in early games, as characters explode into pieces when they ‘die.’ Lego Star Wars was never too pointy in its humor, instead preferring to give a Looney Tunes-level of physical comedy to Star Wars.
6) The Family Guy Trilogy
As much as Family Guy and creator Seth MacFarlane might be more known for parodying Trek, Family Guy went a long way towards satirizing Star Wars, too. Family Guy has only parodied the original trilogy, as hoped for parodies of the prequels and sequels have gotten wrapped up in red tape in the Disney-era. Now that Family Guy, under the Fox and 20th Century banners, is also technically a Disney property, maybe the Griffins will rise to the challenge again.
7) Troopers (College Humor)
You can watch the entirety of the original Troopers on Dropout’s YouTube channel, and you can watch the second webseries on Dropout’s subscription based service. Troopers existed in the College Humor era of the comedy company, and company CEO Sam Reich played one of the titular troopers. Troopers is about two low-level soldiers who are terrible at their jobs on a space station that is definitely not the Death Star. Aubrey Plaza also stars in the original webseries as “The Princess.”
8) “Star Boys” (Funhaus)
Funhaus was a YouTube channel that was part of Rooster Teeth, the Internet comedy and animation studio ultimately owned and shuttered by Warner Bros. “Star Boys” came along late in Funhaus’s run, with a new generation of on-screen personalities at its helm. While the bulk of the series was playing often obscure Star Wars games, each episode of the series featured the two series leads, Patrick Brown and Jacob Fullerton, green screening themselves into footage from the original Star Wars films. They would often reenact key scenes from the films, often giving the nostalgic vibe of playing classic scenes with your friends in the backyard.
The gameplay parts of the videos had their own great moments, with a tortured Yoda puppet (voiced by Elyse Willems) bringing a lot of chaos in later installments. It’s Star Wars parodies by a generation of fan-comedians who grew up with the franchise, and who clearly love Star Wars for all it can be.
9) Matt the Radar Technician (Saturday Night Live)
SNL has often parodied Star Wars, but this sketch is probably the best of the lot. Adam Driver plays Kylo Ren going undercover as “Matt the Radar Technician,” in a satire that works on a deeper level, as its also parodied the often ridiculous reality show Undercover Boss, where high-powered CEOs deigned to work ‘ordinary’ jobs for a day. Putting Kylo in that role just highlights how indulgent the whole concept is, and Driver fully commits to the role. Matt the Radar Technician has even become a popular cosplay these days!
10) William Shakespeare’s Star Wars by Ian Doescher
My kingdom for a full production of William Shakespeare’s Star Wars! Doescher, a theology scholar, ‘translated’ the original films into the literary style of William Shakespeare, gaining Lucasfilm’s blessing from the start. At this point, Doescher has adapted all of the films, and he’s moved on to other popular culture properties. The idea of joining up Shakespeare and Star Wars makes sense on both a historical and comedic level; the theatricality of much of Shakespeare can be traced down the years to Star Wars, and putting Star Wars in Shakespearean style blank verse just makes sense. The first three books have audiobooks, too!
What’s your favorite Star Wars parody? Let us know in the comments below!
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