Poll: Spaceballs versus Galaxy Quest. Who is the best parody?

If you have not watched Spaceballs and Galaxy Quest. Please refrain from voting. These movies are quite old, so they are not expensive to rent.

I should note that I have watched both of these multiple times. Both these movies are ruined when put on Cable TV by invasive editing.

For those unfamiliar with these movies. Spaceballs is a Star Wars parody and Galaxy Quest is a Star Trek parody. In both cases they are affectionate parodies. The writers and directors of the parodies liked and respected the movies they mocked.

Both movies had respectable special effects budgets, famous skilled actors, and lots of great quotable lines.

Lots of Star Trek actors said they loved Galaxy Quest. I'm not sure about the Star Wars cast, but George Lucas generally spoke well of Spaceball and the employees of Skywalker Ranch helped do some of the post-production work on Spaceballs.

I hope you enjoy @NIGHTBRINGER

 

They probably cut off a lot of salty language.

Edits of Galaxy Quest edit the movie for time constraints which should be a class three felony. They didn't just cut out dialog but they removed entire jokes. They cut out most of Guy's screams. That was the best part!



I mean all his best moments were when he was making funny inarticulate noises.

 

Mel Brooks is funnier than Tim Allen. Both are great though.

 

With your love of joke based threads and sci-fi genre discussion threads I figured you would like parody as much as Scolenex likes bamboo.

 

I agree that both are great but I voted for Galaxy Quest. Mel Brooks is funnier than Tim Allen. But Mel Brooks is not funnier than Tim Allen, Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, Sam Rockwell, and Tony Shalhoub.

Granted Spacebooks had a stellar cast of many of the 1980s best comedic actors, but that didn't help them as much. The Star Wars movies tend to be centered around a single Jedi protagonist, not an ensemble (except for Phantom Menace). True to form, Spaceballs hinged mostly on the character of Lonestar.

The Star Trek series is centered around an ensemble, not a protagonist (except for STD). True to form, Galaxy Quest was built on all the command crew playing off each other. It didn't have to ride 100% on Tim Allen's not inconsiderable charm.

Another thing I noticed is Star Wars is filled with memorable quotes and the most memorable quote of Star Trek "Beam me up, Scotty" was never actually in Star Trek. Star Trek has fewer quotable lines than Star Wars. Galaxy Quest has fewer quotable lines than Spaceballs.

I still like Galaxy Quest better because it is layered. There are more details in it to warrant additional viewings. Here an example. Of course Guy, the redshirt actor is a gold mine for jokes. I would like to note that at the climax of the movie there was a buried delayed reaction joke in the most serous scene in the movie.

Spoiler: I use spoiler tabs a lot, but this spoiler actually will ruin the end of Galaxy Quest if you haven't seen it yet

Before the time warp reset things, the villain killed or mortally wounded every character on the cast...except for Guy the redshirt. He was the only one who emerged unscathed. Artistically brilliant.

 

I have seen both movies only once, and years ago, and I am not the biggest fan of either (I don't like parodies that much), so take everything I say with a good amount of salt.


As you pointed out, Spaceballs has a lot more quotable jokes.
I would even go so far and say it has the more memorable jokes, probably because a lot of them are basically one liners.
The movie to me felt like they set up a scene, played a joke or two, then set up the next one. Many of the jokes don't have a lot to do with the story, you could just watch them as a series of single scenes, and in almost any order. The movie seldom spends several scenes or parts of the plot to set up a joke.

In contrast to that Galaxy Quest is more like... a movie. Unlike Spaceballs its plot isn't basically a weirder re-telling of the original movie's plot (which might be because it parodies a series, not a single movie) but a somewhat original story based on the tropes it parodies.
It also includes the fandom. I've been a Trekkie for many years and know some really... intense fans. Galaxy Quest parodies them as well, but it also does that without insulting them. Even all the hardcore Star Trek fans I know did enjoy the movie a lot, a thing that cannot be said about all Star Wars fans concerning Spaceballs.


So.... Galaxy Quest does have the edge for me, but barely. There are things I like better in that one, and things I like better in Spaceballs.
Haven't voted yet. I might have to watch them both again.