This is not a parody either, really. It's a... what is the word. Fiasco?

Man.  Writing about The Simpsons is hard.  Even though I’m still a fan, when I sit down to try to talk about the series, I find myself asking, “which series?”  It’s been around for so long… the show itself has changed, and I’ve changed, so the way I relate to the show has changed a LOT.  Trying to talk about all twenty years at once doesn’t even really seem possible.  Note that I’m not one of those people who says that it used to be good and then jumped the shark.  It’s just different now. (And it’s not just one before-and-after difference either.  I can think of at least three or four different phases in the show’s development — or rather, in the development of my relationship to the show?)

I cannot for the life of me figure out a way to celebrate or analyze their 20th season.  So instead I’ll just use The Simpsons as a jumping off point to talk about musical parodies, which have been much on our minds of late.

Overthinking It has hosted some posts of late debating pop-cultural parodies, like Starship Troopers and Steel Panther. These posts have generated some contentious yet rewarding discussions. In these posts, and the discussions that follow, a common question has emerged: does the fact of being a parody excuse the parody from being offensive? Is “I’m Just Kidding, Guys” a sufficient defense?

VerhOeverthinking It week may be over, but a lot of the analysis we did on the work of filmmaker Paul Verhoeven carries over into other areas of the popular culture, such as music. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Steel Panther, the Starship Troopers of Heavy Metal.

1985 called. It wants its...everything...back.

For those of you who are not aware, back in the 1980s, a man named Samuel Raimi made a series of films called The Evil Dead Trilogy.  These films, particularly the second and third of the trilogy, are beloved as cult classics from the horror-comedy genre.  Evil Dead 2, for example, has a scene where its protagonist (Bruce Campbell) gets in a slapstick duel to the death with his hand.  The third movie, Army of Darkness, involves Bruce Campbell’s character traveling back in time to train a medieval army to fight his evil clone and a legion of living skeletons.  These movies were made, shall we say, with a tongue firmly in cheek.

Ah, but what of The Evil Dead (a.k.a. Evil Dead 1), the first film of the series?  Although it is not nearly as amusing as its sequels, and though its violence is possibly more brutal than even Oscar-winner Peter Jackson’s classic Dead Alive, I would nevertheless characterize it as a horror-comedy, as well.

Here’s the difference, though.  Where Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness show a blend of horror and comedy, Evil Dead 1 seems to be two separate movies: one a horror movie and one a comedy.

The interesting part to me is the point at which the film switches from type A (B-movie horror) to type B (gross-out zombie comedy): the famous tree rape scene.  And thus, my question for today–which, incidentally is a question that many have asked before and that many will likely ask again–is:

WHY THE HELL WAS THERE A TREE RAPE SCENE IN THIS MOVIE?!

On second thought, let me whittle down my question to one that’s a little more specific.  What I want to know is, how are we meant to read the tree rape scene?  Is it meant to be the end point of Evil Dead’s B-horror movie, or is it the beginning point of the gross-out zombie comedy?  Or is it neither?  All this and more after the jump.

INT. FACEBOOK OFFICE

A 12-year-old boy sits behind a desk.

BOY: Hi there. I’m Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook. I wanted to tell you about some of the exciting new features we’ll be rolling out in the coming months. You guys have enjoyed the “Poke” since the beginning. In 2007, we added the Super Poke. But for those times you really want to get somebody’s attention, we’re introducing the Ultra Poke.

Really, Mark Lee should be writing this post. A couple weeks ago, he had the idea of doing a schmaltzy Terminator song, in the style of “I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing” or “Everything I Do (I Do It For You).” He asked if anyone would be willing to help, and I told him to “keep me in the loop,” which means “good luck.” Then he sent me a demo version of the song, and it’s been in my head ever since. So in the end, I had no choice but to make this video.

Notice the armband he’s wearing?

This song, to me, is a prime example of “earony,” a word I coined to describe my feelings towards inspirational speeches. The word is a combination of “earnest” and “ironic.” With this song, Mark is clearly mocking monster ballads. At the same time, he clearly loves monster ballads to death. Thus, it’s an earonic song.

I like to imagine this whole backstory about lovers separated by nuclear disaster, searching for each other as they dodge exoskeletons. “How far would you go to find the one you love?” No wait, maybe we play it a little lighter. Poster shows an endless line of gleaming robots walking down Santa Monica Boulevard. Tagline: “The commute is killer today.”

But here’s something to Overthink: is the end credits monster ballad a thing of the past? Robin Hood was ‘91, Armageddon was ‘98. Nowadays, they end action movies with upbeat rock songs, not cigarette lighter-waving declarations of undying affection. Of course, maybe the monster ballad itself is an endangered species. The genre definitely peaked in the 80’s and early 90’s. I might argue that the high water mark for monster ballads was 1992, which gave us “November Rain” and “Bed of Roses.” But ‘92 was also the breakout year for Nirvana. After Nevermind, rock became less glam, for better and for worse.

Anyway: Mark, you’re a rock star, plain and simple.

Lyrics after the jump.

My Friends,

Obviously, the presidential election is our focus right now. But there are other races going on too. Races that deserve our attention. I am, of course, referring to the current battle for the heart and soul of McDonaldland.

I’m a little late to the party on this, and I’m reticent to go too political in this blog, but this piece of overthinking is too good and right up our alley to go unremarked.

By the way, this isn’t the last time I’ll discuss LisaNova, who I think is a very interesting cultural figure about which you can say quite a bit. But without further ado:

The amazing original clip and a bit more analysis after the jump . . .