Indistinguishable from Parody

Genre Buster Bombs

This post got me thinking about works that, while not intended as satire or parody, are indistinguishable from it. I don't know what to call them.

A couple of examples will suffice.

People who know me know that I'm a huge fan of Star Trek. I have been for most of my life. I watched the "Star Trek" 2009 movie when it came out on video, and I honestly could not tell the difference between it and a parody of the original series. "Are they fucking serious? This isn't a Trek movie; it's a parody!"

In early 2022, an article appeared on lobste.rs, announcing a new edition of the classic text Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. This new edition used JavaScript instead of Scheme.

SICP in JS

When I saw it, I posted the first thing that came to mind. "It is a bit early for April Fools." My comment was flagged as a troll and summarily deleted. Thanks to the memory hole and my inability to keep good records, I cannot quote the whole thing here.

That comment was not a troll at all. It was expressing an actual feeling: I cannot tell the difference between this and a parody.

I'd be curious to hear more examples of "indistinguishable from parody" works from others.

So how does this relate to genre busters?

On one hand, we have plain ol' parody. Examples include Spaceballs, Bored of the Rings, etc etc. On the other hand, we have the genre busters. They are intended as parody, and to paraphrase Thrig, they destroy or change a genre through violent deconstruction. On the third hand, we have this class of work that seems like parody even though it isn't.