TV Spoofs - How close can you come?

[jaF0]

I know there are a bunch of these out there, but I haven't really read them. Guess I should.

I'm curious as to how close a spoof can come to a real episode; character names, settings, storylines, etc.

There are a few adult spoofs out there of various sitcoms, but they're typical porn flicks that borrowed some pretense from the show. They're not what I want which is a sitcom storyline that goes much farther than it could on TV.

Example:

Married With Children; "The Proposition", Season 7: Episode 26

Vanna White plays 'Coco' who wants to buy Al from Peggy.

In one scene, Coco shows up at the Bundy house with the pizza Al asked her to bring. Al grabs it while Peggy, Kelly and Bud start checking her out. Peggy and Kelly are feeling her hair and clothes while Bud is feeling her legs and commenting on her stockings. She replies "I'm not wearing stockings".

Now, at that point, I would have Bud continue up under her skirt, pulling it up as he goes until he shows them all that she really isn't. Peg and Kelly would continue up top, undressing her. Peg would start on her breasts and make some comment asking if they were real while Kelly was moving in for kisses and starting to undress. By this time Bud would have his tongue busy between her legs.

Al, busy with his pizza is oblivious to it all.

Several other episodes could be treated the same way, ie 'All ... with Kelly', Season 5, Episode 2 which has a fantasy scene with Pamela Anderson and Becky Mullen.

 

[Hypoxia]

You should know the limits by now.

UNDERAGE: No sexual action with anyone appearing to be an underage human.
BESTIALITY: No sex between humans and natural non-sentient non-fantasy animals.
SNUFF/MAYHEM: No extreme violence for sexual pleasure the victim doesn't enjoy.

AFAIK Bud and Kelly are always depicted as being underage so they cannot even THINK of sex nor be thought of by others as sexual objects in LIT stories. Send them out of town and bring in some adult neighbors. Maybe a MWC / Baywatch mashup since you have Pam there. But keep Rin-Tin-Tin and Son Of Sam offstage.

 

[Carnevil9]

I've only done one real direct spoof, a spoof of "House, MD." I changed all the names of the characters, but to names that rhymed with or otherwise paralleled the originals (Dr. Louse, etc.). Except for that, and of course the addition of tons of sex, I didn't change a thing. I won't say it was a SUCCESSFUL story, but it didn't appear to violate any rules.

 

[jaF0]

AFAIK Bud and Kelly are always depicted as being underage ...

No, they were both over for several seasons, maybe even the one noted above.

I'm more curious about copyright/brand issues.

 

[jaF0]

From what I can find on the various fan sites and TV show pages, by Season 7, Kelly was 21 and Bud was in college.

 

[Carnevil9]

Parodies are protected by copyright laws.

And even if they weren't, stories here are pretty much below the radar and I wouldn't worry about them raising any hackles with copyright owners.

Even if someone DID have a problem with your story here, you aren't making any money with it. So the worst they could do is ask you to take it down.

So, bottom line: I say go for it.

 

[Sean Renaud]

Basically it's all been covered. Make sure everybody is of age. As a rule of thumb high school seniors are 18 unless something specifies otherwise.

And Carn is right, your protected legally and absolute worst case scenario you somehow manage to get the attention of someone in Hollywood and they ask you to take it down and you do. As I've said before I would ask for it in writing so I could frame it and put it up on my wall. My new AV would be a cease and desist from Disney.

 

[jaF0]

OK, let's do the 'how close can you get' by example;

Original script:

The Shoe store.
Someone's voice shouts outside

VOICE Hey, somebody stop that guy! He stole my lunch!

Al runs into the store, carrying the stolen lunch and a drink. He hides behind the
counter. A man and two cops run past. Al eats the sandwich.
Coco enters the store.
Al spills the soda in his lap. he then looks at the floor to find Coco's feet.
He slowly looks up at her.

COCO Hi, Beautiful.

Al giggles. He stands up, but now he has a big stain on his crotch.

AL Hi, baby! [notices the stain] Oh, it's... just soda, it'll dry soon and leave
a little stain. But let's cut the charade, we both now why you're here... Why
are you here?

COCO I've traveled the world trying to find a man who can satisfy me the way you
did.

She walks up to him suggestively. Al suddenly starts twitching, trying to shake something
out of his pants.

AL Wait a sec, wait a sec, something's out of line in here... [An ice cube falls
out of his pant leg] Oh, it's just an ice cube, I thought I was passing a
stone!

COCO God, you're a pig! I love it. I want you, Al. Travel the world with me. Make
love to me the way that only YOU did.

Coco puts her arms around Al's neck.

Modified script:

SCENE TWO

The Shoe store.

Al is crouched behind the counter obsessively fondling a pair of high heels, moaning loudly.

Coco enters the store.

Al has an odd look on his face, somewhat relieved and satisfied. He then looks around the end of the counter at the floor to find Coco's feet.

He slowly looks up at her, gazing at her legs as the camera pans up slowly, then her short, tailored skirt and tight-fitting white blouse.

COCO "Hi, Beautiful."

Al giggles. He stands up, but now he has a big stain on his crotch.

AL "Hi, baby! [notices the stain] Oh, sorry, I just came in my pants. Damn I love these heels! It'll dry soon and leave
a little stain. But let's cut the charade, we both now why you're here... Why
are you here?"

COCO "I've traveled the world trying to find a man who can satisfy me the way you
did."

She walks up to him suggestively. Al suddenly starts twitching, trying to shake something
out of his pants.

AL "Wait a sec, wait a sec, something's out of line in here... [An pair of panties falls
to the floor ] Oh, it's just that last customer's panties, she was pretty good!"

COCO "God, you're a pig! I love it. I want you, Al. Travel the world with me. Fuck me the way that only YOU did."

Coco puts her arms around Al's neck.

Does that fit the parody bit, or is that infringement?

 

[MyRubiLips]

AFAIK Bud and Kelly are always depicted as being underage so they cannot even THINK of sex nor be thought of by others as sexual objects in LIT stories.

Bud entered college before the series ended. Kelly was a good couple/few years older.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Basically it's all been covered. Make sure everybody is of age. As a rule of thumb high school seniors are 18 unless something specifies otherwise.

And Carn is right, your protected legally and absolute worst case scenario you somehow manage to get the attention of someone in Hollywood and they ask you to take it down and you do. As I've said before I would ask for it in writing so I could frame it and put it up on my wall. My new AV would be a cease and desist from Disney.

Are you sure of that age? I know there are many high school seniors, maybe even the majority, who are 17 years old, especially early in the school year. I always have the teacher or other older person verify the age through school records.

 

[Sean Renaud]

Are you sure of that age? I know there are many high school seniors, maybe even the majority, who are 17 years old, especially early in the school year. I always have the teacher or other older person verify the age through school records.

Granted this is somewhat anecdotal (but knowing from my mother, sister and best friend's mother I'm pretty par for the course because of where the cut off dates are) was the oldest of my peers in school and I turned 18 about midway through Senior Year. In REAL life you'd be correct.

In my experience Laurel gives benefit of the doubt. Hell generally as long as they are in high school she's more likely than not to accept that you meant 18 and didn't bother to mention it because duh.

You are probably better off safe than sorry and I have had stories rejected where I had to clarify the age. But those were almost invariably ones where I a) had clarified the age at least once and b) had gone with a fairly "immature" female. Miley Cyrus may be of age right now but she's still got the figure of a 10 year old boy. If you describe her appearance and couple it with any of the trappings of youth you better have I am 18+ be her goddamn catch phrase.

So I'm as sure as I can be about it Boxi but I can only speak from experience on it and say that in general these things get by. Just like if a character could be 18 it tends to get through. This would cover any number of stories where ages and age specific milestones are missing for one reason or another. X-Men would come to mind, the Xavier Institute does not appear to be segregated by age, there are teachers and students and the only thing consistent about the student age is they are postpubecent (And that's only because the X-Gene kicks in at puberty.)

I think the short version and perhaps what I should have started with is that Laurel (again in my experience) tends to err on the side of letting us do what we want. a 50/50 chance will generally fall in your favor and as she openly admits in the Non-Con postie, yes the higher your skill level the greater your leeway. Stephen Spielberg could probably waltz Lolita through the gates and Micheal Bay would need to provide long form documentation that Judi Dench and Sean Connery are both legal.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

Even if someone DID have a problem with your story here, you aren't making any money with it. So the worst they could do is ask you to take it down.

No, that's not the worst they COULD do. They could claim your story damages their "brand" in some way, and take you to the cleaners based on that.

Likely? Not at all. Most media people welcome parody because it draws eyeballs to the original. And the courts have started to take a less restrictive view of borrowed material. And written parody is generally very safe. But I wince when people claim there's no risk at all. Courts are not all that predictable.

If you want an example of how badly it CAN go, read up on the lawsuit surrounding "Bittersweet Symphony". What happened should have been covered under fair use, let alone being covered by the existing negotiated contract. But someone's lawyer got greedy and the Verve lost all rights to the song. Which is especially ironic given that they'd borrowed with permission a riff from an orchestra's interpretation of a Rolling Stone's song, a song the Rolling Stones themselves had written by borrowing significantly from an old gospel standby. But none of that mattered once the lawyers stepped in.

(If you like Bittersweet Symphony, and a lot of people did in the day, my recommendation is to pirate a copy and then legitimately buy some other song by the Verve.)

 

[jaF0]

OK, let's do the 'how close can you get' by example;

Original script:



Modified script:



Does that fit the parody bit, or is that infringement?

And yet, the question goes unaddressed.

 

[RoyceConnors]

any parody of a show or otherwise published and copyrighted material, automatically goes in Celebrities. Serious or humorous, they're all the same. They are completely legal to do, as long as no money is made from it. I have 42 chs, of my series based on Sons of Anarchy and not one is worth a cent or ever will make one, but it's legal.

 

[oggbashan]

One small problem is that many readers would not know the show you are writing a parody about.

 

[Boxlicker101]

any parody of a show or otherwise published and copyrighted material, automatically goes in Celebrities. Serious or humorous, they're all the same. They are completely legal to do, as long as no money is made from it. I have 42 chs, of my series based on Sons of Anarchy and not one is worth a cent or ever will make one, but it's legal.

A show featuring a celebrity, living or dead, goes there too. This is so whether it's a real person or a character from a movie, TV show or even a comic book.

 

[JKendallDane]

And yet, the question goes unaddressed.

My gut reaction with the snippet you posted, is you are doing little but taking the actual transcript and making just enough changes to consider it erotica. It looks at first glance as borderline plagiarism.

Married With Children was a groundbreaking show in many ways...mostly for testing the censor line even further than Norman Lear had 20 years earlier. If I was you, I would take the show's characters, and possibly a smidgen of a plotline from one or more episodes, and create your own story from scratch.

I've got a plot bunny for a satire/humor/fan fic story revolving around Bud being gay and getting outed, but I wouldn't lift entire sections of actual dialog from the show as filler for the story.

You should probably read some of the stories already posted on Lit using MWC as the theme and see how those authors did it.

Married With Children stories on Lit

JMNSHO & YMMV

.

 

[Sean Renaud]

Has anybody really tested that "rule" about stories automatically going to the celebrities category? I know for a fact it's not 100% true since Chain Stories very clearly has priority over Celeb. In addition Laurel doesn't even sticky the court case any more see? The disclaimer was written by the author where it used to just be a standard part of the stories. They previously held information from Hustler Magazine vs Falwell. I'd probably ask the woman with the authority if that's a rule or a strong suggestion.

No, that's not the worst they COULD do. They could claim your story damages their "brand" in some way, and take you to the cleaners based on that.

Likely? Not at all. Most media people welcome parody because it draws eyeballs to the original. And the courts have started to take a less restrictive view of borrowed material. And written parody is generally very safe. But I wince when people claim there's no risk at all. Courts are not all that predictable.

If you want an example of how badly it CAN go, read up on the lawsuit surrounding "Bittersweet Symphony". What happened should have been covered under fair use, let alone being covered by the existing negotiated contract. But someone's lawyer got greedy and the Verve lost all rights to the song. Which is especially ironic given that they'd borrowed with permission a riff from an orchestra's interpretation of a Rolling Stone's song, a song the Rolling Stones themselves had written by borrowing significantly from an old gospel standby. But none of that mattered once the lawyers stepped in.

(If you like Bittersweet Symphony, and a lot of people did in the day, my recommendation is to pirate a copy and then legitimately buy some other song by the Verve.)

Bitter Sweet was not a case of a parody. It was a case of sampling which is just a different issue entirely.

However the Rolling Stones DID own the music and had apparently agreed to let Verve use some of it. (There is some he said she said that I don't care enough to untangle) the old gospel standby means nothing. Without knowing what song your talking about I'll bet it's not copyrighted. Virtually nothing before about 1900 is. Ever wonder why everybody and their sister has a Wizard of Oz or Peter Pan? It's cus nobody owns the rights. I could bore you with the corner Disney's painted themselves into but they apparently figured it out at some point and more or less declared "fuck it. we're victims of our own success."

And companies don't seem to really care for parody they just can't stop it. They'd be wise to be cool but that has not been the general rule if you look about.

Also Verve was making money, you would not be in this case. So still in the clear.

And yet, the question goes unaddressed.

It's been answered. You're fine. Go full speed ahead. I've never seen one QUITE that close but the reality is thus. First when you write it as a story it won't look like the script so you're probably fine. You're not making money, you're not a big fish so even if it was out of bounds you'd never get caught and if you did they'd at worst have Laurel pull it down without informing you. Probably not even that.

 

[jaF0]

First when you write it as a story it won't look like the script ...

Thing is, I was thinking of doing just that and let the reader visualize it as if it was on TV as they read the script.

But I guess I won't.

 

[JKendallDane]

Has anybody really tested that "rule" about stories automatically going to the celebrities category? I know for a fact it's not 100% true since Chain Stories very clearly has priority over Celeb.

I've wondered the same thing but never bothered to PM Laurel to find out. GM usually is a top trump card too. In fact, I would prefer the celeb/satire stories I have in mind go there anyway. Lots more eyeballs.

.

 

[RoyceConnors]

Thing is, I was thinking of doing just that and let the reader visualize it as if it was on TV as they read the script.

But I guess I won't.

Even in a script, there's set scenes and action involved. It's just very simplistic writing based on more conversation than story set up.

 

[Sean Renaud]

Thing is, I was thinking of doing just that and let the reader visualize it as if it was on TV as they read the script.

But I guess I won't.

I would highly recommend against that. Scripts are not meant to be read they're meant to be seen. There is no rule against it mind you it's just not (IMO) a good path to go.

I've wondered the same thing but never bothered to PM Laurel to find out. GM usually is a top trump card too. In fact, I would prefer the celeb/satire stories I have in mind go there anyway. Lots more eyeballs.

.

Gay Male is pretty much the top of the food chain. Whatever is most unusual/turns off the most people generally takes priority. So if a girl loses her virginity to her cousin it's not First Time, it's Incest. If two guys have sex it's not anal, it's gay. Laurel isn't in the habit of changing your category without good reason in my experience. Generally she'll just let you suffer the rabid dogs that roam the site.

But yeah GM is way at the top because lots of guys (myself included) at best tolerate gay sex (you kinda have to get over it if you're going to read Anne Rice. I'm not sure she understands that there is more difference between a man and a woman than there is between a tall person and a short person. Her characters sure as fuck don't seem to.) and certainly don't want to be surprised by it. Noncon is also way way up there.

 

[Boxlicker101]

<snip>

Gay Male is pretty much the top of the food chain. Whatever is most unusual/turns off the most people generally takes priority. So if a girl loses her virginity to her cousin it's not First Time, it's Incest. If two guys have sex it's not anal, it's gay. Laurel isn't in the habit of changing your category without good reason in my experience. Generally she'll just let you suffer the rabid dogs that roam the site.

But yeah GM is way at the top because lots of guys (myself included) at best tolerate gay sex (you kinda have to get over it if you're going to read Anne Rice. I'm not sure she understands that there is more difference between a man and a woman than there is between a tall person and a short person. Her characters sure as fuck don't seem to.) and certainly don't want to be surprised by it. Noncon is also way way up there.

Here is one I wrote a while ago for a Halloween contest. https://www.literotica.com/s/jayne-mansfields-curse

I wanted it to go to Erotic Horror, but it was posted to Celeb. because it featured a famous actress, even though had been dead for many years.

 

[Sean Renaud]

Hmm. Interesting. Though I did state that I was mostly curious. Maybe Chain Stories is the only thing that trumps celeb. More study will be required!

 

[Hypoxia]

...if a girl loses her virginity to her cousin it's not First Time, it's Incest. If two guys have sex it's not anal, it's gay.

Except that cousin sex is only *barely* incest. And I've written MM sex (BJs and 69s and only a little anal) in Group Sex and Incest -- MM wasn't the main theme so it slid by. I've seen Group Sex and other non-Celeb stories containing named celebs but the celebs weren't active fuckers there, which may be significant. The category may depend on whether Madonna joins in the orgy or just sits back and watches. Does she finger herself?

Back to spoofs and the law. I have no interest in spoofing TV / film / theatre. If I did, I would change the names slightly so they're recognizable and sarcastic. I fondly remember an old Congress of Wonders (long-ago comedy troupe) routine about "the star ship Intercourse, thrusting its way through the galaxy!" crewed by Cap'n Kwirk, Mr Smock, Lt Ubangi, Cmdr O'Boy, etc. That was on a commercial recording and there were no copyright problems. Damn, I wish I still had that!

EDIT: I just found a Wikipedia reference to that:

The Congress of Wonders was a San Francisco comedic stage troupe. In their skit "Star Trip", often cited as the first Star Trek parody ever performed publicly, Captain Kwirk complains "Are my people putting me on?", to which the first officer Smock replies, "I don't know, sir. As you know, I am a Vulgarian, and jokes are beyond me." This skit appears on an LP published in 1970.