10 Movies & TV Scenes That Parody Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho
Among the many parodied scenes from Hitchcock's movies, which ones were the best TV and movie parodies of Psycho?
For over sixty years, Psycho has been one of the most celebrated movies directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Since its release, it has been celebrated in television shows and movies by other filmmakers who looked up to him and his work.
Among the comedies and animated titles over the years, Psycho's iconic scenes and memorable characters have been parodied to make their audience chuckle. While there are certainly many to choose from, these are just some of the best parodies in television and movies based on Psycho.
Despite it being an iconic horror movie, many of its scenes have been referenced and parodied in some shows aimed specifically at children. And one of these was Genndy Tartakovsky's Dexter's Laboratory, his hit animated show from the nineties.
In the episode "Pslyghtly Psycho," Dexter, Dee Dee, and Dad give Mom a pair of new latex gloves, which she never seems to be without in the show. The episode ends with the shower scene being parodied, but it ends with Mom scrubbing Dad's back while he's showering.
The third movie in the eighties and nineties B-movie series, Killer Tomatoes Strike Back! was released straight to DVD, so horror fans may not be too familiar with this one. But it does parody multiple scenes from iconic movies, especially the shower scene from Psycho.
Played for laughs, the scene shows Kennedy Johnson (played by Crystal Carson) as she screams and overreacts at a series of fake-outs before she is attacked by a killer tomato. The scene even ends with the blood reaching the drain, but it pains out to see the tomato squashed.
Following up on the success of Space Jam, the movie saw the Looney Tunes gang return to the big screen as they help Brendan Frasier's Damian Drake Jr to find an ancient relic. However, it wasn't successful at the box office, earning just over 68 million dollars worldwide against its 80 million dollar budget.
With a wacky mix of animation and live-action, Bugs Bunny parodied the shower scene from Psycho brilliantly. Using his trademark humor that has made him one of the funniest Looney Tunes characters, the once horrific death scene turns into a light-hearted and over-dramatic reaction when someone unexpectedly exposes him.
After four movies and becoming a global franchise, Shrek easily became Dreamwork's most recognizable movie series and face when it came to animation. Its success derives from parodying other movies and crafting humor for the adults as well as for the kids.
Among a series of short movies and television specials, Scared Shrekless saw the cast of colorful characters telling scary stories around a campfire. One of them was seeing Prince Charming as a Norman Bates-type character as he tries to get revenge on Puss in Boots and Donkey in Boots Motel.
Directed, written, and, starring Ezio Greggio, an actor who appeared alongside Mel Brooks in various movies in the nineties, The Silence of the Hams was his directorial debut and even if critics panned the movie, it didn't stop him from making more comedies.
While today it has a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie did parody the plot of Psycho during its second half. Despite setting up to be a parody of Silence of the Lambs in the beginning, it does take time to parody the movie's entire story.
The stop motion Adult Swim series has been successful with its comedic and twisted use of nostalgic characters and parodies. They have also created their own characters that have become a staple among the cast of bad-mouthed and crude characters, making it one of IMDb's best Adult Swim shows of the 2010s.
In one of their sketches, fans saw what would happen to the characters in the movie if they met B***h Pudding. Her attitude doesn't just see her take over Bates Motel, but scare the heck out of Norman Bates, a rare sight to see this character in.
Throughout the entire run of the series, The Simpsons have parodied a lot of classic movies and have made some of the most memorable episodes because of it. Alfred Hitchcock and his many iconic movies have just been some of the best source material used and have made them some of the best movies parodied by The Simpsons.
In the second season, the "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge" episode saw Maggie copying the violent actions of the cat and mouse cartoon against Homer. While trying to build Marge a new spice rack, Maggie hits him on the head, recreating the entire death scene of Marion Crane within the family's garage.
Released in 1974, the oddball musical horror comedy became a cult movie many years later despite the backlash it had at the time as well as an unhealthy box office result. After being refused by his producer to make his own rock opera, a singer uses a new persona of a phantom to exact his revenge across the producer's new concert hall.
With its ridiculous tongue-in-cheek humor in mind, it also recreated the shower scene from Hitchcock's classic. While a high singer practices his performance in the shower, the phantom slowly cuts a hole through the shower curtain with a large knife. But instead of killing him, he shoves a plunger over his mouth instead, giving audiences an unexpected twist that some might have thought was coming.
For 25 seasons, South Park has parodied and made fun of countless iconic movies like Tron and Heavy Metal, making them some of the show's most hilarious movie parodies. Among them, one of the best was in the episode "City Sushi."
The episode saw Butters misdiagnosed for multiple-personality disorder while his questionable psychiatrist Dr. Janus turns out to be Tuong Lu Kim, one of his own split personalities. It ends with him being in jail, with the scene recreating the end scene with Norman Bates monologuing to himself.
When it comes to satirical comedy, no man has done it better than Mel Brooks himself. Known for laugh-out-loud hits like Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and Spaceballs, he is mostly known for his parodies of countless movie genres, filmmakers, and the tropes associated with them.
Perhaps not as well known, High Anxiety parodied multiple Alfred Hitchcock movies, and yes, Psycho was among them. With a hotel employee cracking under pressure and giving Brook's character his newspaper aggressively, the comedic homage to the shower scene alone shows just how much the comedian pays attention to Hitchcroft's craft.