Parodies
The Gongman was often parodied over the years. In Carry On up the Khyber, Kenneth Williams' character refers to an over-enthusiastic gongman's attitude as "rank stupidity". In addition, the opening to the ATV Thursday Picture Show used an animated version. According to Sub-TV, who has a video of the opening, "the gong-smasher here is a non-muscley man in an old-fashioned swimming costume and a cloth cap!" The man whacks an ATV logo, not a gong, and the logo smashes into pieces when it gets whacked.
The now defunct Swedish film distributor Triangelfilm had a similar vignette with an animated man hitting a triangle.
In the American television series Foul-Ups, Bleeps & Blunders, the production company that produced the show had two men that were about ready to strike a gong (a la the "Gongman"), with the man on the right (holding the gong mallet) striking the man on the left in the groin region and leaving him in agony (this was followed by a gong sound).
In the closing seconds of the video to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, percussionist Roger Taylor mimics the Rank gongman by striking a large tam tam whilst stripped to the waist.
During the Gilligan's Island episode in which the castaways produce a film explaining their situation to any potential viewer, Gilligan performs their own version of the Rank logo sequence. Unfortunately, when he strikes the gong, he shakes uncontrollably at the vibrations created in doing that.
The Hungarian animated movie Macskafogó opens with a round cat face into which a mouse strikes as to a gong.
The title sequence of the Mickey Mouse Club TV show's original run ended with Donald Duck striking a gong, with varying results.
On The Muppets Go to the Movies, the Muppets parody the Gongman with "J. Arthur Link", showing Muppet pig Link Hogthrob in the nude, swinging at the gong, missing, spinning around losing his balance, and hitting the gong with his head. The Muppet Show opening, with Gonzo swinging at the "O" in Muppet Show, and having bad things happen (i.e. breaking the "O" or the gong-beater exploding) might also be a parody.
In the Terry Pratchett's Discworld series novel Moving Pictures the gong exists in a temple which is a portal to the Dungeon Dimensions. Standing in for the gongman is a suitably proportioned troll made of living rock.
Read more about this topic: Gongman
Famous quotes containing the word parodies:
“The parody is the last refuge of the frustrated writer. Parodies are what you write when you are associate editor of the Harvard Lampoon. The greater the work of literature, the easier the parody. The step up from writing parodies is writing on the wall above the urinal.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)