Parodies
The Five also inspired the Comic Strip parody Five Go Mad in Dorset and its sequel Five Go Mad On Mescalin, in which the characters express sympathies with Nazi Germany and opposition to the Welfare State, homosexuals, immigrants and Jews, in an extremely broad parody not so much of Blyton but of wider perceived 1950s prejudices. The parodies were deliberately set towards the end of the original Famous Five "era" (1942–1963) so as to make the point that the books were already becoming outmoded while they were still being written, although the continuing popularity of the books even in the 21st century may be seen to suggest otherwise. Both parodies made use of Famous Five set pieces, such as the surrender of the criminals at the end when Julian states "We're the Famous Five!", the arrival of the police just in the nick of time, and the appeal for "some of your home-made ices" at a village shop. The series was revived in 2012 with Five Go To Rehab, with the original cast reprising their roles.
In the late eighties, Australian comedy team The D-Generation parodied The Famous Five on their breakfast radio show as a five-part serial entitled The Famous Five Get Their Teeth Kicked In. The parody was based on the first book Five on a Treasure Island.
A 2005 story in The Guardian also parodies the Famous Five. It argues that Anne, Dick, George and Julian are caricatures rather than characters, portraying Anne as having no life outside of domestic labour. It highlights what the writer, Lucy Mangan, considers to be the power struggle between Dick, George and Julian while Anne is sidelined.
On 31 October 2009, the BBC programme The Impressions Show featured a sketch where Ross Kemp meets The Famous Five. It was a parody of his hugely successful Sky One show, Ross Kemp On Gangs.
In the book The Big Goal by Rob Childs, Andrew mentions that a girls team won against 'some rubbish lot called The Famous Five'.
Robin Gordon's "The Kirrins and the mystery of the sandy-haired dwarf" begins sounding like a parody but then develops into an exciting adventure in which the children of the Famous Five combat IRA terrorists (including the murderous paedophile sandy-haired dwarf), assisted by Uncle Dick, now a member of a mysterious British secret organisation known as the Duke's men. (Can be found at www.auksford.co.uk/rg/Kirrins/
Read more about this topic: The Famous Five (series)
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)