<i>Film Parody </i>is the first major book on one of the most prolific and profitable--though under-discussed--modes of contemporary filmmaking. This book provides a lucid introduction to the films and a rigorous theoretical account of how parody itself operates on textual, pragmatic, and socio-cultural levels. Harries provocatively asserts that film parody is now so routinized by the major studios that it must be considered, in its own right, as a major mode of contemporary filmmaking.<br> Tracing a history of parodic cinema from early Laurel and Hardy spoofs to recent box-office hits such as <i>Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery</i>, this book defines parody in relation to other related, though different, modes of discourse such as irony and pastiche. Drawing from this history, and close analyses of films including <i>Blazing Saddles, Airplane!, Young Frankenstein, Hot Shots!, Naked Gun 33 1/3</i>, and <i>Zelig, Film Parody </i>lays out the formal characteristics and examines the various strategies spectators bring to bear when watching parodies. <br>