Liam Neeson’s The Naked Gun revives the beloved comedy series after 32 years – and can hopefully bring back the parody genre with it. The Naked Gun movies came from the comedy team of Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker (AKA ZAZ), consisting of brothers David and Jerry Zucker and the late Jim Abrahams. Together, this trio oversaw a bunch of classic spoofs, including the Val Kilmer-led Top Secret! and Airplane! The Naked Gun series originally ended after the third entry in 1993, but Liam Neeson’s upcoming Naked Gun acts as both a reboot and a legacy sequel.
Neeson will play the son of Leslie Nielsen’s Frank Drebin, with the cast being filled out by Pamela Anderson, Danny Huston and Paul Walter Hauser. The trailer for The Naked Gun has received a surprisingly warm response, and previews for the film are said to have received raves. The Naked Gun 2025 feels like a big deal on two fronts: one, it’s nice to have a big budget, broad comedy actually arriving in theaters, and two, it could signal the resurrection of the parody genre.
Liam Neeson’s The Naked Gun Can Rescue The Dying Spoof Genre
The Parody format gradually died out during the 2000s
The Naked Guns are three of the funniest parodies ever produced, but now it’s almost hard to recall a time when the genre was popular. From the 1970s through to the 1990s, the likes of the Monty Python films, the works of ZAZ and Mel Brooks saw that parody films were both critical and commercial hits. It feels like parodies hit their cultural zeitgeist with the Austin Powers trilogy, as Mike Myers’ hilarious sendup of the James Bond series and other spy movies really clicked with audiences.
Since the early 2000s, the popularity of the subgenre waned. Big screen comedy gave way to the improv-heavy works of filmmakers like Judd Apatow (The 40-Year-Old Virgin) or Paul Feig (The Heat), while spoofs degraded into the witless likes of Date Movie. While there have been parodies in the last two decades that have hit the funny bone, like Michael Jai White’s Black Dynamite or 2016’s Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, the genre has largely been avoided by studios.
Prior to Liam Neeson being cast, The Office’s Ed Helms was in line to play Frank Drebin’s son in the new Naked Gun.
It should be noted that even studio comedies have become much rarer in recent times too, largely due to Marvel and comic book movies weaving lots of humor into their stories. It’s a lot of pressure to put on one movie, but the new Naked Gun feels like it could get audiences excited about the parody format again. There are few theatrical experiences as enjoyable as laughing with a crowd of strangers, and the buzz on this Liam Neeson legacy sequel suggests it really delivers on that front.
Why Movie Spoofs Largely Disappeared After So Many Hits
Blame the rise of “Insert тιтle Movie” movies
The Naked Gun trilogy should be a blueprint for how to structure a parody; explore the clichés of a given genre (in this case, the cop movie), layer each scene with both visual and verbal gags and make sure the cast always underplays the humor. This is what made The Naked Guns so rewatchable, as even a tenth viewing could unearth new jokes and background gags. Most of the parodies that arrived during the 2000s took the wrong lessons, feeling that making constant references to other films and being as broad as possible was enough.
Scary Movie’s success led to a cursed run of ripoff movies, exemplified by the likes of Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans and An American Carol.
The original Scary Movie by the Wayans might be dated by today’s standards, but it also had some genuine laughs. Its success led to a cursed run of ripoff movies, however, exemplified by the likes of Epic Movie, Meet the Spartans and An American Carol. Most of these were cheaply produced, met with terrible reviews and while they didn’t flop, their shoddiness gave the subgenre itself a terrible reputation.
Even the best parodies from this era, like Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story or Popstar tended to get overlooked during their original releases, only to get rediscovered years later. By the time the 2020s rolled around, the spoof format was largely ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.
The Naked Gun 2025 Isn’t The Only Spoof Movie On The Way
The Naked Gun won’t be alone in leading the spoof revival
Outside of The Naked Guns, the Scary Movie saga is arguably the most famous parody franchise. Unfortunately, each subsequent sequel charted the decline of the format itself. The second film was scattered but still fun, but once the Wayans departed the series, each subsequent sequel got worse and worse. The series is set to return in 2026 with the fittingly тιтled Scary Movie 6, and thankfully, the Wayans brothers will be returning with it.
|
The Naked Gun Movie Franchise |
Rotten Tomatoes Score |
Box Office Gross |
|---|---|---|
|
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988) |
86% |
$78,041,829 |
|
The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991) |
58% |
$86,930,411 |
|
Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult (1993) |
58% |
$51,041,856 |
If both The Naked Gun and Scary Movie 6 meet with success, maybe the frost surrounding big screen comedies will finally thaw. There are even reports Mike Myers is developing a fourth Austin Powers, so maybe studios are sensing there’s a renewed appeтιтe for parody movies after a long break. The Naked Gun will be the first big test of this theory, and hopefully, it will live up to the franchise’s name.
Source: Rotten Tomatoes, The Numbers
