Editing Film noir (section)

==Parodies==
Film noir has been parodied many times in many manners. In 1945, [[Danny Kaye]] starred in what appears to be the first intentional film noir parody, ''[[Wonder Man (film)|Wonder Man]]''.<ref name=SW_parody>Silver and Ward (1992), p. 332.</ref> That same year, [[Deanna Durbin]] was the singing lead in the comedic noir ''[[Lady on a Train]]'', which makes fun of Woolrich-brand wistful miserablism. [[Bob Hope]] inaugurated the private-eye noir parody with ''[[My Favorite Brunette]]'' (1947), playing a baby-photographer who is mistaken for an ironfisted detective.<ref name="SW_parody"/> In 1947 as well, [[The Bowery Boys]] appeared in ''[[Hard Boiled Mahoney]]'', which had a similar mistaken-identity plot; they spoofed the genre once more in ''[[Private Eyes (1953 film)|Private Eyes]]'' (1953). Two RKO productions starring Robert Mitchum take film noir over the border into self-parody: ''[[The Big Steal]]'' (1949), directed by [[Don Siegel]], and ''[[His Kind of Woman]]'' (1951).{{Ref label|B|b|none}} The "Girl Hunt" ballet in [[Vincente Minnelli]]'s ''[[The Band Wagon]]'' (1953) is a ten-minute distillation of—and play on—noir in dance.<ref>Richardson (1992), p. 120.</ref> ''[[The Cheap Detective]]'' (1978), starring [[Peter Falk]], is a broad spoof of several films, including the Bogart classics ''The Maltese Falcon'' and ''[[Casablanca (film)|Casablanca]]''. [[Carl Reiner]]'s black-and-white ''[[Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid]]'' (1982) appropriates clips of classic noirs for a farcical [[Pastiche#Hodge-podge|pastiche]], while his ''[[Fatal Instinct]]'' (1993) sends up noir classic (''Double Indemnity'') and neo-noir (''Basic Instinct''). [[Robert Zemeckis]]'s ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit]]'' (1988) develops a noir plot set in 1940s Los Angeles around a host of cartoon characters.<ref>{{cite web|last=Springer|first=Katherine|url=http://www.filmfracture.com/frame_of_mind/touch_of_noir_top_5_film_noir_parodies|title=Touch Of Noir: Top 5 Film Noir Parodies|work=FilmFracture |date=2013-06-23|access-date=2018-04-25|archive-date=2018-04-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180426080159/http://www.filmfracture.com/frame_of_mind/touch_of_noir_top_5_film_noir_parodies|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:TaxiDriver1.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Head and right hand of a man, shot from a slightly low angle. The man, whose hair is in a Mohawk, looks down at the camera with an odd smile. A spot of blood is on his upper left cheek, and a three-inch line of blood runs from his lower left cheek to his jaw. With his blood-drenched thumb and index finger, he makes the shape of a pistol, pointed at the side of his head.|"Loneliness has followed me my whole life, everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There's no escape. I'm God's lonely man." [[Robert De Niro]] as neo-noir [[antihero]] Travis Bickle in ''[[Taxi Driver]]'' (1976)]]

Noir parodies come in darker tones as well. ''[[Murder by Contract]]'' (1958), directed by [[Irving Lerner]], is a deadpan joke on noir, with a denouement as bleak as any of the films it kids. An ultra-low-budget [[Columbia Pictures]] production, it may qualify as the first intentional example of what is now called a neo-noir film; it was likely a source of inspiration for both Melville's ''Le Samouraï'' and Scorsese's ''[[Taxi Driver]]''.<ref>Naremore (2008), p. 158.</ref> Belying its parodic strain, ''[[The Long Goodbye (film)|The Long Goodbye]]''{{'}}s final act is seriously grave. ''Taxi Driver'' caustically [[deconstruction|deconstructs]] the "dark" crime film, taking it to an absurd extreme and then offering a conclusion that manages to mock every possible anticipated ending—triumphant, tragic, artfully ambivalent—while being each, all at once.<ref>See, e.g., Kolker (2000), pp. 238–41.</ref> Flirting with [[splatter film|splatter]] status even more brazenly, the Coens' ''[[Blood Simple]]'' is both an exacting [[Genre parodies|pastiche]] and a gross exaggeration of classic noir.<ref>Silver and Ward (1992), p. 419.</ref> Adapted by director Robinson Devor from a novel by [[Charles Willeford]], ''[[The Woman Chaser]]'' (1999) sends up not just the noir mode but the entire Hollywood filmmaking process, with each shot seemingly staged as the visual equivalent of an acerbic Marlowe wisecrack.<ref>Holden (1999).</ref>

In other media, the television series ''[[Sledge Hammer!]]'' (1986–88) lampoons noir, along with such topics as [[capital punishment]], gun [[fetishism]], and [[Harry Callahan (character)|Dirty Harry]]. ''[[Sesame Street]]'' (1969–curr.) occasionally casts [[Kermit the Frog]] as a private eye; the sketches refer to some of the typical motifs of noir films, in particular the voiceover. [[Garrison Keillor]]'s radio program ''[[A Prairie Home Companion]]'' features the recurring character [[Guy Noir]], a hardboiled detective whose adventures always wander into farce (Guy also appears in the [[A Prairie Home Companion (film)|Altman-directed film]] based on Keillor's show). [[Firesign Theatre]]'s Nick Danger has trodden the same not-so-mean streets, both on radio and in comedy albums. Cartoons such as ''[[Garfield's Babes and Bullets]]'' (1989) and [[comic strip]] characters such as [[Calvin's alter egos (Calvin and Hobbes)#Tracer Bullet|Tracer Bullet]] of ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' have parodied both film noir and the kindred hardboiled tradition—one of the sources from which film noir sprang and which it now overshadows.<ref>Irwin (2006), p. xii.</ref> ''[[It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia]]'' parodied the noir genre in its [[It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia season 14|season 14]] episode "The Janitor Always Mops Twice."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Harley |first=Nick |date=2019-10-31 |title=Always Sunny Season 14 Episode 6 Review: The Janitor Always Mops Twice |url=https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/always-sunny-season-14-episode-6-review-the-janitor-always-mops-twice/ |access-date=2023-02-03 |website=Den of Geek |language=en-US |archive-date=2023-02-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230203073418/https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/always-sunny-season-14-episode-6-review-the-janitor-always-mops-twice/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-10-31 |title=Charlie is his own film noir hero in tonight's killer It's Always Sunny pastiche |url=https://www.avclub.com/charlie-is-his-own-film-noir-hero-in-tonights-its-alway-1839472006 |access-date=2023-02-03 |website=The A.V. Club |language=en |archive-date=2023-02-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230203073411/https://www.avclub.com/charlie-is-his-own-film-noir-hero-in-tonights-its-alway-1839472006 |url-status=live }}</ref>