I absolutely LOVE the Star Wars trilogies (yes, trilogies, plural—I thoroughly enjoyed Eps 1-3, so sue me) but aren’t so much of a Star Wars nerd to take them TOO seriously. What follows are some of the best spoofs of Star Wars, done both by “amateurs” and professionals alike. And poor ol’ Darth Vader bears the brunt of the funnin’. I’m sure I’ve forgotten some. Have any to add, readers?
How It Should Have Really Ended
Plot holes? What plot holes? This simple animation shows how “A New Hope” should have ended.
Darth Vader vs Japanese Police
It’s in Japanese, but if you’re only an English-speaking gaijin, that makes it all-the more fun.
Darth Vader Being a Smartass
“Doomblake” had some fun with Vader in his meditation chamber.
Family Guy’s Blue Harvest
Yes, I didn’t place this first, but that’s because the rest of them are so blasted good. Best scene: Stewie Vader, just “doing my job,” asks about the design flaw on the Death Star.
Robot Chicken Star Wars
Brilliant, brilliant mocking. See! Darth Vader take care of Jar-Jar Binks. See! how Imperial officers avoid getting choked by Darth Vader. See! what really happened when Ben Kenobi cut off Snaggletooth’s arm. See! The saga of a poor janitor who transfers from Naboo to Coruscant to the Death Star II. See! … Ah, you get the point. Best clip:
Death Star Over San Francisco
What if the Empire invaded earth and set up a base in San Francisco? This skillful vid blends model and CGI Star Wars images into actual casual footage shot in San Francisco.
The Injured Stormtrooper
You knew they couldn’t hit the broad side of a moisture vaporator. But did you also know they didn’t do first aid?
Not a spoof of the movies, but rather a comedy adventure series that “Illusive Entertainment LLC” created using the Star Wars: Battlefront 2 gaming engine. They’ve only gotten to part 3 so far. If I remember right, either YouTube or LucasArts intially had some problems with the project (copyright issues) but Illusive convinced them to let the adventure continue. Here’s the web site, but see the trailer first.
Chad Vader – Day Shift Manager
Meet the most pathetic dark Jedi in the universe: Chad Vader! According to the creators, “Life is hard when you’re Darth Vader’s less-talented, less charismatic younger brother and you manage a grocery store.”
James Earl Jones was, of course, the voice of Darth Vader. “AKJAK“ took clips from several of Jones’ movies and beautifully weaved them into clips from the first Star Wars. Absolutely love this jive-talkin’ Vader. (Language warning.)
Death Star Repairmen
Do you seriously think that the Death Star exploded because Luke Skywalker fired a couple of torpedoes through a two-meter exhaust port that led directly to the main reactor? Seriously? Well, you’re wrong! Here it is in .mov format (quicktime).
Troops is the ultimate Star Wars parody (one of the first, actually) and one of the greatest spoofs of anything, EVER. What really happened in the deserts of Tatooine when the stormtroopers went looking for R2-D2 and C-3PO? Man, sign me up for the action and adventure in the Imperial Army! Unfortunately you have to download this movie – it is 30 MB in size. Here is the link.