Talk:Spaceballs

Original research

Someone can add these back in, if they find cites...

Cultural context

The plot is deliberately evocative of fairy tales, as are the scenes on the planet Druidia. Throughout the film, the Spaceballs characters regularly break the fourth wall, often to promote their merchandise, and they are aware that they are making a movie, and the events are not real life. For example, at one point the villains succeed in capturing the main characters' stunt doubles, while at another accidentally kill one of the filming crew during a fight scene, and even being hit by the camera in a close up. In fact, in one scene, they pull out the video version of Spaceballs being shown in real time, as it is being filmed and temporarily take a look at the scene they're in: "now".

The majority of the scenes and characters are parodies of Star Wars, although the film parodies other movies as well, most notably:

• Jaws (gigantic shark-like space ship with Jaws-like music)
• Indiana Jones, Barf remarks "...this looks like the Temple of Doom!" Lone Star is also first seen dressed in a brown fedora and leather jacket, alluding to Harrison Ford playing both the roles of Han Solo and Indiana Jones in their respective films.
• Battlestar Galactica villains occasionally use the word "Imperious", this is a reference to the Cylon term "Imperious Leader". Others also argue that Lone Starr dresses like a Colonial Warrior.
• Superman: The Movie (musical score)
• The Police Academy movies (Michael Winslow sound effects; Winslow has a cameo in the film as a Spaceball navigations officer)
• The Sir David Lean films The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia, including their theme music.
• The Wizard of Oz (first meeting with Yogurt) also if you listen closely, in the scene where Yogurt reveals Lone Starr as a certified prince, when he´s fading away he says "What a world", a part from the dying words of the Wicked Witch of the west.
• Planet of the Apes (crashed remains of Spaceball One/Mega Maid as a reference to the Statue of Liberty ruins)
• Rambo (Princess Vespa's use of a blaster gun). This was confirmed when Dot said she rivaled Rambo in bloodbaths.
• Star Trek The beaming sequence with the character Snotty (a parody of Scottish character Montgomery "Scotty" Scott) where the president is beamed to the command room with his head on backward then beamed back before the president walks through a door revealing that the room is right next door (also the Commanderette says "he beamed me twice", it was wonderful, indicating that she and Snotty had sex), and the scene where Lone Starr attempts to knock out a Spaceball by performing (at first, unsuccessfully until the victim told him it was where the shoulder meets the neck) the Vulcan neck pinch. Before he is beamed, president Skroob even exclaims: "What the hell, it works on Star Trek!!".
• Max Headroom
• Rocky (including its supposed continuation up to "Rocky Five ... Thousand")
• 2001: A Space Odyssey: The ship Spaceball One has a name similar to the Discovery One ship seen in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Also, the running gag of the Spaceball drummer is similar to Also sprach Zarathustra, which was used prominently in 2001.
• Alien, John Hurt reprising his famous death scene from that movie, and even groaning in despair, "Oh no! Not again!"; the chestburster emerges from the victim, shrieks, smiles, and in stereotypical vaudeville fashion, puts on a straw boater hat with a miniature cane in one hand, and begins dancing and singing like Michigan J. Frog, performing Hello! Ma Baby) The length of Spaceball 1 may also be a reference to the opening of Alien (the Nostromo was a very long ship but Spaceball 1 was even longer).
• Dumbo (Yogurt saying to Lone Starr that he doesn't need the ring)
• Transformers (When Spaceball I is transforming, Barf says "It's a Transformer!")
  • The transformation itself is also similar to Unicron's transformation in The Transformers: The Movie, released in 1986. The head even remains intact floating through space after its destruction.
• Thunderbirds The Mercedes Benz launching from the Planet Druidia platform.
• It Happened One Night The wedding scene (when walking down the aisle, Princess Vespa is told by her father King Roland that Lone Starr forsook the reward for the princess's return and only asked to be reimbursed for the cost of the trip) is a parody of the wedding scence from the 1934 Frank Capra film.

The film also satirizes various aspects of 1980s culture, including video rental, fast food, Mr. Coffee, action figures, and merchandising. During a scene in which Dark Helmet and various other crewmates try to locate a copy of Spaceballs on video (which confuses Dark Helmet, as they are still making the movie at the time), Sandurz passes by video cassettes of several of Brooks's earlier movies (The Producers, The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie, High Anxiety, History of the World, Part I, and To Be or Not to Be) before he finds the video he is looking for. Also, Rocky is mentioned. After the news clip reporting the death of Pizza the Hutt, the reporter says, "Coming up, Pongo's review of Rocky Five...THOUSAND!" If you listen carefully, you'll hear the reviewer say, "Who says 'When you've seen one, you've seen 'em all'?" just before Barf shuts off the TV.

At the end of the final battle, in the final minute of the self-destruct countdown, Spaceball One's computer reminds Dark Helmet that there is a self-destruct cancellation button. Rushing to the button, he, President Skroob and Colonel Sandurz find it out of order, to which Dark Helmet curses, "Fuck! Even in the future, nothing works!"

One of the features of Skroob's presidential office was beverage cans filled with air, branded "Perri-air".

Moranis reportedly modeled Dark Helmet's "mask-down" voice on that of Geoffrey Holder, a popular performer with similar voice intonations to James Earl Jones, the actor who provided Darth Vader's voice in the Star Wars films.

Druidia may be a reference to Druidic culture, and also Jewish culture. The king's daughter is a "druish princess" (see "Princess Vespa", below). Another Jewish joke is Barf saying the princess doesn't look "Druish" which pokes fun at how Jews from different parts of the world are expected to look by those living there. In the DVD's audio commentary, Mel Brooks indicated that he was both proud and ashamed by that joke, jokingly clarifying that he was ashamed of the man who wrote it, but proud of himself for keeping it in the script.

• May I suggest that this be condensed as well, prior to reinclusion. Perhaps something like this:

The plot is deliberately evocative of fairy tales, as are the scenes on the planet Druidia. Throughout the film, the Spaceballs characters regularly break the fourth wall, and many of them are aware that they are making a movie. For example, in one scene, Colnol Sandurz pulls out the video version of Spaceballs being shown in real time, as it is being filmed , for Dark Helmet to view. They fast-forward to temporarily take a look at the scene they're in, in a live action display. The majority of the scenes and characters are parodies of Star Wars, although the film parodies other movies as well, most notably: Indiana Jones, Battlestar Galactica, The Wizard of Oz, Planet of the Apes, Star Trek, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Transformers." Wolfpeaceful (talk) 16:00, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Whether this is used or not, here is my reasoning behind the condensed/edited version I wrote:

• I took out "regularly to promote their merchandise" because they actually break the fourth wall for a variety of reasons. Dark Helmet breaks it early on in the movie to "make sure" the audience understands the plot, when Colnol Sandurz tells him what the plot is from the Spaceball's POV. "Everybody got that?" Barf breaks it in dialogue when they transition from one seen to the sun over Vega, saying "Nice Dissolve." and so forth.

• I took out "they" and replaced with "many"; we do not know if all of the characters in the Spaceballs movie are aware that they are making a movie, we only know that many of them of are.

• The Winslow reference doesn't count for parody. He simply appears in the film as a Spaceball's officer and uses vocal sound effects in the same manner as his character did in the Police Acadamy films; but nothing in spaceballs actually parodies Police Acadamy.

• I took out many of the minor paradoies, such as the Rambo, Hedroom, and Alien references. When you use the term "most notably" it implies the major ones. I also took out the musical score references. (Some may be notable, but I didn't really think it necessary to include them.)

• I took out all of the lengthy descriptions of each allegorical element. I believed it to be "wordy", and also unnecessarily detailed.

• I decided to keep out the paragraph of satarizing 1980's culture. Not because, it isn't true, but because the examples given, are not really different from modern culture. E.g. how are these things: video rental, fast food, Mr. Coffee, action figures, and merchandising any different from modern times? Mr. Coffee still makes products, people still rent videos, action figures are still being made and played with, and of course merchandising will likely be done until the end of time. Wolfpeaceful (talk) 16:00, 25 August 2009 (UTC)

Spaceballs

So, we have this huge section outlining all the completely obvious references in every character's name, but not one mention of where the name "spaceballs" comes from? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.11.36.169 (talk) 16:55, 25 August 2010 (UTC)

Revert of 7/14/2011

I reverted the following since this is already mentioned under the Heros section. The song is called Colonel Bogey March (and there is a mention of it being used in Spaceballs on the page for the song in their popular culture section). Wolfhound668 (talk) 15:39, 14 July 2011 (UTC)

The Dinks

The song that the Dinks are singing during the desert sequence is the theme from "The Bridge on the River Kwai". The Song is "The River Kwai March".

References

Skroob

Does this sentence make sense to anyone? "According to Brooks, he initially wanted the character's name to be "Brooks" spelled backwards. However, this name was not well-liked by Mel Brooks, who changed it to be similar to his backwards name." Pongley (talk) 19:27, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

I believe what it's trying to say is that Brooks initially wanted the character's name to be "Brooks" spelled backwards (which would be "Skoorb"). But he didn't like the way that looked/sounded, so he changed it to be something similar to his own name spelled backwards, i.e. "Skroob". DH85868993 (talk) 21:54, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

2021

The current text says "with his 'Skroob' being Mel Brooks's last name backwards" which is incorrect as previously noted here. Mad about everything (talk) 20:08, 11 August 2021 (UTC)

It's as close to being backwards as is allowed by the sound combinations of English (where "oo" in the sense of a high round vowel 1,2 does not really occur before r + a consonant), so therefore the "skroo" beginning has more associations ("Scrooge", "screw"). Backwards spellings will frequently require adustment to be pronounceable or suitable for inclusion in popular entertainment, so there's not much point in being excessively literalistic about them (an issue also seen in some people's responses to the "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" song)... AnonMoos (talk) 00:14, 12 August 2021 (UTC)

Skroob II

Can anyone provide a reference for Skroob being a parody of Star Wars' Grand Moff Tarkin? To me he just seems to be an "incompetent politician" stereotype. Noting that the article also identifies Sandurz as a parody of Tarkin, which I find more plausible. DH85868993 (talk) 02:22, 18 April 2012 (UTC)

Agree... AnonMoos (talk) 09:07, 18 April 2012 (UTC)

Characters and parodies

This characters and parodies section is a travesty. The section is 2,745 words long, far longer than any other section, and the great majority of it is unreferenced or very poorly referenced --- 5 references altogether in the whole section, the first of which is an IMDB trivia page, the second is a sex dictionary, and the last three all source the name of Brooks's lawyer. The section is tagged for OR, but I think it either needs to be deleted altogether or seriously trimmed to remove trivia and unsupported speculation. ---RepublicanJacobite_TheFortyFive 14:40, 14 May 2012 (UTC)

Feel free... Ckruschke -- 04:05, 15 May 2012‎ User:Ckruschke

However, it doesn't seem to be useful to eliminate all mention of the facts that there are obvious parodies of a number of Star Wars characters, that John Hurt reprised his Alien "chestburster" scene, etc. -- this was actually the main reason why the movie was made... AnonMoos (talk) 02:28, 16 May 2012 (UTC)

Maybe so, but that section is overrun with cruft. ---RepublicanJacobite_TheFortyFive 02:51, 16 May 2012 (UTC)

Comedy parody?

I don't know...doesm't it seem a little redundant to call this film a "comedy parody"? Walex03. Talking, working, friending. 13:40, 2 July 2012 (UTC)

I don't really have a problem with it. You can have a comedy movie that isn't a parody. Hot Shots, Naked Gun, and Space Balls all have parody as major elements of the movie, while other comedy movies do not lean as heavily or at all on making fun of popular culture or other movies. Ckruschke (talk) 17:48, 2 July 2012 (UTC)Ckruschke

I think he means that many comedy films are not parodies, but name one parody that isn't a comedy. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.242.219.182 (talk) 21:38, 15 July 2012 (UTC)

Agree. If you feel the genre needs to be changed, feel free to be bold and go ahead. Ckruschke (talk) 18:50, 17 September 2012 (UTC)Ckruschke

 Done 67.242.172.224 (talk) 23:16, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

Origin of The Schwartz

Here is my theory about the origin of The Schwartz:

Possibly Mel Brooks derived it from his own forename. While his full forename Melvin has Scottish/Latin roots and means "bad settlement", the short form "Mel" is also used as an abbreviation for the feminine forename Melanie which is derived from the Greek adjective "melan" (neuter singular form). And "melan" means "schwarz" in German.

In the 16th century, there lived the German reformer Philipp Melanchthon who was born as Philipp Schwartzerdt ("black earth") and who changed his surname into the Greek form "Melanchthon" later. So Mel Brooks possibly went the opposite way and translated the name "Mel" from ancient Greek back into German.

Furthermore there is a chemical substance "mercury chloride" that is also called "Kalomel" which means "schönes Schwarz" ("beautiful black"). In pure form it's a transparent colorless substance, but when irradiated with light, a chemical reaction occurs and the substance turns black - therefore it's called Kalomel. Strawberry No15 (talk) 16:06, 19 July 2012 (UTC)

You should go direct to the source: The Greek word μελας (stem μελαν-) means "black, dark". However, if there's no reliably-sourced indication of a connection between the Schwartz and μελαν, then it can't be included on the article... AnonMoos (talk) 16:17, 19 July 2012 (UTC)

I think you might be over-analysing it; my guess is that Brooks just picked a "Jewish-sounding" word (name) that sounds like "Force". I have no evidence to back that up, but that's my guess. DH85868993 (talk) 01:21, 20 July 2012 (UTC)

I think it is quite obvious that he didn't just pick any "Jewish-sounding" word (why would he want to pick a "Jewish-sounding" word in the first place?), but rather one that sounded (to him) like a euphemism for "Schwantz" - meaning tail in German or Yiddish, itself a euphemism for penis in Yiddish and German speaking circles. This allowed him to use this innocent-sound word (what, don't blame me, it's just a Jewish-sounding word) while making all sorts of seemingly-innocent phallic references ;-) 46.121.71.138 (talk) 09:53, 29 November 2015 (UTC)

By the way, according to [1], when the movie was translated into German, they didn't keep the word "Schwartz", and instead replaced it by "Saft" ("juice"). Amusing. 46.121.71.138 (talk) 09:56, 29 November 2015 (UTC)

Well, maybe anybody can ask Mr Brooks or someone of the Spaceballs staff in an upcoming interview whether my theory applies :-)

Strawberry No15 (talk) 13:42, 20 July 2012 (UTC)

Too much focus here on German, but that's not Mel Brooks's style. I think it should be shvarts, Yiddish for 'black'. He uses Yiddish in several of his movies, but I don't recall him ever using German. 71.171.89.90 (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 22:33, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

Yes. See Mazur, Eric Michael (2011). Encyclopedia of Religion and Film. ABC-CLIO. p. 93. ISBN 978-0-313-33072-8. Wtmitchell (talk) (earlier Boracay Bill) 22:48, 12 October 2014 (UTC)

The focus of my theory is not on German, but on ancient Greek. If you replace the noun "German" by the noun "Yiddish" in my entire text, the content of my theory essentially remains the same. (To prevent a misunderstanding, I'd like to make you aware of the fact that in the phrase "German reformer" German is an adjective, not a noun and therefore hasn't to be replaced).

Strawberry No15 (talk) 20:31, 10 November 2014 (UTC)

One more thought:

If I change some characteristics of the above-mentioned substance Kalomel, it is actually quite similar to outer space: Outer space itself is transparent and colorless and looks black if I don't look in the direction of a light source.

In the end Mel Brooks possibly just looked on outer space and thought: "Hey, it is black (= schwartz). Then let's include this word in my movie."

By the way, if you're interested in a "logical" explanation of the fundamental forces in the Spaceballs Universe, you might like this (German) essay about the Duckburg Universe: https://web.archive.org/web/20180604133551/http://www.quakpiep.de/Quantenchronodynamik.htm

Strawberry No15 (talk) 19:25, 12 November 2014 (UTC)

Strawberry No15 (talk) 19:18, 23 June 2019 (UTC)

Earlier Star Wars Parody

Anyone want to help me with a bit of information. With nearly every article I've read, there is usually a statement about how there were earlier (and sometimes better) Star Wars parodies before Spaceballs. I've been trying to find these names so I can further some work I'm doing. The only thing I've found was Hardware Wars, which while a parody, is more short film, which is not full length and does not contend against Spaceballs. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.50.85.200 (talk) 21:46, 21 March 2013 (UTC)

Don't think there was any pre-1987 full-scale movie. Maybe there were TV comedy skits. AnonMoos (talk) 23:52, 21 March 2013 (UTC)

There are MANY movies that came out that had SciFi themes similar to Star Wars trying to bank on the Star Wars craze (many of them being awful, B-movies that no one remembers), but none of them were done as either direct or implied parodies to the movie. Hardware Wars comes to mind, but nothing else. I can think of pretty good parodies on Saturday Night Live, the Carol Burnett Show, The Tonight Show, and other places, but these were obviously bit sketches. Ckruschke (talk) 18:36, 22 March 2013 (UTC)Ckruschke

Added "In popular culture"

Hey, guys, I added "In popular culture" the first one was: "In Monsters vs. Aliens, Gallaxhar, said 'Oh, Spaceballs!' during the end of the film." — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dewy60 (talk • contribs) 20:30, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

planet Druidia setting

To me, the royal palace - including the mountain background - looks very much like a Disney version of Neuschwanstein Castle. --Hodsha (talk) 21:03, 29 June 2014 (UTC)

Think it's mainly supposed to convey the idea of a fairytale princedom. Specific influences would probably need a source to be included on the article... AnonMoos (talk) 19:58, 23 July 2014 (UTC)

---

Budget

It's been a while since I watched this movie, but I recall hearing that the film budget was a fluke, like an extra zero was added or something and it wasn't supposed to cost nearly as much originally. For all I know, that was a line in the movie (I can't remember) but anyway, that's what I remember. Does anyone else know about that or remember? Google isn't helping me find anything about that AutumnWind 23:26, 8 November 2014 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Autumn Wind (talk • contribs)

...or, more to the point, something like Brooks asked for a rediculous budget not expecting to get it, but it was approved... AutumnWind 23:30, 8 November 2014 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Autumn Wind (talk • contribs)

He didn't say anything about that on the DVD commentary. He just said that he was glad to have a chance to work at MGM back when it was a real studio, and not just a box on a corporate holdings diagram... AnonMoos (talk) 05:03, 14 November 2014 (UTC)

Planet of the Apes

I personally don't have anything to add right now as it's been a long time since I've seen either film and I'm not on a position to remark, but I did want to say: @Bellagio99:, in your latest edit, I would warn against making such comments again, as it comes across as condescending, presumptuous, and some other adjective I can't recall right now and can be taken as WP:UNCIVIL. Since I've opened this up, maybe a discussion is warranted at this point? Pinging @Masem:, @DH85868993: as reverting editors. ~Cheers, TenTonParasol 14:27, 28 August 2016 (UTC) ~Cheers, TenTonParasol 14:27, 28 August 2016 (UTC)

While the scene is a clear parody of Planet of the Apes (and can likely be sourced), there's no indication that where they crashed is a "planet of the apes" planet. All we see is a handful of sentient apes see them and complain. It's interpretation for that, and the approach to include it is more what one would do at TV tropes which is not appropriate here. --MASEM (t) 14:47, 28 August 2016 (UTC)

Masem is correct; there's no indication that where they crashed is a "planet of the apes" planet. @Bellagio99: if you had written "...its Planet of the Apes-like ape population", then I wouldn't have reverted. But that's not what you wrote. DH85868993 (talk) 22:08, 28 August 2016 (UTC)

Making the change now, and apologies for my momentary incivility. Bellagio99 (talk) 21:24, 29 August 2016 (UTC)Belllagio99

Your change is just fine, thanks for understanding. --MASEM (t) 21:44, 29 August 2016 (UTC)

Ludicrous Speed

I don't know if it fits into the Space Balls parody section, but Spaceball One's "Ludicrous Speed" has inspired a homage of its own. Tesla Model S features "ludicrous speed" as one of its transmission options. Bellagio99 (talk) 15:17, 13 September 2016 (UTC)

A third-party RS should remark that the Tesla ludicrous speed is a reference to Spaceballs. ~Cheers, TenTonParasol 15:44, 13 September 2016 (UTC)

Out of date in Wikislang: What's an "RS"? Bellagio99 (talk) 16:33, 13 September 2016 (UTC)

Oh! Sorry, I thought I linked it, reliable source because the page is located at WP:RS. ~Cheers, TenTonParasol 16:37, 13 September 2016 (UTC)

Thanks. Done! See text. Back to 'real work' Bellagio99 (talk) 18:52, 13 September 2016 (UTC)

Vacuum scene

Along with the air, the giant vacuum also sucks up snow from the planet and also uproots the planet's trees — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.114.190.21 (talk) 00:23, 2 January 2017 (UTC)

Yes, that happens, but per WP:NOT#PLOT, we want to keep this summary concise, and that's a very small visual detail that does not affect the plot, so its not appropriate to add. --MASEM (t) 06:47, 2 January 2017 (UTC)

No kidding. Why is someone so obsessed with adding that throwaway joke? Bkatcher (talk) 14:54, 2 January 2017 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Spaceballs. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110907054357/http://www.lalalandrecords.com/SpaceBalls.html to http://www.lalalandrecords.com/SpaceBalls.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 22:03, 5 December 2017 (UTC)

Hatnotes

Are all these hatnotes really necessary? Is anyone going to search for those terms looking for anything other than this film? I could be wrong, of course, but it seems silly. ---The Old Jacobite_{The '45} 13:40, 2 September 2018 (UTC)

'Mawg' and 'Mog'

I want to raise these spellings for discussion because I don't know how to best approach it within Wikipedia's guidelines. As has been raised several times, the portmanteau for man-dog would intuitively be 'mog', not 'mawg'. However, the only authoritative evidence I can find is within the film itself, where a wall on the Winnebago has a sign reading: "Mawg on Board". I cannot find any similar reference to "mog" within the film. However, one could speculate that the signage is itself a joke suggesting that mogs are so poor at spelling that they misspelled their own species.

Supposed copies of the screenplay can be found in both forms, 'mawg' and 'mog'.

As for secondary sources, I can find contradictions within websites and no consensus among them. For example, Looper write 'mog' in their 21 July 2020 article, but then write 'mawg' in their 25 June 2021 article. A cursory Google search indicates that 'mog' is more frequent than 'mawg', but that may only indicate the intuitiveness of the portmanteau's spelling rather than its correctness.

What do people think is the correct approach here? Primary evidence indicates the official spelling according to the film's creators is 'mawg', and plenty of secondary sources do spell it this way, but I cannot find clear, authoritative, written confirmation that it is 'mawg' rather than 'mog'. --Scuoise (talk) 20:45, 30 July 2021 (UTC)

In some dialects of English they would be pronounced the same: See Cot-caught merger. It's possible that those making the movie were less concerned with such spelling inconsistency than you are... AnonMoos (talk) 21:39, 30 July 2021 (UTC)

I agree that the pronunciation would be the same for most people. I'm raising the topic with respect to which spelling ought to be used within the article, since there have been several reversions from 'mawg' to 'mog'. The question here isn't how to pronounce the word, but rather which should be considered the correct spelling based on the sources available. If there are going to be edits back and forth, we should reach some consensus on the spelling. --Scuoise (talk) 21:47, 30 July 2021 (UTC)

The only real canon source for the film is the film itself, and as you said the word 'mawg' is used repeatedly. I'm personally in favor of sticking with 'mawg', but I'm open to further discussion if there are other points to be made. Hans404 (talk) 23:16, 6 October 2021 (UTC)

I agree. If the film said 'Mawg', all other sources take a back seat. Bkatcher (talk) 02:06, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

I don't have a strong preference either way, but I note that the article currently contains "mawg" in one place and "mog" in another - which may explain why people keep editing it (i.e. to make the article internally consistent). DH85868993 (talk) 23:15, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

Good catch! I've aligned both instances to 'mawg' for now, as that seems to be the way most of us are leaning, but we can certainly give it a bit more time in case there's more discussion to be had. Hans404 (talk) 00:38, 8 October 2021 (UTC)

Remake of It Happened One Night

Having just watched the 1930s Clark Gable film by Frank Capra, while Space Balls is a parody of Star Wars, it is clearly a remake of It Happened One Night.

The scene where Clark Gable demands $39.60 from Claudette Colbert’s father for his effort rather than the $10,000 reward reminded me of something, and I realized it was the scene where Dick Van Patten tells Daphne that Bill Pullman only wanted money for gas and tolls. The entire Lonestar/Princess storyline dynamic is lifted from the Gable/Colbert story, except she’s a JAP rather than a WASP debutant.

It’s a remake in the same way that Airplane! was a spoof of Airport but was a remake of Zero Hour. Things can be two things. Why did Brooks never cop to it? 2600:6C50:A7F:832E:61D7:76C5:DE84:2143 (talk) 06:25, 29 January 2022 (UTC)

Is there anything else similar between the two films, other then that one scene? They obviously parodied a lot of movies: Alien, Planet of the Apes, Star Trek, to name a few. Bkatcher (talk) 00:52, 30 January 2022 (UTC)

"critique"

why not include audience score, instead of only the outdated and laughably bad, skewed "critics" scores? (which do not reflect professional critics opinions but are just a bunch of journalist opinions)

the reception from the public was far better and is less skewed, esp. if there are only 10 reviews where each bad review weighs in a lot. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2003:CC:B703:8821:7D2E:E942:488E:4A80 (talk) 08:42, 15 June 2022 (UTC)

WP:UGC user voted web polls are not a reliable source WP:RS. -- 109.76.133.142 (talk) 12:34, 31 July 2022 (UTC)