Blaxploitation Parody

Lance: Always trying to keep the white man down.
Conspiracy Brother: THAT'S RIGHT, THAT'S RIGHT... no, that ain't right.

— Undercover Brother

Back in the '70s, Blaxploitation films took hard-nosed Black heroes and pitted them against The Man in action-packed stories full of Jive Turkey, all set to a funky beat. Most were just bad, not to mention insulting. On the other hand, some, despite the poor production values, were vastly popular, well-crafted within their limitations, and immensely entertaining nuggets of pure gold.

These days, any film producer (with the possible exception of Quentin Tarantino) would be committing career suicide if they tried to make a Blaxploitation film... even if they did it because they loved the genre. The solution is the Blaxploitation Parody, which allows the producer to showcase the best elements of the genre while avoiding the worst, all while making fun of the whole thing.

A subtrope of Affectionate Parody.

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Examples:

Advertising

• This ice-cream ad from Chile, featuring a Soul Brotha Afro Asskicker and his Action Girl Ms. Fanservice partner.

Anime & Manga

• "Mushroom Samba" from Cowboy Bebop, which is a mashup parody of two iconic '70s film genres — Blaxploitation and the Stoner Flick.

Comedy

• A notable example from the heyday of the genre is "Kingpin", a sketch from the 1974 album A Great Gift Idea by the comedy troupe The Credibility Gap (David L. Lander, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer). It's a trailer for a fictional Blaxploitation Biopic of Martin Luther King Jr., complete with a Superfly-ish theme song.
  He's a king, he's a pin, he's a Kingpin!

Fan Works

• The Rod Squad is a rare case of a Fan Fic that invokes this — especially since it's a Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers fanfic featuring mostly animals as characters. But then again, it's an Alternate Universe Fic that's set in The '70s and in which Dale and Foxglove (or rather Foxy Glove) wear Funny Afros.

Films — Animation

• Coonskin is Ralph Bakshi's deconstructive racial satire of the African American myths of Br'er Rabbit and blaxploitation as a genre. The movie was and still remains controversial since it's utterly loaded with blackface imagery and outdated dialogue, though the more favorable audience members (from the NAACP to the Wu-Tang Clan) says that exploring transgression is the whole point.

Films — Live-Action

• The probable Ur-Example is the "Cleopatra Schwartz" segment of The Kentucky Fried Movie. Notable in that it came out in 1977, when actual Blaxploitation was still in its prime.
• Austin Powers in Goldmember: "My name is Foxxy Cleopatra and I'm a whole lotta woman!", "You have the right to remain sexy, sugar...". And yes, her name is just "Foxy Brown" and "Cleopatra Jones" put together.
• Black Devil Doll is a very low-budget spoof of blaxploitation cinema, featuring a foul-mouthed Demonic Dummy.
• Black Dynamite, an almost perfect recreation of period films.
• Low-budget indie horror movie Boo! features a cop who used to play in Blaxploitation films as "Dynamite Jones". At one point early in the film, he's having a drink in a restaurant and a poorly done Spanish dub of one of his movies is playing on a TV in the background. It shows Jones fighting a vampire, in a Shout-Out to Blacula.
• Dolemite: A hard-working pimp fights back against crooked cops who want to frame him for crimes he didn't commit (instead of the rather obvious crimes he does commit). One of the first blaxploitation parodies, but some people think it's a straight example.
• The Hebrew Hammer lovingly spoofs Blaxploitation films by combining them with literally every Jewish stereotype ever, as well as a Saving Christmas (and Hanukkah from Christmas) plot, to create the world's first "Jewsploitation" film.
• I'm Gonna Git You Sucka: A 1986 film starring Keenan Ivory Wayans and several other stars of blaxploitation films such as Jim Brown, Antonio Fargas (that's "Huggy Bear" to you Starsky & Hutch fans) and Isaac Hayes.
• Machete started out as a fictitious Mexploitation film whose trailer was part of Grindhouse, but then Robert Rodriguez actually made it.
• Undercover Brother: An early 2000s Eddie Griffin film about a Soul Brotha who joins a secret organization in its fight against "The Man" and his quest to "whitewash" influential black figures.
• Pootie Tang is a completely silly spoof of the blaxploitation genre.
• In Hollywood Shuffle, Robert Townsend plays an actor who gets cast in a Blaxploitation film. He's not sure if he should take the job — on the one hand at least he'd be working, but on the other hand he'd be working in one of these. Imagine Spots aplenty.
• The mockumentary Fear of a Black Hat has been described as the This is Spın̈al Tap of Hip-Hop.
• In Urban Legend, the security guard Reese Wilson idolizes Pam Grier and imagines herself a blaxploitation heroine. She gets her wish when she pulls off the Big Damn Heroes moment at the end.

Literature

• Kim Newman's Nefertiti Bronze stories in The Lovecraft Squad Shared Universe are what happens when blaxploitation meets the Cthulhu Mythos, with a Harlem-based voodoo practitioner heroine named as a clear riff on Cleopatra Jones.

Live-Action TV

• Just Shoot Me! once showed a clip from Nina's own star turn as Foxy Trouble. Even though she's white, it's still done in this style — likely because it's a flashback to The '70s and you can't get more '70s than blaxploitation.
• Saturday Night Live had a blaxploitation film parody on the season 36 episode hosted by Jessie Eisenberg (The Social Network) with musical guest Nicki Minaj called "The Bride of Blackenstein," in which Dr. Blackenstein (Jay Pharoah) and his assistant Igor (Jessie Eisenberg) create a bride (Nicki Minaj) for Blackenstein's monster (Kenan Thompson). Unfortunately, despite the fact that the bride has a nice ass (made from two basketballs filled with Jell-O), she is very much the embodiment of the Sassy Black Woman trope (only she's not fat).
• Similarly (and far before the SNL version), Mad TV had "The Son of Dolemite" as well as "Funkenstein", with Bad "Bad Acting", nonsensical camera-cuts, and the occasional boom-mic hanging on-screen. All intentional, of course.
• Mystery Science Theater 3000 had a host segment where they perform Crow's attempt at a Blaxpolitation screenplay, Chocolate Jones and The Temple of Funk.

Professional Wrestling

• The Human Tornado and the tag team "Supply And Demand" in Ultimate Pro Wrestling. by virtue of being Captain Ersatzs to Dolemite.
• Jimi Mayhem, a captain Ersatz to Shonuff from The Last Dragon, looking to get his revenge on Bruce Leroy in NWA Vendetta Pro Wrestling.

Tabletop Games

• SOLID! The d20 Blaxploitation Experience features abilities like "booty slide" and being able to conceal objects inside your massive 'fro.
• In Shadowrun, orksploitation media is a relatively popular genre of entertainment in-universe. It blends elements of both blaxploitation and gangster rap. And orks.

Video Games

• Isaac Washington, the secondary protagonist of The House of the Dead: OVERKILL is basically a straight sendup of the average blaxploitation hero, who uses "motherfucker" like most of us would use a comma. Make him mad and he'll rip your balls off.
• Not an entire work, but one of the main characters of Fahrenheit is an African-American police officer. We get to see his apartment early in the game, and the place is a blaxploitation nightmare.
• The hats released for Demoman from Team Fortress 2 are a parody of this: The small black "'fro" and a pimp's hat.
• Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne has the Show Within a Show "Dick Justice", a parody of the first Max Payne with a black protagonist.
• The Black Baron (stop starin'!), from MadWorld and Anarchy Reigns IS this trope. He wears blinged-out Pimp Duds, is a Cluster F-Bomb-dropping Plucky Comic Relief (who, in MadWorld, is constantly made the victim of his own lethal minigames by Matilda, his silent, Dominatrix-esque girlfriend), and can still bitch-slap your ass back to 1969 with his Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs (which are literally on fire in the later game!). He gets away with this by Crossing the Line Twice, and Refuge in Audacity alone even after the announcers in Madworld reveal HE'S NOT EVEN BLACK!
  • The somewhat-sequel has the Blacker Baron, who's just as strong as his predecessor and twice as black.
• In Skullgirls, one of the Gag Dub voice-packs available for DLC is one for Big Band, creatively called "Saxploitation".

Webcomics

• Satan Ninja 198 X features a character named Valery "Viper" Viperelli, a freelance badass, who fights Satan Ninjas and sports a bleached blond mohawk.
• Skin Horse has Tigerlily Jones, a black female Mad Scientist who can be strapped into a straightjacket in institutional grey and come out looking like Pam Grier.

Western Animation

• It's only a brief clip, but The Simpsons did a memorable gag where Homer is watching a tv-movie titled Blackula Meets Black Dracula. It's pretty much what you'd expect based on the title.
  • Also in The Simpsons, Homer watches "Blaxploitation Theater" which is said to feature Blacula, Blackenstein, and The Blunch Black of Bloture Blame. Homer's response? "Ooh, funkay!"
• Similarly, Family Guy once had a fictional trailer for Black to the Future, a Blaxploitative version of Back to the Future. Said trailer also mentioned Blackdraft, Caddyblack and Black Kramer vs. Kramer.
• A parody of Blacula features in The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, an elder black version of Dracula who talks like Fred Sanford.
• Drawn Together has Foxxy Love, a sass-talking black girl and mystery solver who is often fighting against oppressive, and white, institutions (i.e., The Board of Education).
• American Dad!:
  • The episode "Brains, Brains, and Automobiles" has a Blaxploitation-style fight between Stan and the Hostess Chocodile mascot (a crocodile in Pimp Duds), complete with funky soundtrack.
    Stan: [after the latter rudely shoves him] Hey Chocodile, watch where your going!
    Chauncey Chocodile: Oh, hell no!
  • The episode "For Black Eyes Only", the follow-up to the non-canon James Bond parody episode "Tearjerker", has Francine as Sexpuneequa and Principal Lewis as Black Villain, a funky criminal who wants to melt the ice caps to turn his Detroit street into beach front property.
• The Venture Bros. has Jefferson Twilight, a Captain Ersatz of Blade who is a Blacula hunter.
• Robot Police Officer URL from Futurama is a parody of Blaxploitation heroes. This overlaps with Odd Couple and Androids and Detectives, given his partner is human Police Officer Smitty.
• The Show Within a Show Action Hank in Dexter's Laboratory.
• In an episode of The Cleveland Show, it was revealed that Donna starred in a film she regretted being in, Hot Cocoa Bang Bang.
• In the episode "Diamond Boogie" from Duck Dodgers, Dodgers and Cadet team up with police officer Paprika Solo (a kind of Cleopatra Jones from space) against villain Victor Von Boogieman on the planet Groovica.
• In an episode of The Angry Beavers, all the forest animals are sitting around a campfire telling a segment of a story. Barry the Bear (an obvious Barry White parody) tells his story segment in this fashion.
• There's an animesque Black Dynamite cartoon series on [adult swim], based on the aforementioned movie of the same name.
• An episode of Duckman has him mention that he's a fan of Blaxploitation movies, with his favorite being about "the greatest detective of them all — Jim Slate: Big Black Dick". The episode "Ebony, Baby" is an extended Blaxploitation Parody, with him working together with a Coffy parody to solve a crime.
• Aqua Teen Hunger Force has Boxy Brown, a cardboard box with an afro and mustache.
  Boxy Brown: I'm just a what, bitch?
• The The Powerpuff Girls (1998) episode "Boogie Frights" depicts the Boogieman as a Blaxploitation villain, Pimp Duds and all.

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