Hey, You Know What Would Be New? A Silence of the Lambs Parody: Part 2

Until recently when comedy writers discovered they could make fun of the Buffalo Bill character, Silence of the Lambs parodies typically made fun of one scene and one scene alone and that’s the scene where Clarice Starling meets Hannibal Lecter for the first time.

It’s not surprising why this scene has been mocked so many times. It’s instantly iconic yet affected and weird. This is the kind of scene that practically begs to be made fun of. What is surprising is that this is the only scene that comedy writers seem to go after. Sure some don’t reference the quid-pro-quo line and some might not mock the fava beans line or the licking thing that Hopkins pulls after the fava beans line but all of them do make fun of that moment where Lecter smells and recognizes Starling’s perfume (or whatever it was).

Below you’ll find the Silence parody from National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1. I’m not sure if this was the first but it’s definitely one of the earliest examples. Parts of it are actually kind of amusing and I should mention that Loaded Weapon 1 actually pulls off a sort-of hack trifecta by referencing the quid-pro-quo line, the fava-bean-tongue thing and the part where he smells her. Congratulations movie (actual Silence parody starts at the 2:58 mark).

Hey, You Know What Would Be New? A Silence of the Lambs Parody: Part 1

Why is it that practically every Silence of the Lambs parody either contains a reference to eating fava beans or a scene in which somebody is wheeled out in a face mask and strait-jacket? I mean there were other scenes in the movie why just focus on those two?

Here’s a Skippy(Australia’s Lassie)/Silence of the Lambs pastiche that aired on an episode of Fast Forward. Thankfully it foregoes the fava beans thing but settles on the facemask thing.

Over the next couple of weeks I will be posting similar clips for reasons I’m still not entirely sure. (self-loathing?)