Twisting in the Wind

Homage comes in various forms.  For a state like Oklahoma, which tends to keep things low-key, there's not too many movies that celebrate the state.  Sure, there's a few that take place here, but not too many that that really take a swing at the high-octane craziness that can happen, especially during tornado season.

A more typical type of homage is the roast.  Nothing tells you how you've endeared yourself to your friends like having them tell you how much you suck.  And one of the thickest branches on the "Roast Family Tree" is the Mad Magazine parody, which has been skewering pop culture for decades. 

From my perspective, the Oklahoma Homage Stars aligned in issue #349 of Mad.  It was the Fall of '96 and in addition to taking shots at Madonna, Hercules and Xena, Twister got their steaks and eggs served to them too.  With that, let's take a look...

As per the usual Mad format, we start off with a big splash page with the characters introducing themselves with gags-a-plenty.  The usual Mad art style is your standard "caricature" that tends to be somewhat accurate when it comes to faces.  BUt while Helen Hunt is recognizable, it looks like the artist didn't make any kind of effort to make Bill Paxton's character look like the actor.  It's enough to almost think they weren't able to see the movie but maybe caught a few Mad About You reruns.

The parody follows the plot of the movie pretty much, starting with young Helen Hunt seeing her father get killed by a tornado and swearing to one day hunt that tornado down and kill it.  The likenesses continue to be off with pretty much every other character throughout the story.  But there's a reason why Twister's most famous character looks a little off...

Gary Larson had retired the previous year.  If you're not familiar with the name, he was the cartoonist for The Far Side, which was incredibly popular in the 80s and early 90s and frequently featured cows, which is why we have this additional homage.  I guess he was still in the popular zeitgeist enough to influence our parody's writer to use for the Twister "flying cow" gag.

Which leads to a joke that should have been in the movie...and for some reason a Bart Simpson cameo.  Remember, it wasn't just the Far Side that was popular back then.  So just like in the movie we get the "gang goes to see Aunt Meg" scene and dine on "tasty cow."  And just like in the movie they go chase some more tornadoes.  But unlike the movie, we get a twist ending:

Speaking of homages, we end with a combo.  Taking a page from Newhart and the Wizard of Oz, Helen Hunt wakes up safely back in Must See TV Land with what I assume are semi-accurate caricatures of the cast.  You had to know her hit show was going to make it in this Mad parody somehow.

So not too many Oklahoma mentions but still plenty of state identity made it out of the movie and into the magazine.  This will have to hold you over until I can track down the "Grapes of Wretch" parody they undoubtedly did at some point.