There is an eccentric but brilliant detective

In general, people are more aware of the humorous parodies as they appeal to a larger group of people. So when most people think of parodies they automatically think of funniness or hilarity but parodies aren’t always merely funny. Sometimes they are serious as well and designed to expose a truth or satirise certain aspects of a topic.

Crime fiction and its sub-genres all have a set of formulaic conventions that are rarely strayed from. These conventions are so easily recognised that crime fiction becomes extremely easy to mock or parody. This is why we find parodies so amusing. We subconsciously know the conventions and can see them being exaggerated.

Parodies themselves don’t have a list of conventions like other genres of crime fiction. They are formed by focusing on the conventions of the sub-genre that it parodies. So when parodying detective fiction, the focus is on parodying or exaggerating the existing conventions of the genre. We are all familiar with them which are:

- There is an eccentric but brilliant detective

-There is a baffling crime

-The wrong suspect is accused

-The police are baffled

Parodies may choose to ridicule many of these conventions, or just a few. These conventions are then exaggerated, or exaggerated in reverse. An example of an exaggeration of a convention may be the creation of an extremely stereotypical character. So maybe the femme fatale in a parody would have luscious long blonde tresses cascading down across her soft pale neck, in a revealing red dress hugging her shapely hips and petite waist with a heart shaped face as sweet as a seraph’s and full pink kissable lips. Another example of exaggeration would be to overdo a convention of detective fiction: such as the detective is eccentric; for example Inspector Gadget, with all of his gadgets connected to his body.

The conventions may also be parodied by doing the opposite or reverse of the stated convention. This technique is more common, and tends to be funnier, and is often combined with the exaggeration. An example of this is Jacques Clouseau in The Pink Panther, who is extremely incompetent and blundering but who still manages to solve the case. But everyone knows that the detective or hero should be intelligent and able.

Although there aren’t strict conventions, parody of crime fiction has several tendencies that the stories follow. These are:

- The story is usually humorous

-It exaggerates or reverses, the conventions or aspects of genre that it parodies

-It might use puns or references to other books or films

-Makes characters overly stereotypical

-The storyline is similar to that of the genre that it is parodying

-There is often a successful ending, meaning that the ending is happy, even if the crime isn’t solved.

So we know that some parodies are more subtle than the obvious and amusing examples that most people are more familiar with, and have a more serious intention than just to entertain. Some include, “The Real Inspector Hound” a play by Tom Stoppard, and the novel “Trent’s Last Case” by E.C Bentley. “The Real Inspector Hound is a parody on the formulaic conventions of the cosy sub-genre. Stoppard found the conventions made the stories too predictable and wanted to write a piece that strayed from the norm. “Trent’s Last Case” was written because Bentley thought that the characters in detective fiction were too stereotypical. Bentley didn’t want the detective to be an infallible person who has incomprehensible deductive skills; which is often the case in detective fiction. Trent, the main character, makes a number of mistakes throughout the investigation. He falls in love with the main suspect, and makes an accusation which actually turns out to point the finger at the wrong person. At the end of the book, Trent is casually told by the murderer that they have shot the victim. Trent’s last words on the case show his acceptance of defeat. He says:

“I'm cured. I will never touch a crime-mystery again. The Manderson affair shall be Philip Trent's last case. His high-blown pride at length breaks under him. I could have borne everything but that last revelation of the impotence of human reason. I have absolutely nothing left to say, except this: you have beaten me. I drink your health in a spirit of self-abasement. And you shall pay for the dinner.”

The way that Trent is able to recognise his faults shows he is fallible, which makes him more human in the eyes of the reader and therefore, readers can relate to him. This is unusual in a parody of crime fiction as usually the protagonist is exaggerated and eccentric.

Notable Characters

So, does anybody know of any famous characters in crime fiction parodies? We thought some of the most well known were Austin Powers, Maxwell Smart, and Inspector Gadget.

In Goldmember, some aspects which have been parodied include the exaggerated technology often found in James Bond-like movies. That is the equipment which is seen in the movie is highly advanced and is of higher technological capability than the technology of today. But some of the highly advanced equipment in the movie has silly purposes; such as a tractor beam, made by Doctor Evil to attract the meteor “Midas 22” to crash into the Earth to melt the polar ice caps which would consequently cause the Earth to flood.

Technology is also parodied in Get Smart. I’m sure almost all of you would know of the shoe phone that Maxwell Smart uses? And the telephone booths which lead to the entrances of his secret spy agency. These advances in technology refer to the gadgets that many spies have in classic action films.

Other parodies include Pink Panther, The Master of Disguise and Inspector Gadget. The main characters from these movies along with Maxwell Smart are all incompetent and bumbling. However, the case is always resolved and they bathe in the praise given to them. But in Get Smart, it is Agent 99 (the girl sidekick) who solves the problems which he’ll take the credit for, and the same goes for The Master of Disguise. If the heroes do actually manage to solve a case, it is usually by luck or chance, not by their skill or intelligence. This is parodying the convention that the detective is normally shown to be infallible.

So as you can see, there are actually quite a few characters which many people are aware of, though these mostly come up in movies and tv shows, as there are more well-known parodies of crime fiction through this media than through books. This may be as they are more widely advertised.

-The intention of most crime fiction parodies is to tease a subgenre or convention. Usually, crime fiction parodies are made as the genre is seen to be too predictable with its formulaic conventions. Some also find the stories too far-fetched; meaning that the plots or resolutions are unbelievable and too impressive to be realistic.

Although some parodies don’t have a deeper meaning as most parodies are films and are made for comic enjoyment. However, some parodies may mock other ideas that are unrelated to crime fiction in the process.

Stereotypical plots

The stereotypical plots which occur in detective fiction include a body being found, the police are baffled and unsure of what to do next, the detective then finds a clue which leads to his thorough investigation of the crime and inexorably, he solves the crime.

This plot outline is followed quite regularly by parodies made of the detective fiction genre. This is so we can draw parallels between the parodies and the crime fiction stories. We are able to follow a similar pattern in the storyline, but there are mockeries along the way where a normal detective fiction story wouldn’t be.

Writing Style/Script

The writing style of crime fiction parodies relates back to our conventions of parody that we’d stated before. These are that:

-It might use puns or references to other books or films.

-And that it exaggerates or reverses, the conventions or aspects of the genre that it parodies.

A good example of detective fiction parody is a film Murder By Death which was made in 1976. It is a parody of the many whodunit stories of the time.

Lionel Twain invites five of the most celebrated detectives in the world to a dinner and a murder. On the invitation he has specifically stated that a murder will take place and the detective who solves the case will be rewarded one million dollars.

Each guest arrives at the secluded mansion. Its setting is out in the country is actually a parody setting of Agatha Christie and the cosy sub-genre. She often set her crime stories in isolated places where there were only a certain number of suspects as they were the only people in the vicinity.

Anyway, the guests are greeted by the blind butler Bensonmum. Their host, Lionel Twain meets them at dinner and reveals that the murder will occur at midnight and that the victim is one of the people sitting at that table right at that moment. A series of confusing events such as the death of the butler, the disappearance of the cook, Yetta, and the vanishing of rooms occur before we learn that the victim turns out to be Lionel Twain himself. So Twain is the most unlikely and unexpected person to be the victim as he was the one to inform the detectives that there was to be a murder in the first place. This is an exaggeration of the convention that it is the most unlikely person who is involved which is a convention too often used in crime fiction.

All the detectives go to bed as they have decided to solve the mystery in the morning but a murder attempt is made upon each of them. Luckily, they all escape the deadly situations and have each devised their own interpretation of the clues. This is a parody on the convention of the superior detective; each detective in the movie recites their own solution with arrogance and in expectation of receiving the prize money. They can’t comprehend the prospect of not resolving the crime as they all know that they are the best at what they do.

{show denouement stop and play, 7 minutes}

As you can see, the ending is very confusing and doesn’t make much sense as the criminal turns out to be Yetta, the deaf and mute cook. This makes fun of the fact that the culprit is often the least expected person, and that all of us have experienced this frustration with the genre. We aren’t able to guess who the culprit is as the author has made sure that no clues point towards the true killer or criminal, resulting in a surprise ending. The denouement also makes fun of the way some stories end without the whole mystery being resolved. This is taken to extreme measures in Murder By Death. Not only do we not find out how Lionel Twain was murdered, but we also don’t know what happened to the body, why Sam Diamond would accuse someone of being him when he knew it wasn’t true, whether a murder even occurred, the motive of the murderer, and of course what in the world Yetta had to do with any of it.

The motifs and symbolism which are present in Murder by Death include:

-the trench coat and snap-brim hat worn by Sam Diamond symbolising the Hardboiled American Detective

-the isolated castle decorated with gargoyles symbolises the audiences’ expectation of a gothic story or a sinister one, though Murder by Death is a parody so this is slightly skewed.

-Humorous: Yes, the whole movie was a big ball of fun.

-Exaggerates or parodies aspects of genre: The movie parodies most of the detective fiction conventions:

An example of mocking a convention is the denouement. Usually the denouement involves the detective unravelling the clues and explaining all the steps taken to solve the crime while tying up all the loose ends so the reader/viewer is able to understand how everything fits together. But in this movie the ending is very complicated and confusing and leaves the viewer bewildered and struggling to comprehend.

Another convention in ordinary detective fiction is that the detective always bests the criminal and usually the detective amazes everyone with his superior deductive skills. The parody has the criminal outsmart the detectives as in the movie, each detective comes up with a different resolution and the criminal in turn lets them know that they are each incorrect and amazes them all with his inconceivable intelligence. So this convention is parodied as this time, the criminal is the intellectually superior one.

-A parody may use puns or references to other books:

This film makes references to other crime fiction stories and films through the characters. Each detective is based on a famous literary or cinematic character of crime fiction. These are all famous detective fiction films and books that have been used for the inspiration of each main character.

First there is:

Sidney Wang, who is based on Charlie Chan, who appears in many books by Earl Derr Biggers. Although Wang is supposed to be Chinese he is played by Englishman Peter Sellers and the movie makes fun of his Chinese accent. Next is:

Jessica Marbles. She is based on Miss Marple by Agatha Christie. She represents the parody of Agatha Christie’s sub-genre, that being cosies. She is homely, wearing flowery clothing representing the furniture and setting of the cosy genre, where there are comfy couches and vases of flowers around the house.

Then there is Dick and Dora Charleston. These two represent Nick and Nora Charles from the novel Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett. There is a further reference to the names of characters Dick and Dora Charleston. Dick and Dora were also the names in a very famous children’s reading book series in the early sixties. The books were simple and contained only short three word sentences such as “This is Dick, Run Dick Run”. So the names of these two characters in the movie may have been a pun or joke implying that the detectives are simple and ignorant.

Also, there is Milo Perrier, who is a play on Hercule Poirot, the character created by Agatha Christie. Like Sidney Wang, his nationality is exaggerated in terms of his accent and personality.

Then there is Sam Diamond: a mixture of Sam Spade from “The Maltese Falcon” by Dashiell Hammett, and Richard Diamond from the radio series: “Richard Diamond, Private Detective”. He is a stereotypical hard boiled American detective, has a thick American accent and says rude things. He is gruff and of course wears a trench-coat and snap-brim hat.

Apart from the fact that the five detectives are pastiches of existing characters in detective fiction and film, references are also made to the way in which the main characters’ books were written. At the point where it seems Lionel Twain is the mastermind, we find that he has planned this all to get back at each character for the annoying habits their books tend to have at the end. He states a reason for each set of characters, revealing that his plan all along was to make it known that he was smarter than all of them so their books wouldn’t sell for as much money.

-Stereotypical Characters:

One of the stereotypical characters in Murder by Death is Sam Diamond. He is an American hardboiled detective. He wears the stereotypical outfit of a hardboiled character, a trench coat and a snap-brim hat. He doesn’t exactly swear during the movie, but he does say some foul things such as “doing a number two” of course, he’s referring to poo. Then there’s his lady friend who accompanies him to the dinner. He isn’t married so this may imply that he is a womanizer. These are all stereotypical of a hardboiled American detective.

There are also all of the intellectually and mentally superior detectives who are all very arrogant and are assured of their correctness as each describes their version of how the crime was committed and who did it etc.

Each detective is also accompanied by someone, a bit like a companion or a sidekick. Each of these sidekicks is less smart than the detectives. They don’t really help in the investigation, they just worry and almost bother each detective, and occasionally they’ll ask a question which the detective will answer so that the audience knows what is going on. This is a stereotype of the companion of the detective fiction genre.

-Storyline similar to that of genre:

Well there is a crime/murder which has to be solved (although the victim isn’t known straight off), each detective then pieces together clues which have been exposed. They then go off on their own, or into their own rooms to think and one by one, they have an epiphany of sorts and reveal their solution to the crime even if they are incorrect.

Murder By Death is, in our view, a perfect specimen of parody of crime fiction. It exaggerates each convention of detective fiction, and at the same time, follows the conventions of parody.

So to sum up, parodies are made to mock an aspect or aspects of a certain topic. They can be serious or funny. And parodies of crime fiction are usually made to point out that the genre is too predictable as the conventions are too fixed.

Crime fiction parodies don’t have their own list of specific conventions but they mock the conventions of the sub-genre that it parodies.

So we hope you enjoyed our speech! We’ll see youuuu laterrrrrrr.

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