Rednecks in space, and other fun combinations

[Inyarear]

Seeing some reviews for movies focused on Southern life made me think of how some of the lower-budget movie makers in the past would focus on things like sexploitation, blaxploitation, and even hixploitation (country "hicks," especially in the South) to make a few bucks, and how these went on to influence more mainstream stuff like Star Trek (which was pretty low-budget and shlocky itself in its early days).

This also brings to mind how comic book people sometimes combined their most popular genres to appeal to readers of both, as in the case of Weird Western, which often featured cowboys facing down UFOs, and other sci-fi-on-the-frontier stories. (I think mad scientists featured in these stories a lot too, since they were hardly all that different from the rest of the mystic misfits out West in the minds of pulp readers.)

Now this inspired a combination idea of my own: rednecks in space! Maybe a movie featuring a bunch of rednecks saving the universe from pompous elitist guys who look like they came from New England would open up a market or two here in the South, y'think? Of course, it would allow for some cultural humor as well: the redneck space ship would undoubtedly look like some kind of house trailer or (at best) plantation house, and watching the rednecks giving orders in their distinctive dialect would be hilarious. ("Maw, wheel 'at there ion blaster 'ray around and point it raht  b'tween his ahs. I wanna see this high-falutin' peckerwood sqeal!")

Of course, a blaxploitation film set in space might be funny too... Sexploitation is pretty much already in Star Trek, albeit in only a mild form. As Scott Adams says, Star Trek's been popular because it shows heroic engineers saving the universe and having sex with alien life forms, whereas real engineers mostly hide from the universe and have sex without any other life forms participating. History of the World Part I did show Jews in space, albeit only in a short clip.

What do you think? What other cultural/genre combinations would we have fun watching?

[Andrew]

The idea of working class or born survivors in space has been explored in a number of films. I do not know about rednecks, but "Space Truckers" might be close.  The plots have run the full spectrum from everyone in space ("Star Wars" and "Battle Beyond the Stars") to very few ("Armageddon").

There is plenty of room for experimentation with plots like this.  Maybe budget and special effects constraints have limited the number of scripts studying the ideas.  You could have a blast with colonists on other worlds or individual asteroid miners.  Unfortunately, most of the scripts that come to mind have been television efforts, be they original movies or episodes of a science fiction series, and often lacking in imagination or talent.

[Scottie]

Combining genres has been a long time favorite of studios who are attempting to revive a genre. My teacher's favorite is the horror western (Billy the Kid Vs. Dracula, Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter). We just watched Mildred Pierce in one of my classes and that can be classified as a noir soap-opera. American Astronaut is a music driven space western. Then there's the endless supply of Troma (Chopper Chicks in Zombie Town, Redneck Zombies). There is even a hybrid between women in prison films and other genres. There's women in prison in space! This is fun! Combine two genres and create a plot for it. Let's see... the chamber drama Sandler comedy. Germany in the 1920's had a spate of dark dreary silent chamber dramas where action took place in basically one room and the situations were unpleasant. Now it's time for Adam Sandler to mix things up! Hilda and Frau are upset because the oil is running low and the nearest store is miles away and it's a blizzard outside. Adam Sandler is the happy-go-lucky neighbor who got stuck over carrying firewood, who loves Frau, but Hilda hates.

Ahh, this is going nowhere. Nothing Adam Sandler does will ever be interesting.

[Andrew]

Ahh, this is going nowhere. Nothing Adam Sandler does will ever be interesting.

I do not know.  If he fell out of a window I would probably watch him all the way down.

Used to enjoy his older stuff at times.  His audio CDs were amusing as I remember them.  On the other hand, anything since "The Wedding Singer" has caused me brain pain.

[Scott]

Was always curious about SPACE TRUCKERS.

AMERICAN ASTRONAUT is a good film.

[Yaddo 42]

Maybe the rednecks could steal the spaceship of visiting aliens. The rednecks could accidently get the drop on a group of aliens when the rednecks are looking for cows to tip and the aliens are trying to probe or mutilate the same group of cattle - just to play on a old trope. A bunch of drunk, high, or cranked up rednecks with a ship that puts the galaxy at their disposal. They could go from menacing their county to p**sing off alien species that have avoided or ignored us. Being the worst representatives and ambassadors of our planets. Kind of the Dougie Franklin character from The Red Green Show in space. For a modern touch make them meth addicts.

I actually liked Punch Drunk Love and the first half of the remake of The Longest Yard and the fight with Bob Barker in Happy Gilmore. But most of Sandler's stuff is wasted on me, I hate obvious humor and movies with wall-to-wall frat boy humor and body function jokes. It gets old quick.

Combining genres is interesting when it works well, even when it doesn't, you get a train wreck that can still be fun to watch.

[Flangepart]

Ya know...the character of Lone Star in SPACEBALLS fits the bill.
Its a basic rule of comedy, realy. Put tow things that clash together, ya got funny!
Like, takeing Mel Brook's "Jews in space" , and makeing "Star Schlep! The Goyum generation!"
What, your not laughing?

[clockworkcanary]

The genre-mixing reminds me of concepts my friends and I used to come up with just for the bizarreness of it.  We used to write interactive fiction using the craziest things we could think of that usually wouldn't go together.

Some examples:

Disco Zombies
Sherbet Frankenstein
Vampire Penguins
Teachers from Hell
Robo Pope
Teenagers from Mars (thank you Misfits!)
G.I. Gingerbread
Goatee Ninjas

[Flangepart]

The genre-mixing reminds me of concepts my friends and I used to come up with just for the bizarreness of it.  We used to write interactive fiction using the craziest things we could think of that usually wouldn't go together.

Some examples:

Disco Zombies
Sherbet Frankenstein
Vampire Penguins
Teachers from Hell
Robo Pope
Teenagers from Mars (thank you Misfits!)

You realise, these also make great names for Rock Bands....
G.I. Gingerbread
Goatee Ninjas

[Inyarear]

Didn't somebody actually do a disco zombies movie at some point?

[RCMerchant]

Teenagers from Mars: TEEN AGERS from OUTER SPACE (1958).The one with giant lobster shadows(!!!)