Vote for your favourite movie spoof!

But you’ve probably also seen it spoofed – a testament to its instant recognisability. In Naked Gun 2 1/2, when Richard Griffiths’s boffin is sent flying out of a window in his wheelchair, he forms his own silhouette. There, too, went Beavis and Butt-head.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then parody is the most affectionate. Movie spoofs are now unstoppable thanks to the Scary Movie franchise, but they’re also part of a noble tradition that stretches back to the early days of cinema and TV (check out Stan Laurel in the silent horror spoof Dr Pyckle and Mr Pryde).

Mel Brooks made a career out of lovingly crafted, definitive parodies: Blazing Saddles (westerns), High Anxiety (Hitchcock) and Young Frankenstein (horror). Meanwhile, the Carry Ons staked a British claim with Cleo (historical epics), Screaming (Hammer horror) and Cowboy. Christopher Guest pilloried heavy rock with This Is Spinal Tap.
Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost sent up zombies, hi-octane action and aliens in the “Three Flavours Cornetto” trilogy (its title a spin on the Three Colours film series).

French and Saunders’s comedic homages to the movies are legend – Titanic (see their 1998 Christmas Special, Tuesday Gold), Thelma & Louise, Harry Potter – while advertisers have also been known to get in on the act – think of Carling Black Label’s note-perfect re-creation of The Dam Busters.

Our longlist (see below) has been lovingly compiled from skits seen on TV or at the cinema that parody a scene or moment. We want you to vote for your favourite. If it’s not there, you can nominate it. If you do, we’ll be over the moon!

VOTE FOR YOUR FAVOURITE: Here’s our choice of the best ever spoof moments, but which one is your favourite? You can vote here – and for more details, scroll down and watch all the clips...

[embed]http://polldaddy.com/poll/9577563[/embed]

Airplane!

In a spoof of Airport 1975, the stewardess strums a guitar to cheer up a sick kid, but knocks out her drip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pXFo14Ea28

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery

Mike Myers pastiches Blofeld: the cat, the scar, the insane – but dated — plans for global rule, in this homage to You Only Live Twice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-PIidaqCyU

Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey

Slacker duo challenges the Grim Reaper, not to a game of chess – as in The Seventh Seal – but to Battleships, Cluedo and Twister.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA5ryowAyLk

Carling Black Label AD (1989)

A Dam Busters-style bouncing-bomb raid on Germany is thwarted by a soldier’s lager-fuelled goalkeeping skills.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYClSGINHyU

Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid

Film noir send-up splices Steve Martin into an exchange with Bogart – in Big Sleep mode – mainly about his lack of necktie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTOgOztNsQA

French & Saunders 1998 Christmas special

French plays Leo and Saunders plays Kate, perched less gracefully on the prow of the doomed ship Titanic.

High Anxiety

Mel Brooks is attacked not by crows – as in The Birds – but by pigeons, and not with their beaks but their droppings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scgO8Vfh1qU

Hot Fuzz

Rural cop Nick Frost apes Keanu Reeves in Point Break by emptying his gun into the air.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHUsPCkaQqM

MTV Awards 2000 & Sex and the City

Carrie finds herself caught up in The Matrix – she follows the rabbit, picks up Neo, mocks Morpheus and wakes up in a pod covered in goo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsfX9WQ5yJw

Morecambe and Wise 1976 Christmas Special

Ernie dances like Gene Kelly, Eric is the policeman, in a note-perfect homage to Singin’ in the Rain… except without the rain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCQP8WGeGuk

The Naked Gun 2 1/2: the Smell of Fear

Richard Griffiths’s scientist exits press banquet in motorised wheelchair via balcony, passes Moon à la ET.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6DFHh2XxLk

The 1992 Oscars

Spoofing hit thriller The Silence of the Lambs, host Billy Crystal is wheeled on by orderlies in cage and mask: “I’m having the Academy over for dinner”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9cERvUX6sE

Seinfeld (series 3/17 The Boyfriend Part 1)

A spitting incident leads Jerry to stage a JFK-like courtroom moment – the “Magic Loogie Theory” complete with Zapruder-esque footage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBz3PqA2Fmc

Sesame Street (Les Mousserables)

Full-on re-creation of Les Misérables with Cookie Monster, biscuit revolution and dessert-restyled names: Flantine, Creamette.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyYZfSmwH3c

Shrek 2

Shrek and Fiona’s From Here to Eternity beach embrace is ruined by the unwelcome appearance of the Little Mermaid, who’s thrown back to sea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ELdGlYrMpM

The Simpsons (series 3/23 Bart’s Friend Falls in Love)

Bart runs downstairs away from an enraged Homer, who trips and turns into the marauding boulder of Raiders of the Lost Ark fame.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hqoiCvjF7s

Spaced (series 1/1)

Parodying The Shining, flat-hunters Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes open a cupboard to find twin Girl Guides.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nsrrq74zmpQ

Toy Story 3

In a knowing reference to the first Mission: Impossible, Woody falls from a tree while escaping the daycare centre and is saved by his voice cord millimetres from the ground.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7ZyluDv3GI

Victoria Wood with All the Trimmings (2000)

Wood gets a mince pie in her eye in her tearoom homage to Johnson and Howard’s Brief Encounter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajC4Az4wscc

Young Frankenstein

The Creature visits Bride of Frankenstein’s blind hermit, who, oblivious to his companion’s ugliness, pours hot soup into his lap and lights his finger instead of a cigar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXGzO2aDDRU

AND THE WILD CARD…

Red Nose Day: Armstrong, Miller, Mitchell and Webb

Armstrong and Miller’s teen-talking pilots spoof the entire genre of Second World War RAF movies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGp4DvFEgh8