Star wars has had a massive influence on popular culture. From very soon after the release of episode IV, references to star wars in TV shows and films have appeared often, and several parodies have been released.
In 1978, ‘Hardware wars’ a short film parody of a star wars teaser trailer was released, consisting of inside jokes and visual puns, and featuring characters such as Fluke Starbucker, Chewchilla the Wookiee Monster, Ham Salad, and Augie "Ben" Doggie. It is considered to be the most profitable short film of all time, grossing $1,000,000; considering its paltry US$8,000 budget, its profit ratio was very much better than Star Wars!
The 1987 film ‘Spaceballs’ is perhaps the most widely known Star Wars parody. Written and directed by Mel Brooks, it starred Brooks, along with Bill Pullman, Rick Moranis and John Candy. It had a mixed reception on release but later became a cult classic. As well as Star Wars, it parodied other science fiction classics including Alien and Planet of the Apes. The plot centres on the efforts of Skroob, the president of the planet Spaceball, to steal air from the neighbouring planet of Druidia, and features such bizarre characters as the villainous Dark Helmet, the half-man, half dog Barf, the gangster Pizza the Hutt, and old, wise Yoghurt.
‘George Lucas in Love’ is an independent 1999 short film, in which George Lucas is a college student in 1967, trying to write a movie about a young space farmer. George is surrounded by people who resemble characters from the star wars films, including his advisor who looks and speaks suspiciously like Yoda. George does not notice until he meets a young woman with a very unusual hairdo, after which everything falls into place and he finishes his masterpiece. His shot at romance with the girl fizzles out though - as he finds out she is his sister! The film premiered at the 1999 Toronto film festival, and won numerous awards.
Star Warp’d is a 2001 american claymation parody film, featuring Captain Kwirk, Mr Spuck, and Dark Vapor, and a final showdown with the true evil, Jar Jar Sucks. Along with Star wars, the film parodies other science fiction films such as Terminator and RoboCop as well as other shows including Austin Powers and TJ Hooker, and even Wile E Coyote and Roadrunner!
Star Wars is referenced frequently in many TV series, not least 'The Simpsons'. As far back as season 1 Bart includes Star Wars in a list of cool wars. In ‘I married Marge’ from season 3, Homer and Marge leave a cinema in 1980 after watching 'The Empire Strikes Back'. Homer says: "Who would have known that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father?", annoying the crowd behind him, still waiting in line to see the film. He later calls Marge as pretty as Princess Leia and as smart as Yoda. In series 20, one couch gag sees the family get frozen in carbonite then carried away by Boba Fett!
Caches in this series:
GC68F1A 4. These are the droids you are looking for!
GC68N01 5. Star Wars Box set
GC69623 6. Happy new light year!
GC696DP 1. Your weapons.... you will need them!
GC69Q12 2. That's no moon...
GC6AB58 3. A galaxy far far away
GC6AE0F 7. Use the Schwartz!
GC6AC7W 8. Let the Wookiee win
GC6A7TZ 9. You came in that? You’re braver than I thought!
GC6AE27 10. Bonus. R2D2 Where are you?
Caches 3,7,8 and 9 contain the coordinates for the bonus cache.
GC74GPE 40yrs of Star Wars - Princess Leia
GC74JF2 40yrs of Star Wars - Who said what?
GC74GMC 40 yrs of Star Wars - There's always a bigger fish
GC753W6 40yrs of Star Wars - Rogue One