But before you attempt to commit parody, go out and see how many THOUSANDS of other parodies there are of the thing you’re trying to make fun of. Unless you have a truly different take on the thing, and I mean significantly different, not the same parody with different colored eyeglasses, DON’T.
I just read my 4033rd LOTR parody. It was quite good, and did have a twist on the story I haven’t seen before. But between Bored of the Rings, Nodwick (the one I just read) and many, many many others, I really don’t have any interest in reading another LOTR parody. And yes, that includes crossover parodies like LOTR/Trek, LOTR/Star Wars, LOTR/Game of Thrones, LOTR/My Little Pony and all the rest of them. Parodies of fanfic are about as self-defeating as you can get.
So yes, parody, satirize, mock and deride. But make sure it’s something worth reading on its own merits, not just a re-take on something that’s been done to death that you happen to think is clever. If it’s good enough, it might just supersede that which you are parodying in the first place.
You can be sure this has happened when someone parodies your parody. Or as some very famous band once said “We knew we’d made it when Weird Al did a version of one of our songs.”
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