May 25, 2020
Randall pitches Chris on a new sub-genre of Sci-fi he's been working on, Bonkers Sci-fi.
From Randall: Bonkers Sci-Fi is simple: It's a sub-genre of science fiction with comedy where the jokes are based on technology, especially technology malfunctioning. Most likely, it satirizes technology to some extent, which is practically unavoidable if you think about it.
I started thinking about this after watching Thor: Ragnarok. I was surprised by its tone and realized its part of some sort of heretofore unnamed sub-genre of science fiction that I really love. So what was this genre? I was sure it went back to at least The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books which I loved reading as a kid.
I don't think it has to be comedy, but there have to be jokes and the jokes have to be based around some sort of technology or maybe just science-fictiony concepts. The best example of this genre may be The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
To make this clear, I started a list. I have put it below. It's divided into sctions: Movies, Books, Comics, and titles which I think are questionable. I'm not sure they fit into the genre because I don't remember them well or I haven't read or watched them, rather someone described them to me.
Thanks and let me know what you think.
MOVIES
1960 Little Shop of Horrors
1961 The Absent Minded Professor / Flubber
1968 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
1973 Sleeper 1974 Dark Star
1974 Young Frankenstein
1981 Heavy Metal (certain stories)
1981 Time Bandits
1983 The Man With Two Brains
1984 Electric Dreams
1984 Ghostbusters
1985 Back to the Future
1985 Brazil
1985 Explorers
1985 Weird Science
1986 Alf
1986 Critters
1986 Short Circuit
1986 Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
1987 Innerspace
1987 Spaceballs
1988 Earth Girls are Easy
1988 They Live
1989 Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
1989 Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
1989 Quantum Leap
1990 Tremors series
1996 Mars Attacks
1996 Multiplicity
1997 Men in Black
1997 The Fifth Element
1999 Galaxy Quest
2004 Incredibles
2006 Idiocracy
2010 Hot Tub Time Machine
2010 Minions / Despicable Me movies
2012 Safety Not Guaranteed
2013 World's End
2014 Guardians of the Galaxy
2015 Ant Man
2016 Dead Pool
2017 Thor Ragnarok
TV
1948 Marvin the Martian from the Looney Tunes cartoon
1962 The Jetsons
1967 The Trouble with Tribbles Star Trek episode
1978 Mork and Mindy
1981 Greatest American Hero
1985 Small Wonder
1987 Out of this World
1989 Saved by the Bell (all the Screech inventions)
1996 Third Rock from the Sun
1999 Futurama
2017 The Orville BOOKS
1978 Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
1984 National Lampoon's Doon
1987 Chess with a Dragon COMICS
1983 D.R. & Quinch
MAYBE
1726 Book: Gulliver's Travels
1956 Movie: Around the World in 80 Days
1963 TV: My Favorite Martian
1964 Movie: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
1965 TV: Flintstones (the great Gazoo)
1965 TV: Lost in Space
1968 Movie: Barbarella
1974 TV: Land of the Lost
1975 TV: Far Out Space Nuts
1975 TV: Power Rangers
1977 Movie/SNL Sketch/animated special: Coneheads
1977 TV: The Muppet Show: Pigs in Space sketch
1978 Movie: Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park
1978 Movie: The Cat From Outer Space
1984 Movie: Gremlins series
1984 Movie: Ice Pirates
1984 Movie: Night of the Comet
1984 Movie: Repo Man
1984 Movie: The Last Starfighter
1988 TV: Red Dwarf
1989 Book: Quozl
1994 TV: Space Ghost Coast to Coast
1996 Movie: Space Truckers
2000 Book Series: Sewer, Gas and Electric
2000 Book: Velveteen series
2001 TV: Invader Zim
2008 Movie: Space Chimps
2009 Movie: Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel
2011 Movie: Paul