Fun trivia: one of the working titles for Wes Craven's 1996 slasher satire "Scream" was "Scary Movie." Filmmaker Keenan Ivory Wayans got wind of this trivia, and decided in 2000 to make a film called "Scary Movie" intended to satirize the popularity of "Scream." The late 1990s were a curious time in popular culture, as there weren't too many dominant horror trends. Popular music was beginning to comment on its own self-awareness (see: "Flagpole Sitta") and irony became ironic. Self-reflection went from a healthy Socratic exercise into a loop of eternal recurrence. By 2000, we became so busy commenting on our own commentaries, that it was hard to see where we started. This is where "Scary Movie" dropped in.

Make no mistake, "Scary Movie" is unfunny, as are its many sequels. They're cheap, homophobic, and vulgar. Wayans took his model from spoof filmmakers like Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker, but aimed to make something...