Saturday Night Fever - Parodies

Parodies

John Belushi parodied the film as "Samurai Night Fever", one of his "Samurai" sketches on Saturday Night Live. Belushi spoofed it again in the film Neighbors, during a scene in which tilted camera angles show Belushi combing his hair in front of the mirror as "Stayin' Alive" plays in the background. Ironically, the oft-repeated phrase in the movie, "Can you dig it? I knew that you could," had been made famous on Saturday Night Live during a stand-up performance by Billy Crystal.

The Children's Television Workshop published a record album of music from Sesame Street under the title Sesame Street Fever, the cover of which spoofed the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack album cover, with muppet Grover wearing the white three-piece disco suit in the famous Travolta pose and Bert, Ernie, and Cookie Monster taking the place of the Bee Gees. Robin Gibb (of the Bee Gees) sings on two tracks for this album "Sesame Street Fever" Trash" and has a dialog with cookie monster on the into for "C Is For Cookie."

The Goodies parodied the film in their Saturday Night Grease episode.

The 1980 film Airplane! contained a parody scene, with Robert Hays mocking the famous pose and the clothing shown on the poster and album cover, to the tune of "Stayin' Alive" slightly sped up (the actual song used for that scene in Saturday Night Fever was "You Should Be Dancing").

In the 1985 film Teen Wolf, there is a scene in which Michael J. Fox's character as the wolf is getting ready for a school dance by standing in front of a bathroom mirror blow-drying his hair a la John Travolta as Tony Manero.

On the political comedy series Spin City which also starred Fox, Paul Lassiter played by Richard Kind is walking the hallways of City Hall is walking with Stayin' Alive playing in the background in the first season episode "Gabby's Song" after spending the night with his girlfriend Claudia portrayed my Faith Prince.

In the film Look Who's Talking (1989), the opening of "Staying Alive" is heard as Mikey, in the stroller, hits the street being wheeled by James (played by John Travolta).

In season 6, episode 7 of The Simpsons, Jessica Lovejoy (Meryl Streep) invites Bart for dinner, upon which he says, "There's only one thing to do at a moment like this: strut!". Bart then struts to "Stayin' Alive" in the same manner as Travolta's character at the end of the sequel, Staying Alive.

In 1998, Singaporean filmmaker Glen Goei made Forever Fever (That's the Way I Like It). Set in Singapore during the 1970s, the film starred Adrian Pang as the Tony Manero character who eventually develops a liking for disco dancing. The movie also used cover versions of songs from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.

In 2000, at the Inner Circle press dinner, mayor Rudy Giuliani spoofed John Travolta by dancing to "Disco Inferno" by The Trammps. Giuliani wore a white 70s-style disco suit.

On June 25, 2002, in an episode of Son of the Beach, David Arquette guest-starred as Johnny Queefer in a send-off episode entitled "Saturday Night Queefer", which also included parodies of the Bee Gees songs sung by a quartet of guys breathing helium balloons to get the high voices like the Gibb brothers.

In 2011, British comedian John Bishop includes a tribute to Saturday Night Fever at the end of his performance on his latest Sunshine stand-up tour. His finale whilst playing in theaters, he included a video of him re-enacting the opening scene and dancing at the discothèque however, whilst performing at arenas, he showed extracts of the video and the section where he is supposed to dance at the disco, he emerges on stage with a troupe of dancers and performs the dance routine like John Travolta.

On April 17, 2012, Glee (TV series) put on a tribute episode to the movie, Saturday Night Glee-ver

In the 2005 film Madagascar, when Marty the Zebra escaped the zoo and walks on the streets of Manhattan, the camera displays a similar fashion of the intro of Saturday Night Fever, even the song Stayin' Alive was played in the background.