"Farewell, My Lovely Appetizer."

S. J. Perelman, 1973,
by Jill Krementz. NYPL.

Cleo Zani of the Eventide Theatre Company (Dennis, MA) performs "Farewell, My Lovely Appetizer," S. J. Perelman's 1944 spoof of hard-boiled detective fiction: "Her bosom was heaving and looked even better that way." Originally published in the New Yorker, it is included in this anthology.

Starrett spoofs Christie.

Vincent Starrett

On the Studies in Starrett blog, Ray Betzner discusses "The Other Woman," Vincent Starrett's 1927 parody of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot. In it, Alexandre Dulau attempts to help Mrs. Hopewell Grange, whose husband is behaving oddly.  Says Dulau, "It is possible I have done Mr. Hopewell Grange a great disservice. On the other hand, it is possible that I have acted with my usual intelligence."

The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It (1977)

In The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It, John Cleese stars as the grandson of Sherlock Holmes, enlisted to thwart the nefarious plans of a descendant of Professor Moriarty. Costars include Joss Ackland, Connie Booth, Denholm Elliott, Arthur Lowe, and Ron Moody.

A mystery parody by Harry Stephen Keeler?

Harry Stephen Keeler, from
his 1916 passport application

In the latest issue of Keeler News, the newsletter of the Harry Stephen Keeler Society, Morgan Wallace posits plausibly that mystery/sci-fi writer Keeler wrote a 1920 PI parody, "The Keenwit Case," for the Chicago Ledger under the pseudonym Lon Riggs to make a point about the types of material that could come over the transom at a periodical. "The Keenwit Case" is reproduced in the newsletter and features such immortal statements as "[t]hen he lighted a cigar, and smoked viciously. This indicated that his brain was very active, and that without a doubt the clever criminal would be in irons before the close of another day."

Of related interest:
• Link to cartoonist Al Hirschfeld's caricatures of Keeler
• "The Life and Death of Harry Stephen Keeler" by Vincent Starrett

British comics exhibition (incl Holmes spoof).

Cover of Jack Yeats
by Bruce Arnold

Among the fascinating images in the University of Oldenburg library's online exhibition "Wonderfully Vulgar: British Comics 1873–1939" are two pages from Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter" in the Strand (illus. Sidney Paget) and the 1897 spoof The Funny Wonder featuring "Chubblock Homes" drawn by Jack Butler Yeats (the artist brother of W. B. Yeats; see also Chubblock's appearance in drag). There's also an excerpt from a 1936 sea serial starring James Cagney.

The lighter side of mystery.

The Richard Belzer
muppet attempts to
find the letter M.
Sesame Street

Alert Bunburyist readers may have noticed that I've been tinkering with the blog layout, adding links to posts based on popularity among Web surfers. I've also added a new section on the right, "The Lighter Side of Mystery," for fun mystery spoofs such as Sesame Street's "Law & Order Special Letters Unit." Feel free to suggest possible additions. I dearly wish that Not Necessarily the News had a clip available of "News Noir"—where the reporters and anchors wear trenchcoats and fedoras, smoke incessantly in dim light, and talk about being doublecrossed.