Nightmare in Red? Twin Peaks Parody, Homage, Intertextuality, and Mashup

A well-known nineteenth-century aphorism states that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and, following this logic, the many “imitations” of Tw in Peaks might stand as flattering evidence of its status as an innovative, landmark television product—a show that, according to Robert J. Thompson, “changed the face of television” (152). In Fan Phenomena: Twin Peaks, Shara Lorea Clark mentions a Saturday Night Live (1975–present) sketch, two episodes of The Simpsons (1989–present), and Sesame Street’s (1969 –present) “Monsterpiece Theater: Twin Beaks” segment as some of the first TV references to a show that “saturated the cultural consciousness” (9). It might be expected that Twin Peaks would attract this kind of attention during its run, but a more lasting influence is apparent in the number of “imitations” that continue to be produced. From the Japanese video game Deadly Premonition, released in 2010, to Disney’s animated Gravity Falls (2012–present), described by its creator Alex Hirsch as “my weird Tw in Peaks meets The Simpsons series” (in Radish), these twenty-first-century references to Twin Peaks attest to the continued vitality of this ground-breaking series.