How Axel Braun Became the Reluctant Porn-Parody King
Initially, Axel Braun was not interested.
At all.
By 2009, the son of industry pioneer Lasse Braun had made a name for himself in his own right with original works like Elegant Angel’s Compulsion. To him, the idea of spoofing existing movies was a creative cop-out. “It was not what I wanted to do. I saw myself as somebody who could write screenplays,” Braun told us earlier this year. “I was reluctant to do parodies.”
But porn parodies were trending. Braun was working at Hustler, which had parlayed the genre into a string of hits from Will Ryder and other directors. Seeing still more opportunities in the space, Hustler owner Larry Flynt asked Braun to make a spoof of his own. “I was absolutely not interested,” Braun said. But when a figure as influential as Flynt speaks, you listen. “And then he asked me again, and then he asked me again. And the third or fourth time, it’s not a guy you say no to.”
Braun reluctantly agreed to shoot a parody, but he insisted that he be able to choose a property that spoke to him creatively. His ultimately settled on Happy Days, a coming-of-age comedy he watched during his own formative years. “When you’re younger, and you fantasize, you imagine these characters in different situations,” he said. To his surprise, he found himself becoming invested in the project.
Despite a limited production schedule, he worked meticulously to re-create the look and feel of the show. He managed to persuade principal cast members to take creative risks. “Tommy Gunn, who played the Fonz, I had him shave his goatee, which he’d had since he was 17 years old.” The hard work paid off, resulting in a movie that AVN called a “stellar parody that hits the mark at every turn.” Happy Days XXX‘s success showed Braun the potential in porn parodies. “This is so awesome because I’m just playing in a sandbox with these characters and having fun with them,” he said.
Invigorated by the challenge, Braun quickly tackled Star Trek, another favorite from his youth. His same exacting
sense of vision guided this project. “I have a vision of what I want to accomplish right away with certain things, especially with with who can play whom. I have it in my head what that should be.” With Trek XXX reaching warp speed as another hit, the newly crowned parody king was off and running. He tackled porn spoofs of Saved By the Bell, Glee, Avatar, Charmed, Dirty Jobs, Cops, and more. It powered him to Director of the Year status at AVN 2011.
But Braun’s most lasting mark came in the superhero and comic book realm. “I was really wanting to shoot more of this stuff because there’s so many. When I started with the superheroes, there was no stopping because I was such a fan of the Bronze Age of Marvel and DC Comics,” Braun said. It began with Vivid’s Batman XXX: A Porn Parody (2010), a heavily hyped movie that promptly became a chart-topper upon release. He also released parodies of Superman, Spider-Man, the Avengers, and more. In his time with Wicked Pictures, he released some of his biggest superhero flicks yet, including Batman V. Superman XXX, Justice League XXX, and Captain Marvel XXX.
“Sometimes I have fun spoofing the exact storyline of the mainstream versions, like with Captain Marvel and Star Wars, and sometimes I start from the comics and bring to life specific stories or moments that I found particularly interesting. Then there’s characters like Deadpool, who you can just place in absurd situations because of its very nature. It really depends on the project,” Braun told us in 2021.
Eventually, though, Braun found himself tiring of many aspects of the parody shoots. “It was extremely taxing on me because the extent of research,” he said. In one instance, he went all the way to Argentina to find a specific piece of fabric needed for a Batman shoot. “I needed to get out a little bit of the parody thing. I just wanted to do something else.”
As his zeal for parodies faded, he began to focus on the project that would ultimately become The Possession of Mrs. Hyde. By 2023, he still had plenty of new concepts in development, including some new parodies, but he ultimately decided to retire, citing a desire to spend more time with his family. Parodies themselves had become less prevalent as the industry focused on other, more budget-friendly genres.
In the end, Braun shot so many spoofs, even he himself is not exactly sure of the exactly final tally. He estimates it to be 62, many of which remain durable bestsellers to this day. Parodies will always be a key part of his legacy, and despite his initial skepticism, that’s just fine with Braun. “I didn’t mind being the parody guy. It’s great that you manage to create a brand.”
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Listen to Adult Empire’s full podcast interview with Axel Braun:
