The last decade of cinema has brought with it a glut of parody films; one could argue that Date Movie, Epic Movie, Disaster Movie, Meet The Spartans, and Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the Thirteenth contain some of the most offensively unfunny material ever recorded. I am, however, a masochist by nature, and have thereby seen all of these movies and then some. In fact, I can say without hesitation that Disaster Movie is the worst “comedy” I’ve ever seen, particularly because it does not contain any jokes.

Incidentally, that and most of the other terrible spoofs to hit screens in recent years have been helmed by writer-director team Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, who pulled on a thread let loose by Scary Movie (a film that featured some of their writing) and ran with it—all the way to the bank. In a perfect world, the masters and all remaining copies of their works would be destroyed, lest future generations of cultural anthropologists use them to judge our society.

Next to Friedberg and Seltzer, the Wayans Brothers are comedic geniuses. Their early work—including I’m Gonna Git You Sucka (written and directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans) and Don’t Be A Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice In The Hood (written by Marlon and Shawn Wayans)—kickstarted the modern-day parody, fusing elements of MAD magazine and ZAZ films with contemporary blockbusters. By all accounts, a lot of their '90s material holds up pretty well. Behold, Don’t Be A Menace:

But it wasn’t until Keenen Ivory’s Scary Movie that things really took off—it still holds the distinction of being the highest grossing movie ever directed by an African-American. That movie capitalized on the short attention spans of young moviegoers, and studios were eager to try and find repeat success, as proven by their going to market with campaigns that were alarmingly similar to the film which they were mimicking. Wayans would go on to direct Scary Movie 2 before fittingly relinquishing control of the franchise to legendary director David Zucker (The Naked Gun, Airplane!) for Scary Movie 3, the funniest film of the series by far. Zucker also directed Scary Movie 4, which is worth watching for its bizarre cameo appearances from rappers Lil Jon, Fabolous, and Chingy. Especially Chingy.

Catch the entire Scary Movie series, in order, from July 6th to July 9th at midnight ET/PT on Showcase, capped off by Scream on Friday, July 10th at midnight ET/PT for good measure.