10 Movies People Initially Thought Were A Joke

Sharknado is a film with a concept so laughably silly that it became a meme way before it was even released. The concept of ‘shark tornado’ tapped into something exciting with fans of bad horror movies. It had everybody laughing at the film, expecting it to be absolutely dreadful yet wildly entertaining.

In the end, the movie itself didn't disappoint. It was as bad as people imagined it to be. However, Sharknado was such a famous joke that even critics started giving it positive reviews despite its poor quality. It currently sits at 78% on Rotten Tomatoes with critics saying things such as “Sharknado redefines ‘so bad it’s good’ for a new generation.” Nobody, not even the makers, expected Sharknado to become as popular as it ended up being. As a result, Sharknado did wonders for low budget shark movies, leading to a resurgence of the genre in the 2010s with films such as Ghost Shark, Sharktopus and Mega Shark Versus Mecha Shark.

However, seeing the support for their first Sharknado film, Asylum decided to turn it into a franchise. To date, there have been six entries into the Sharknado franchise, and although everyone laughed at the first movie, when the sequels came out the reviews began to drop dramatically. The final entry that put the last nail in the coffin for this long running joke was released in 2018. It was titled The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time.