The original 12 chapters of R. Kelly’s “Trapped in the Closet” epic spawned a cottage industry of summaries, plays and parodies:
* Teenagers did remakes.
* A comedy blog, somethingawful.com, posted summaries.
* Spoofs appeared on “Saturday Night Live” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”
* Weird Al Yankovich created an 11-minute animated parody called “Trapped in the Drive-Thru” that describes a couple’s attempts to decide on and then pick up dinner.
* L.A. comedian Brently Heilbron spent a month learning the original “Trapped” episodes, performing them in L.A. and New York. He accompanied himself on ukulele and was joined by a cast of eight and a few puppets.
* Aziz Ansari, star of MTV sketch comedy show “Human Giant,” and Eric Appel created a “Trapped in the Closet” commentary show at theaters in New York and L.A.
* A “South Park” episode in which Tom Cruise was trapped in a closet generated its own controversy. Last spring there were two comedy shows devoted to it running in L.A. Both played to sold-out houses, even when they were on the same night.
