In 1984, Rob Reiner directed one of the funniest and most original comedies of all time. Made in the style of rockumentaries like Gimme Shelter, albeit with a more absurdist slant, This is Spinal Tap coasted along on impeccable writing and gleefully hysterical performances by Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, and Michael McKean. It created the “mockumentary” as we know it. In the hands of a masterful director and a cast of actors who are great at improvising naturalistic dialogue, a mockumentary can be a hysterical lampoon of the documentary format. Here are 10 Hilarious Mockumentaries To Watch If You Like This Is Spinal Tap.
For Your Consideration (2006)
Directed by Christopher Guest, who is better known to Spinal Tap fans as Nigel Tufnel, For Your Consideration chronicles a bunch of pretentious Hollywood types campaigning for Oscars.
It’s a brilliant satire of awards-season politics, as three actors (played by regular Guest collaborators Parker Posey, Harry Shearer, and Catherine O’Hara) learn that their performances in an Oscar-bait drama set in the American South in the 1940s are generating Oscar buzz, despite the fact that the movie isn’t even finished yet. As with most of Guest’s movies, a lot of the dialogue is improvised by the cast, who are all improv legends.
Brüno (2009)
When Sacha Baron Cohen adapted one of his characters from Da Ali G Show for the big screen and gave us Borat, it became one of the biggest hit comedies of the 21st century. Naturally, the studios wanted more. So a few years later, Baron Cohen brought another Ali G character, fashion reporter Brüno Gehard, to the multiplex.
As in Borat (and most of his other work), in Brüno, Baron Cohen dupes real people into interviews with his character. But where Borat duped regular people, as a TV interviewer, Brüno was able to dupe celebrities, adding to the hilarity.
Bob Roberts (1992)
Tim Robbins wrote, directed, and starred in this political satire about a country singer with right-wing beliefs who decides to run for president. Gore Vidal brilliantly co-stars as Senator Brickley Paiste, Roberts’ opponent. He ad-libbed a lot of his dialogue based on his own political beliefs.
Although it’s a ‘90s movie that uses ‘60s-era politics, Bob Roberts does a terrific job of delivering political commentary through the prism of a Hollywood comedy. Robbins’ performance as the title character was inspired by Bob Dylan, and he consciously imbued the film with a raw cinéma vérité style similar to the Dylan-focused documentary Don’t Look Back.
CB4 (1993)
Much like This is Spinal Tap, CB4 is a mockumentary lampooning the career of a band. Whereas Spinal Tap spoofed heavy metal bands, CB4 spoofed hip-hop groups, particularly N.W.A., with cameo appearances by such legendary rappers as Ice Cube, Eazy-E, and Flavor Flav. Chris Rock, at the height of his comic prowess, stars alongside such comedy greats as Allen Payne, Phil Hartman, and Charlie Murphy.
Rock also contributed to the script, so his unparalleled wit is on full display. Director Tamra Davis used the movie to lampoon the sexism of hip-hop music. CB4 is a rap-skewering comedy for real rap fans.
Take the Money and Run (1969)
In his second of more than 50 directorial efforts, Woody Allen played Virgil Starkwell, an incompetent bank robber. Take the Money and Run is shot and edited like a documentary about Starkwell’s life, complete with talking-head interviews and dramatic recreations of events that never actually happened.
At every turn, Starkwell screws up, whether he’s carving a gun out of a bar of soap to escape from prison on a night that it’s raining or accidentally revealing his criminal lifestyle to an old friend that he bumps into who is now a cop. The film doesn’t have a traditional three-act structure; it’s more like a series of sketches. But they’re good sketches.
The Rutles: All You Need is Cash (1978)
Saturday Night Live’s Lorne Michaels produced this made-for-TV mockumentary about the career of a Beatles-spoofing rock band. The movie was the brainchild of former Monty Python alum Eric Idle, who first featured the Rutles on his post-Python sketch comedy series Rutland Weekend Television.
Michaels brought in a ton of hilarious cast members from the early seasons of SNL to appear in this special, including Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd, and John Belushi. When it first aired on U.S. television, it received the lowest viewership of the week. However, it got much better ratings when it premiered in the UK.
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)
The Lonely Island teamed up with producer Judd Apatow for this delightfully absurdist mockumentary about a pop singer, Conner4real, who made his name in a boy band and then went on to find Bieber-level success as a solo artist, leaving his friends behind.
In between hysterical sight gags lampooning Katy Perry’s mid-concert wardrobe changes and roadies who party ridiculously hard, there’s a real narrative about friendship and growing up. The movie nails the look and feel of a VH1 documentary, featuring cameo appearances from such huge stars as Steven Tyler, Snoop Dogg, and Seal. Popstar is destined to become a cult classic.
Best in Show (2000)
Another entry from director Christopher Guest, Best in Show takes aim at dog shows with a gloriously quirky approach. Many of Guest’s most common collaborators — including Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Michael McKean, and Parker Posey — appear in the movie, improvising the majority of their dialogue as usual.
Each actor finds the inherent hilarity in people who enter their dogs into prestigious competitions. Scenes like Levy and O’Hara being forced to stay in the hotel’s storage room because of financial woes and Posey yelling at a store clerk about their limited supply of dog toys give the actors ample opportunities for improvised comedy gold.
What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
Inspired by classical vampire stories (tonally, it’s closer to Bela Lugosi’s Dracula movies than Twilight), What We Do in the Shadows is one of the funniest and most underrated comedies of the decade. Directed, written by, and starring Flight of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement and Thor: Ragnarok’s Taika Waititi, the movie chronicles the day-to-day lives of some vampires living in New Zealand.
What We Do in the Shadows gets a ton of comedic mileage out of transplanting vampires into mundane, relatable situations like doing housework and going to nightclubs and dating. The film was recently adapted for television, and the show was met with similar critical acclaim.
Borat (2006)
If This is Spinal Tap is the first word in the mockumentary subgenre, then Borat is the second word. Sacha Baron Cohen reprises his role as the titular Kazakhstani TV reporter as he heads to America with a camera crew to see if he can find any cultural flourishes to implement in Kazakhstan.
While he’s there, he falls for Pamela Anderson after seeing her on TV and becomes determined to travel to Los Angeles and make her his wife. As with most of Baron Cohen’s work, there are some hysterical improvised scenes in which the participants didn’t know it was supposed to be a comedy.
