Mockumentaries may be a fairly niche subgenre within the realm of comedy, but the influence mockumentary films have had on contemporary pop culture cannot be overstated. After all, when examining the numerous mockumentary series we’ve seen in recent years, it’s worth wondering whether shows like The Office, Parks and Rec, or What We Do in the Shadows might even exist without earlier predecessors like Borat, This Is Spinal Tap, or the original version of What We Shadow in the Shadows paving the way.
From cult classic musical comedies to laugh-out-loud political satires, here are some of the greatest mockumentary movies we’ve seen yet, ranked in order from worst to best.
The music industry has always been an easy target for the mockumentary film, whether discussing looking at a movie as iconic as This Is Spinal Tap or something as relatively modern as Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. With 2016’s Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, The Lonely Island trio effectively lampoon contemporary pop musicians like Tyler, the Creator, Justin Bieber, and Macklemore. Alternating between outlandish musical numbers and relying on a nonstop parade of celebrity cameos, Popstar never stops being funny throughout its fast-moving 87-minute runtime. Watch Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping on Amazon Video.
In many ways, Sacha Baron Cohen couldn’t have picked a better time to film Borat Subsequent Movefilm. Whereas the earlier Borat film had managed to introduce an absurd character into otherwise mundane settings, the opposite proved true for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, forcing Cohen’s woefully misinformed journalist to face such societal upheavals as the COVID-19 pandemic and the divisive 2020 U.S. presidential election. Throughout it all, Cohen and the scene-stealing Maria Bakalova emphasize the surreal experience of living through such an historic, utterly bizarre time period, leaving viewers hooked from the very beginning. Watch Borat Subsequent Moviefilm on Prime Video.
If anyone ever perfected the art of mockumentary filmmaking, it’s Christopher Guest. The innovative writer, director, and star of several renowned mockumentary films, Guest’s incredible handling of the mockumentary format is best illustrated with films like Waiting for Guffman. Combining offbeat characters with plenty of improvised comedic segments, Waiting for Guffman never fails to trigger insistent laughter from viewers throughout its hour and a half-long runtime. Watch Waiting for Guffman on Amazon Video.
As mentioned above, few people have mastered the mockumentary presentation to the same extent as Christopher Guest. Parodying everything from pretentious prima donna rock bands to flamboyantly bad regional actors, Guest has shown himself capable of making the most niche topics imaginable a plentiful source of entertainment. With Best in Show, Guest once again completes this delicate feat, providing a hilarious look at the lives of overly-competitive dog show trainers as they groom their pets towards victory. Watch Best in Show on Amazon Video.
In the late 2000s and early 2010s, vampires were all anybody could think about when it came to either the romance or horror genre – a phenomenon best explained by the popularity of the Twilight series. Seizing upon the rapid success of the Twilight films, Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement developed their brilliant idea for a mockumentary lampooning vampiric folklore with 2014’s What We Do in the Shadows. Weaving in references to such classic vampire films as Nosferatu, The Lost Boys, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula, What We Do in the Shadows never wastes an opportunity to mock its horror predecessors, allowing for plenty of breathtaking jokes along the way. Watch What We Do in the Shadows on Amazon Video.
Among the most quoted comedy films of the 2000s, Borat also serves as Sacha Baron Cohen’s ultimate achievement as an experimental comedian. Conjuring up a fully-realized (albeit cartoonishly exaggerated) personality with his titular Kazakhstani journalist, Cohen struck a fine balance between over-the-top satire and inventive dark comedy with his 2006 masterpiece. As with most of Cohen’s films, Borat specifically delighted in holding up a mirror to some of the most troubling aspects of 2000s-era American socio-political culture, leading to as many laughs as it did genuinely sobering sequences. Watch Borat on Hulu.
When This Is Spinal Tap hit theaters in 1984, nobody had ever seen anything quite like it before. A genre-bending mockumentary poking fun at ‘70s and ‘80s heavy metal bands and rock documentaries like The Last Waltz, This Is Spinal Tap introduced a new style of anarchic, improvisational comedy that audiences instantly fell in love with. Endlessly quotable and unwaveringly funny, Spinal Tap is without a doubt among the most beloved comedy films ever made, as well as the most important mockumentary film ever brought to the big screen.
