Mockumentary – A Seriously Funny Genre

What is a mockumentary? It is a mock documentary. Like its grandfather, the documentary, mockumentaries are used to depict things such as human behavior and social and political aspects. Documentaries are nonfiction films and videos that are unscripted. Similar to this aspect of the documentary, mockumentaries are loosely scripted and largely ad-libbed.

Digital film-making and the success of the documentary has made them economically feasible to create and release. While mockumentaries mimic the style of the documentary, they are fictional and contain some scripting. In order to give the feel of the documentary, mockumentaries often use hand-held cameras and other production techniques to make them look home made. They also tend to include several fake interviews, like the real interviews included in actual documentaries.

Features of Mockumentaries

The three general features of mockumentaries are parody, critique, and deconstruction.

1. Parody or Satire – mockumentaries as parody deliberately copy another work in a comic or satirical way. It implicitly reinforces an aspect of popular culture: sometimes so well that it is hard to determine that it is fictional or sometimes it is so extreme that is seems ridiculous. For example, A Mighty Wind parodies nostalgia for a by-gone era.

2. Critique – mockumentaries as a critique can parody or satire an aspect of popular culture (as opposed to reinforcing). The television program, Arrested Development, can be seen as a critique of nuclear family with a privileged lifestyle.

3. Deconstruction – mockumentaries as deconstruction subvert and deconstruct the conventions and aspects of the documentary. The popular mockumentary, The Blair Witch Project, frightened audiences using deconstruction of the horror movie genre.

Techniques used to create the documentary feel:

1. Hand-held cameras (The Blair Witch Project)

2. Dead pan interviews (see Christopher Guest’s catalogue). Interviewees act serious and interviewers are often off camera.

3. Every day observational sequences. Cameras catch the subjects going about their every day life.

4. Archival footage. Historical basis is set with the use of archival footage.

5. Awareness of the camera. Subjects are aware of the camera and often speak to it.

6. Real-life settings. Settings are wherever life happens.

Mockumentary as Satire – This is Spinal Tap, Christopher Guest Films

From Rockumentary to Mockumentary

Arguably, one of the most influential mock-documentaries is Rob Riener’s 1985 film, This is Spinal Tap. Co-written by Christopher Guest, This is Spinal Tap is Reiner’s parody of the heavy metal rock genre. It also brilliantly parodies the rockumentaries of the late 1960’ and 1970’s like Scorsese’s The Last Waltz about The Band and Gimme Shelter, a rockumentary about The Rolling Stones. Rockmentaries tried to take an objective stance about the band they were documenting, but often ended up perpetuating the stereotype glorifying the rock credo of sex and drugs and rock and roll. This is Spinal Tap captures the look and feel of the rockumentary so realistically that many people who saw the film thought it was about a real rock band. Roger Ebert, in his review of the film says, “The music, the staging, the special effects, the backstage feuding and the pseudo-profound philosophizing are right out of a hundred other rock groups and a dozen other documentaries about rock.” The actors who played the fading rock stars actually took their act on the road and released several albums; “This is Spinal Tap” in 1982 and “Bitch School” and “Break like the Wind” in 1992.

This is Spinal Tap

In This is Spinal Tap, Marti DeBergi, played by Reiner, decides to film a documentary of the British rock band, Spinal Tap on their “comeback tour” in the United States. As the band crosses the United States, they fall prey to infighting and poor management which ultimately causes the band to lose popularity. The nadir of their career is a show that features an eighteen-inch-high Stonehenge and midgets. Like many 1980’s metal bands, their careers are resurrected by a Japanese tour. Reiner and co-writer Christopher Guest, create the template for Guest’s mockumentaries of the 1990’s when they wrote This is Spinal Tap. While they satirize heavy metal and its trappings, they portray the characters in a sympathetic manner. This juxtaposition becomes one of the main characteristics of the modern mockumentary. This is Spinal Tap uses faux interviews, a handheld camera, and concert clips to give it the feel of a documentary. These components along with a largely improvised script and actors who stay completely in character become the hallmark of the mockumentary.

Christopher Guest

Christopher Guest is a graduate of New York City’s High School of Music and Arts and Bard’s college. Early in his career he wrote for National Lampoon and was a writer/performer on the National Lampoon radio show. In the 1980’s he began to work with Rob Reiner. Guest played the villain in Reiner’s The Princess Bride and co-wrote and starred in Reiner’s This is Spinal Tap. In the late 1980’s into the early 1990’s Guest wrote and directed for television. In 1992 he returned to the character he made famous in This is Spinal Tap, Nigel Tufnel, in The Return of Spinal Tap. This return to mockumentary and parody was the beginning of a series films written, directed, and starred in by Guest in which he uses mockumentary to parody various aspects of American life.

Guest and the Mockumentary

Christopher Guest does not particularly like his films to be called mockumentaries. Though shot in documentary style, his movies do not mock, according to him, instead they are character studies of “people who become so obsessed by their world that they lose sense and awareness of how they appear to other people. They’re so earnest about it.” Guest’s affection for his characters is a large part of the appeal of his films. While satirizing or parodying folk musicians or community theatre, Guest is never mean-spirited about the characters. However, Guest’s characters are never very good at what they do, and yet take themselves very seriously, which is the basis of the comedy in his mockumentaries. The mock-documentary format is one in which Guest has proven himself very funny.

Common Traits of Guest’s Mockumentaries

The movies are almost completely unscripted and improvised. Guest compares the improvisation that happens in his movies to jazz improvisation where basic melody and key changes are known but how the changes are made are what matter. Guest shoots ten minute scenes to let the improvisation between actors to happen organically. This unscripted improvisation is one of the large factors that give Guest’s films their documentary feel. The reactions and expressions of the actors are not rehearsed but instead have the look and feel of “real life.”

Guest has a regular troupe of actors that he uses for his movies. Eugene Levy, Parker Posey, Fred Willard, Catherine O’Hara, Michael Hitchcock, Michael McKean, and Jane Lynch are actors whom Guest casts regularly in his films. Guest describes acting with this group of actors “playing with his friends” and thinks there is nothing more fun than acting with a group of people who can respond spontaneously to unscripted dialogue.

Guest’s characters take themselves and what they do very seriously. Whether it’s community theatre, dog shows, or a folk music reunion, Guest is fascinated with people who take what they do very seriously. By using documentary technique to tell these character’s stories, Guest asks the audience to take them seriously too; even while have a good laugh at what they do.

Mock Interviews, handheld camera, and footage of events all lend the films their documentary feel. Documentary techniques make Guest’s movies even funnier. The seriousness of the mock interviews and the footage of the characters fully immersed in their hobbies underscore both the humor and humanness in the characters.

Guest’s parody is never mean-spirited. The appeal of Guest’s films is that the viewer recognizes himself, friends, or acquaintances in the characters. Though the characters often do or say ridiculous things, they are never portrayed as ridiculous. They are well meaning, kind, funny, and often out of touch with reality. They are people to whom we can all relate.

The actors stay completely in character. The documentary feel of the movies is never compromised because the actors stay completely in character. There is never a wink or nod to the audience to hint that what is going on in the film is a spoof. The comedy comes naturally from the situations the characters find themselves in and their reactions to those situations.

Guest’s Mockumentaries

Waiting for Guffman

1996

Directed by Christopher Guest. Written by Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy.

Synopsis: Corky St. Claire, a small town community theatre director with big-time ambition stages a play to celebrate the sesquicentennial of Blaine, Missouri. Corky works with his cast, including the town’s travel agents who have never been out to town and the local dentist, to put on a show, Red, White, and Blaine, for the town. Tension is created when Corky tells the cast that Guffman, a New York producer’s agent, will be attending the show with the thought of taking it to Broadway. The film satirizes small-town values, artistic ambition, and people unaware of their mediocrity, while retaining a fondness for the characters.

Best in Show

2000

Directed by Christopher Guest. Written by Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy.

Synopsis: Best in Show is a wicked satire of the Philadelphia Dog Club dog shows. The film follows several dog owners as they prepare, travel to, and compete in the Mayflower Kennel Club dog show. Tension builds as the owners compete in the ring. The dog owners are wacky and their behavior even wackier as they prepare and compete for the title of Best in Show. The movie satirizes dog lovers and their behavior. Guest and Levy also star in the movie.

A Mighty Wind

2003

Directed by Christopher Guest. Written by Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy.

Synopsis: Roger Ebert says A Mighty Wind does for aging folkies what Rob Reiner’s This is Spinal Tap did for aging heavy metal fans.” A Mighty Wind features three folk-singing groups from the 1960s - the 'New Main Street Singers', 'The Folksmen', and 'Mitch and Mickey' - who gather together for a live television tribute concert after the death of a former manager. Much of the movie is music written by Guest and Levy that capture and satirizes the folk movement.

Mockumentary as Critique – The Office

The Premise of The Office (BBC Version)

The show is centered on David Brent (played by Ricky Gervis). David is essentially an incompetent regional manager who is very self-centered and typically quite annoying to his staff. Filming takes place is at Wernham Hogg: a paper merchant fictitiously located in Slough. However, the focus is on life in an office and the fact that it is a paper merchant is an arbitrary detail. The show is filmed in the style of a documentary with the film crew working at the actual office filming the employees as they work. Uncomfortable silences and long pauses after inappropriate or awkward dialogue form the basis of the show.

Office Life

The Inept Boss – David’s work mantra is to be friends with his employees as opposed to motivating and managing them. He also thinks of himself first and foremost as a comedian. He claims to make an attempt to hide his rock-n-roll side but feels as though it’s so obvious it shines through regardless. To round his character out, he fancies himself quite the philosophizer as well. Ricky Gervis plays this character perfectly; David’s lack of tact unnerves his viewers to a level that few shows, if any, can match.

The Employee who takes himself and his job too seriously – Gareth is a member of the British Territorial Army (a joke to everyone besides Gareth) and wishes the seriousness and discipline of it had a place at Wernham Hogg. He takes his job as team leader sincerely (prior to replacing David as office manager) and this causes him to be the butt of many jokes. Gareth is also extremely protective of his office equipment – this includes the space on his desk and his stapler.

The Employees who had hoped for better – Although the majority of the employees at Wernham Hogg could fit in this category, the two main characters in it are Tim and Dawn. Tim is very aware that his job is futile and a monkey could probably do it. Always the underachiever, when offered David’s position, he declines and suggests they offer it to Gareth. He talks about returning to university and tries to convince himself that it’s not too late to do so at age 30. Similar to Tim, Dawn had dreams of being something other than a receptionist. She wants to be an illustrator and initially took the receptionist job to make ends meet while she attempted to follow her dream. However, over time her dream took a backseat and years later she’s still a receptionist.

The Atmosphere – In an attempt to off-set the unappealing and sterile environment of the office, employee pranks are a constant, largely because there is no fear of being reprimanded. Not only is alcohol permitted in the office for celebrations, employees have no fear about drinking an excessive amount of alcohol during these celebrations. The town of Slough itself appears to be enough to drive someone to drink: it is portrayed in the opening of the show as a bland industrial wasteland. Under David’s watch, working seems to be optional. Also under David, sexual harassment seems non-existent, as some of the worst comments in this area come straight from the boss’s mouth.

Mockumentary as Deconstruction – Curb Your Enthusiasm

The Premise of Curb Your Enthusiasm

Curb Your Enthusiasm is an HBO show that is featured in half-hour episodes. The show centers on Larry David, who plays himself. The show highlights Larry at his office, around town, at his home, and at various functions – usually for entertainment purposes. Wherever Larry goes, he seems to find trouble. Some of the supporting characters are real-life while others are fictional, which adds to the distorted line between fact and fiction. Similar to the show Seinfeld (in particular the George Costanza character), Curb Your Enthusiasm essentially revolves around “Murphy’s Law.” In other words, no matter how trifling the activity, Larry encounters a conflict, largely due to his fabrication or exaggeration of the event. One begins to question why his wife stays with him and how he keeps any friends. There is no script for the cast to follow; merely an outline and ad-libs make up the show.

Deconstruction Aspects of the Celebrity Life

Mode of Transportation – Although Larry is a millionaire, he does not drive a Bentley or even a BMW. Instead, he opts for the energy friendly Toyota Prius. Since this is probably due to his environmentally-friendly wife, another example is the episode where Jeff, Larry’s friend and manager, buys Larry’s old car. It seems odd that one millionaire would buy a used sedan from another millionaire. Not only that, they have a large argument on Larry’s deathbed over a couple thousand dollars Larry felt he got shorted in the transaction.

Sex is unglamorous – While Larry and his wife are sharing an intimate moment, the phone rings. In spite of his wife’s pleas to ignore it, Larry feels he must answer it. He does not understand why his wife is not willing to continue sex once he is off the phone. To make matters worse, Larry proceeds to mock his wife for wanting him to ignore the phone during their “sacred act,” as he calls it. In a different episode, Larry gets a pubic hair stuck in his throat and gags incessantly through the rest of the show.

Millionaires are petty too – At a bonfire on the beach, Larry’s fleece jacket gets borrowed by a friend without his knowledge. He is very upset when he goes to get it from his car and finds it missing, only to spot it on a female friend. Reluctantly, Larry lets her continue to wear the jacket but ensures that everyone knows he is suffering due to the cold. Unfortunately, she gets some chocolate on the jacket and Larry pronounces it ruined. She sends Larry a check in the mail so that he can replace the jacket. However, Larry decides to sign the check over to a bookie instead. Later, Larry is at a beach wedding where the friend who ruined his jacket also is. She notices that he is wearing the ruined jacket and is hugely upset that he spent the money on something other than for what she intended it. Not only does it seem ridiculous that one rich person pays another for a mere ruined jacket, it becomes even more ridiculous when they fight over the expenditure of the small amount of money that went to cover the cost of the jacket.

Fame and money don’t get you want you want – Larry’s friend and fellow comedian, Richard Lewis, needs a kidney. Although he’s a celebrity and a millionaire, he finds himself on the waiting list just like everyone else. Both Larry and Jeff are matches but they are reluctant to donate. Instead, they hatch a plan to get Richard moved up on the transplant list. Needless to say, it is hugely unsuccessful and Larry eventually ends up having to donate his kidney to Richard. Another example occurs in an earlier episode where Larry has a heart-warming moment with a friend’s daughter. They’re playing dolls and she asks Larry to cut her dolls hair, which he does. However, the doll turns out to be a collector’s item and next to impossible to replace. Luckily, his manager, Jeff, realizes that his daughter has the same doll and together they steal the head off of it. Jeff’s wife discovers their plot and reprimands follow.

Mockumentary and Reality Television

Though This is Spinal Tap has become a cult classic, it was not a blockbuster movie when it was released. It was not until reality television came on the scene in the late 1990’s and started to gain popularity that the mockumentary format began to do well at the box office and in the ratings. The United Kingdom has led the way in creating and responding to both reality television and mockumentary creation and viewership. Reality television programs like Survivor were popular in the United Kingdom long before the genre became popular in the United States. Likewise, “The Office” was a huge success in England in 2001 and was then retooled for American audiences, with American actor, writer, and comedian Steve Carell playing the Ricky Gervis character in 2005. “The Office,” the American version, has done well on NBC and is in its second season. The new generation of reality television viewers is attracted to shows where they are passive observers who follow the lives of every-day people going about their normal lives. The mockumentary format fits that description but is different from reality television in several important ways.

Differences between the Mockumentary and Reality Television

 The story of a mockumentary is loosely scripted and edited along the narrative lines of the story. Reality television is unscripted and records the activities of selected groups of people. Although typically not seen by the audience, reality television stars are often encouraged to drink large amounts of alcohol as a way to promote arguments and other events to spice up the show. The viewers in both are “flies on the wall.”

 Mockumentary format uses professional actors with improvisational skills to act in the story. In reality television, the characters are not professional actors, but “real life” people chosen to participate in the television program. However, they are often aspiring actors and have very dramatic personalities. Yet another way producers attempt to add excitement to the program.

 Mockumentary plots, though improvised, are loosely scripted and follow a narrative flow. Reality television creates plots through careful editing of footage filmed of characters. With all of the editing, it is extremely difficult to determine what reality really is on the show.

 Mockumentaries consciously set out to satirize, deconstruct, or critique a topic. Reality television merely presents a topic. Satire, deconstruction, and critique occur as a result of editing or interpretation.

Conclusion

Mockumentary is a genre of comedy and improvisation that satirizes, critiques, or deconstructs its target. No subject is off limits for the mockumentary and the setting can be anywhere the subject is. The mockumentary uses many of the same conventions as the documentary like hand-held cameras, interviews of the subjects, and a camera that follows its subject. One main difference from the documentary genre is that a mockumentary is loosely scripted and improvised by actors. Common subjects included in mockumentaries are loveable losers (David Brent, Larry David), creepy sidekicks (Christy Cummings in Best in Show), and dead musicians (This is Spinal Tap). Some typical value assumptions that mockumentaries follow are that the everyman gets the girl (Tim finally gets Dawn in The Office), true love conquers all (Cheryl stays with Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm), and, of course, the world is full of quirky people (see any of Guest’s films). Mockumentaries often have a comic tone and depict the subject sympathetically while mercilessly skewering a convention.

Teaching activities for Mockumentaries

1. Show students various clips from different genres. Next, have them categorize each clip into its appropriate genre. With all of the clips, or at least with mockumentaries, have the students break it down even further by articulating what aspects make it a mockumentary. They should highlight the camera types and positions when applicable, possible editing that was done, techniques used to tell the story, the setting, etc. The students should also determine the type of mockumentary (satire, parody, critique, deconstruction) and prove with evidence why they picked what they did.

2. Show the students a clip from a documentary, like I am Trying to Break Your Heart, a film documenting the band Wilco. Have the students then satirize the rock-documentary format by creating a mockumentary based on the Wilco clip. Students could come up a loose script and improvise the scene. Make sure they include the general aspects of a mockumentary such as interviews, hand-held cameras, and the actors’ awareness of the camera. For an additional task, it could be fun to have the students create their own archival footage.

3. Go to www.imdb.com/waitingforguffman to get some dialog from the film Waiting for Guffman. Have the students use that dialog as a starting point for their own improvisation. Make sure they pick out music to go with their improvisation and ask them how the tone would change with different music. You could then prompt the students to begin thinking about the subtle differences between mockumentaries and documentaries (it is often hard to pinpoint how to tell one from the other). Is the corresponding music a way to tell the two genres apart?

4. For a lengthy project, students could make up their own documentary. Then, using the same topic, have them re-flim and slightly re-write (if necessary) to take it from a documentary to a mockumentary. Students are essentially forced to recognize the slight difference between the two genres in order to rework their film.

Works Cited:

http://www.moviecitynews.com/columnists/dretzka/2003/030414_guest.html

http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,6737,1118875,00.html

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/Thisisspinaltap

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_television

http://www.documentary.org

http://www/ en.wikipedia.org

http://www.walkato.ac.nz/film/moc-doc.shtml

http://www.oed.com

http://www.imdb.com

http://www.imdb.com/waitingforguffman

http://www.movies.nytimes.com

http://www.moviefreak.com/artman/publish/dvd_office_s2.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/theoffice

http://www.hbo.com/larrydavid/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0327920/

Roscoe, Jane, Hight, Craig. Faking It: Mock-Documentary and the Subversion of Reality. Manchester University Press, 2002. Manchester, England