- 3 months ago
Get ready for some seriously fake documentaries! Join us as we count down our picks for the most hilarious mockumentaries ever made. From rockumentaries that go to eleven to vampire roommates with dish duty problems, these films brilliantly blur the line between fact and fiction. Which fake doc makes you laugh until it hurts?
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00:00What are you doing now with Marcel?
00:02Oh, I'm making a movie.
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most funny faux docs ever made.
00:10The Blair Witch and Space Prongs can take a seat.
00:12We are exclusively looking at comedy mockumentaries.
00:18Oh!
00:19We traded.
00:21You're right!
00:22Oh, Mitch, you're right.
00:24Oh, I forgot that.
00:26Number 20.
00:27Theater Camp.
00:28As you all know, I'm Amos Klobuchar, head of drama.
00:31Rebecca Diane, head of music theory.
00:33We are now going to announce, as we do every summer, this session's productions.
00:38Five, six, seven, eight.
00:40Sometimes jazz hands can lead to disaster.
00:43Theater Camp throws us into the world of a scrappy summer camp for kids who dream in show tunes.
00:53Tonight we take you to the start of our great founder's beating heart.
00:56This summer, though, is different.
00:58The camp's beloved founder has landed in a coma.
01:01The eccentric counselors scramble to keep the place alive.
01:04We follow a journey full of awkward auditions, diva tantrums, and Broadway-sized egos stuffed into child-sized costumes.
01:10It says you're allergic to polyester.
01:13Why?
01:14The film manages to roast theater kids from a place of deep and abiding love.
01:19It strikes a perfect balance between satire and sincerity.
01:22Whether you've spent summers perfecting your monologue or just survived one school musical,
01:26this comedy knows your world a little too well.
01:29Thanks for being so hard on me.
01:31I know it was for a good reason.
01:32Harness this pain and use it in the future, okay?
01:34Number 19.
01:36FUBAR.
01:36I'm trying to use more pneumatic tools these days so that it's easier on the environment.
01:44Aging stoners get the mockumentary treatment in FUBAR,
01:47a Canadian film filmed digitally on a very, very low budget.
01:51Two mulleted, head-banging best friends are chosen as the subjects for a documentary about the common man.
01:57But I think at some point in your life you have to grow up.
01:59Between the beer-chugging sequences and the trips to the doctor to battle testicular cancer,
02:04this mockumentary is an unexpected emotional rollercoaster,
02:07touching on themes of friendship, loyalty, maturity, and rocking out.
02:11You're just surrounded by beautiful trees of f***ing canopies of stars above here.
02:17It's just a f***ing real business.
02:19Yeah.
02:20Mm-hmm.
02:23FUBAR is both raucously funny and at times, tender.
02:26Number 18.
02:28Dark Side of the Moon.
02:29In 1961, John F. Kennedy, in a famous speech, made landing on the moon his top priority.
02:35One month earlier, the Russian Yuri Gagarin had become the first man in space.
02:40The Soviets had won in Korea, Berlin, and Cuba.
02:44All that was left was the moon.
02:46Director William Carell's Dark Side of the Moon purports to tell the true story of the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing.
02:52You know the deal.
02:53That the whole thing was all faked by director Stanley Kubrick at the request of the CIA.
02:582001 A Space Odyssey was also a visionary film.
03:02Kubrick's real achievement was the fact that not a single scene was criticized by NASA engineers for lack of authenticity.
03:09Carell tricked many people, including Kubrick's widow and astronaut Buzz Aldrin, into participating in his mockumentary.
03:15Shortly after the three astronauts' triumphant return to Earth and their period of quarantine, carefully observed by President Richard Nixon,
03:23Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, sank into a depression for no apparent reason.
03:29The result is Doc-style films so skillfully done.
03:33Many conspiracy theorists view it as a serious expose of NASA's duplicity.
03:37To discover what you want, I want you to listen to me, I want you to believe me, because I tell you the truth.
03:43I'm sure Mr. Nixon didn't know anything in advance.
03:45The head of Helms said, I don't know what's going on, but whatever it will happen, we'll be with you until the end.
03:52Number 17, CB4.
03:54They were the biggest rap group in the world.
03:57They sold more records than Elvis Presley and Coretta Scott King combined.
04:01They'll forever be known as the world's most dangerous band.
04:06Cell Block 4.
04:08Chris Rock's mockumentary takes hip-hop's keep-it-real mantra and turns it into a punchline.
04:12Mild-mannered Albert Brown rebrands himself as MC Gusto.
04:16What's up, kid?
04:18You almost ready?
04:19Yo, this job is nasty!
04:24Yeah, yeah, I'm licking your balls.
04:31How does he manage this epic transformation?
04:34Good old identity theft.
04:36He steals the identity of an actual gangster.
04:38Then, like hip-hop Avengers, he teams up with Dead Mike and Stabmaster Arson to form the group Cell Block 4.
04:45A documentary crew captures their rocket ride to fame.
04:48It also picks up all the insane fallout along the way.
04:51For moral crusaders, industry phonies, and rival rappers, CB4 takes perfect satirical aim at the early 90s rap game.
04:59You guys CB4?
05:01Okay, well, check this out.
05:03Well, my name is Jerry, and I'm here to say that the girl look flat, but she don't give me no play.
05:07I'm MC Gusto, but in prison, I'm known as 97-KY, L-M-N-O-P-14 to the third power.
05:19The movie gleefully skewers image over substance while still having a blast with a music biz spectacle.
05:25Yeah, buddy.
05:27Yeah, buddy.
05:29Yeah, buddy.
05:30Yeah, buddy.
05:30Yeah, buddy.
05:31Yeah, buddy.
05:32Yeah, buddy.
05:33Number 16, Man Bites Dog.
05:47Belgium's Man Bites Dog is an extremely dark comedy that follows a serial killer on his spree of death and mayhem.
05:53Befitting of its subject matter, Man Bites Dog is graphically violent.
06:12The fact that the killer is presented as witty and charismatic, and that the fictional film crew becomes drawn into his world, offends many.
06:20But Man Bites Dog makes serious, thoughtful points about celebrity and humanity in the modern world through its mockumentary style.
06:26Number 15, Incident at Loch Ness.
06:38Which is a crazy relationship between Klaus Kinski and me.
06:46Very productive, though, but we plotted to murder each other at the same time.
06:50Werner Herzog and Zach Penn collaborated on this film-within-a-film mockumentary.
06:55Herzog is supposedly filming a documentary on the Loch Ness Monster.
06:59Penn is an unscrupulous Hollywood producer, who creates a fake Nessie to add drama to the proceedings.
07:04The first day on the boat was very, very interesting, to say the least.
07:09We were boarding the boat, when suddenly, from nowhere, the most absolutely beautiful creature came in with us.
07:19She had a boy suit.
07:21She was absolutely beautiful.
07:22Her name is Katana.
07:23Except, then the real Nessie shows up.
07:26Maybe?
07:27Incident at Loch Ness is fascinating fun, that examines the whole concept of reality, all as one big prank.
07:41Number 14, It's All Gone Pete Tong.
07:44This Canadian mockumentary looks at Frankie Wilde, an incredibly successful DJ, who's achieved wealth and fame.
07:51Well, legend has it that Frank's problem started quite undramatically.
07:55It was the simplest thing in the world that kicked it off.
07:57It was years and years of noise was the basis of the problem, but the very beginnings of it in his life started very plainly.
08:04The problem?
08:05He's going deaf because he's constantly surrounded by loud music and drugs.
08:08It's All Gone Pete Tong has some amazing sequences, particularly those in which Wilde hallucinates about a giant badger, who represents his substance use disorder.
08:16It's not always the best thing for me.
08:19It's my problem.
08:20It's not yours.
08:20It's not yours.
08:22You know what I mean?
08:23I just think, why can't we just be mates or something for a little bit, so I can just give you a ring of a few weeks.
08:29An emotional journey that's both funny and frustrating, it's an exciting comeback story, with a fake DJ at its core.
08:35He probably never thought he'd ever feel that again, and to come back and actually feel that and more, it was a great experience, and everybody that was in the room shared the same experience.
08:46It was really, really special.
08:48Number 13, Behind the Mask.
08:50The Rise of Leslie Vernon.
08:52On the anniversary of my death, the local kids, they dare each other to spend the night here at our old farmhouse.
09:00This year, I'm going to reappear.
09:05What if Freddy, Jason, and Michael Myers were just regular dudes who needed prep time?
09:10This cult mockumentary imagines just that, following an ambitious would-be slasher named Leslie Vernon.
09:15He hires a documentary crew to track his careful preparations for his first murder spree.
09:20We follow him as he scouts victims, preps weapons, and even does cardio to keep up the illusion of walking fast.
09:38The first half of the movie is a hysterical jab at slasher genre conventions.
09:42When the killings actually begin, the laughs give way to real terror.
09:46The back half uses those same genre tropes to masterful effect.
09:50Behind the Mask is somehow both a parody and a clever slasher fic in its own right.
09:54The point is, we're not going to see each other after tonight anyway.
10:00We might as well just say our goodbyes now.
10:03Number 12, Real Life.
10:05Leave it to Albert Brooks to predict reality TV decades before it took over the airwaves.
10:09Everything will be perfect.
10:12Be yourselves.
10:13If you see one of our cameramen following Warren or Jeanette or one of the children into your homes,
10:18or your offices or cleaning establishments or gas stations, don't try to do anything special.
10:24I mean, it's tempting to show off for the camera.
10:26I know, I make my living that way.
10:28In real life, Brooks plays a satirical version of himself.
10:32The character, Albert Brooks, is trying to capture the truth by filming an average American family around the clock,
10:38armed with clunky 1970s technology and a complete lack of self-awareness.
10:42He turns their lives into chaos instead.
10:45All picture and sound information is recorded digitally on these integrated circuit chips.
10:51The film brilliantly skewers both the voyeurism of documentaries
10:53and the absurdity of filmmakers who claim to be objective.
10:57A seemingly noble experiment quickly unravels.
11:00Awkward comedy and self-inflicted disaster ensue.
11:02Long before we snooped on Big Brother or kept up with the Kardashians,
11:06Brooks let us know just how fake real life can be.
11:09You schmuck, you failed.
11:11You started out with this artsy, craftsy, reality crap, and what did you end up with?
11:15The news! The goddamn news!
11:17Number 11. The Gods Must Be Crazy
11:20In this world of theirs, nothing is bad or evil.
11:23The Gods Must Be Crazy answers an important question.
11:26What does it take to upend a civilization?
11:28In this case, a single empty Coke bottle.
11:31Garbo got his finger stuck in the thing, and the children thought he was very funny.
11:35In this South African cult comedy, a glass Coke bottle is tossed over the Kalahari desert from a passing plane.
11:41One day, something fell from the sky.
11:44A bushman stumbles upon the strange object and brings it home.
11:47His tribe first sees it as a divine gift, but envy and chaos quickly follow.
11:52He embarks on an epic quest to return it to the heavens.
11:55He said, the thing does not belong on the earth.
11:58Tomorrow, I will take it to the end of the earth and throw it off.
12:01Shot in a mock documentary style, the film mixes slapstick, satire, and culture clash gags into a uniquely offbeat package.
12:10The hairy one could speak.
12:17He says, thank you for the bottle, but you can have it back now.
12:20Number 10. Bob Roberts
12:22Tim Robbins' political mockumentary, Bob Roberts, fittingly coincided with the 1992 presidential election.
12:37Robbins writes, directs, and stars as the title character, a folksy, guitar-strumming conservative running for the U.S. Senate.
12:44His campaign songs are toe-tapping odes to greed and paranoia.
12:57A documentary crew dutifully captures his outsider image, as well as the sheer lunacy he encounters on the campaign trail.
13:03The film cleverly blurs the line between politics, performance, and propaganda.
13:08Roberts is proclaimed an American hero, a martyr of the new right.
13:13Bob Roberts is a humorous look at politics.
13:16At the same time, it predicted how depressingly easy it is to sell personality over policy.
13:21Equal parts satire and cautionary tale, Bob Roberts feels alarmingly relevant decades later.
13:26He was shot twice at close range with a .22 caliber pistol.
13:31His condition has been listed as critical.
13:33Is there a suspect in the shooting?
13:35Yes, we have a suspect in custody. He's under interrogation.
13:38Number 9. A Mighty Wind
13:40Christopher Guest has made a career of mockumentaries, and A Mighty Wind is one of his funniest, and surprisingly touching as well.
13:47In the film, three long disbanded folk groups reunite for a special reunion concert, poking fun at a wide range of subjects, from folk music, to the 1960s, to show business.
13:57My mama was the cold north wind.
14:00My daddy was the son of a railroad man, from west of hell, where the trains don't even run.
14:12A Mighty Wind is a great showcase for some of the most talented improvisational actors in film.
14:17We shared a soul.
14:21I think it might be on the ravens, son, on the ravens.
14:23We shared, I think you might stay below me on, stay, stay on, we shared.
14:28We wandered, wandered through each other's secrets.
14:34Number 8. Seven Days in Hell.
14:37Aaron Williams, thank you for sitting down with us.
14:44My pleasure.
14:45Take Jon Snow and Jake Peralta, put them in Wimbledon, and sprinkle a little cocaine on top.
14:50That's the premise of this HBO sports mockumentary.
14:53You can't help but compare your career to that of Aaron Williams.
14:58And I think it's fair to say there's been a debate about who's the better player.
15:01Would you say it's you?
15:03Seven Days in Hell chronicles a fictional tennis match that lasts, no joke, a full week.
15:13Andy Samberg stars as Aaron Williams, a bad boy American player in the style of Andre Agassi.
15:18Kit Harington co-stars as Charles Poole, a dim-witted British tennis prodigy.
15:22You have two men competing in a high-stakes match.
15:26One of those men gets hit by a truck.
15:29The other man is a licensed big-rig truck driver.
15:33Their absurd marathon match becomes a carnival of streakers, courtroom trials, and mid-game meltdowns.
15:41Their story is told with deadpan 30 for 30 style narration.
15:44At just over 40 minutes, Seven Days in Hell is quick, chaotic, and hysterically unhinged.
15:50It may seem like I hate, I'm sure, but hate, love.
15:55I mean, those are just two flip sides of the same quesadilla, amiga.
16:01Great quesadilla in the sky.
16:04Number 7. Waiting for Guffman.
16:06If you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes.
16:08In Blaine, I honestly believe, with hard work, we can get that done to three or four minutes.
16:14Director Christopher Guest plays Corky St. Clair, a community theater director in Blaine, Missouri.
16:19St. Clair is engaged to create a production in honor of the small-town sesquicentennial,
16:24and the whole cast becomes excited when a Broadway producer announces his intent to see the show.
16:29Everybody wants to surround.
16:33From the parlor to the pool room.
16:35Filled with odd characters, and outlandishly quirky humor.
16:40Mr. Guffman brings with him a reputation.
16:43Something bigger than anyone in this town has ever known.
16:47And if I am to get back to New York City, on my terms, I cannot deliver him a stinky product.
16:55I really have to be presenting him a package.
16:59Guffman lovingly captures the egoism and exaggerated drama of amateur theatricals,
17:04while also paralleling Samuel Beckett's play, Waiting for Godot.
17:15Number 6. Zellig.
17:18Politicians and poets rub elbows with the cream of high society.
17:23Present at the party is Scott Fitzgerald,
17:26who is to cast perspective on the 20s for all future generations.
17:29In the 1920s and 30s, America became obsessed with one strange figure,
17:34Leonard Zellig, the human chameleon.
17:36He could physically and psychologically blend into any group he joined.
17:40One day, he was a ball player.
17:42The next, he was shaking hands with world leaders.
17:44Present are luminaries from all over the world,
17:46not just in the field of psychiatry, but physics, biology, mathematics, and you name it.
17:521983's Zellig sells the illusion, with fake newsreels, stage interviews, and seamless editing.
17:58The faux historical documentary was so well constructed,
18:01that it fooled audiences into double takes.
18:03When I think about it, it seems to me that his story reflected a lot of the Jewish experience in America,
18:09the great urge to push in and to find one's place,
18:13and then to assimilate into the culture.
18:15I mean, he wanted to assimilate like crazy.
18:18Equal parts technical marvel and satire,
18:21Zellig pokes fun at celebrity culture and society's hunger for novelty.
18:25Forty years later, it could easily trick audiences today.
18:28He distorted himself beyond measure, wrote Scott Fitzgerald.
18:33One wonders what would have happened if right at the outset,
18:36he had had the courage to speak his mind and not pretend.
18:39Number five, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On.
18:42Tell me about what's life like now.
18:44Er, me?
18:47Uh, I appreciate its different beauties,
18:51but it's, it's not the way I would have done things if I was still in the group.
18:55Who knew a one-inch shell in sneakers could break your heart?
18:58This feature-length mockumentary expands on the viral YouTube shorts.
19:02We follow Marcel and his grandmother as they navigate life after being separated from their community.
19:07All right, so you've got the book, you've got a little bit of a raisin,
19:10which I really don't think you're going to finish,
19:11but you can go to town, go to town.
19:13Also, you have two drips of, look over here, you have two drips of water,
19:17you've got an LED flashlight in case the power goes out.
19:20You just got to step on it like this, see?
19:22See how it's, whoa, sorry, a little bit of a stand right in front of it.
19:24A filmmaker documents Marcel's tiny daily routines.
19:28He climbs furniture, watches 60 Minutes, and dreams of finding family again.
19:31She blows cases wide open, and she's got class.
19:37But...
19:38We could tell that something must have mattered because the clock started ticking.
19:44And it was just the two of us there.
19:46The mix of stop-motion animation and live action makes Marcel feel astonishingly real.
19:51He has a fragile, but determined little voice in a big, lonely world.
19:55Equal parts whimsy and profound emotional weight,
19:58the film proves that even the smallest stories can elicit a big response.
20:02He adds new meanings to the simplest of ideas.
20:06Marcel, a one-inch tall shell, reminds us of the true value of community.
20:12Number four, What We Do in the Shadows.
20:14Before the Emmy-winning spin-off show,
20:16the film asks us what vampires would be like as roommates.
20:19This cult New Zealand mockumentary follows Viago, Vladislav, Deacon, and Peter.
20:25I should just bring a broom down here for you if you wanted to sweep up some of these skeletons.
20:31I don't know.
20:32You know.
20:34I'll quote.
20:35They're a band of centuries-old bloodsuckers trying to share a flat in Wellington.
20:39A documentary crew captures the hilarity of their eternal squabbles,
20:43who does the dishes, and how to get invited into nightclubs.
20:46We are ready to go into town and party.
20:48Vampire style.
20:51Co-directed by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement,
20:53the film parodies vampire lore,
20:55while sneaking in some surprisingly sweet character beats.
20:58Hey guys.
21:01Hey, what are you guys doing?
21:03What are you doing, Nick?
21:04Coming to the house.
21:07Hi, my name is Nick.
21:08Hey guys.
21:09I've been a vampire for two months.
21:12Equal parts horror and deadpan comedy,
21:14What We Do in the Shadows became a lasting franchise.
21:17But even old age is brutal.
21:20Watching your friends grow old.
21:23They can't piss.
21:25They say stupid things and their brains go and they can't remember anything.
21:33And then one day they can't even remember who you are.
21:37Number three.
21:38Best in show.
21:39Best of breed.
21:40Best of winners.
21:41Best of opposite.
21:42Yes!
21:43Super.
21:46The World of Pompous Dog Contest gets the Christopher Guest Treatment in Best in Show,
21:51which follows five canine entrants and their owners at the Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show.
21:56With many of Guest's perennial favorite actors filling their roles,
21:59this mockumentary earned high praise from critics.
22:01Good love's a terrier.
22:06That's because small, sturdy, bright and true,
22:10they give their love to you.
22:13From a hyper-competitive yuppie couple,
22:15to a small-town store owner with a secret yen to be a ventriloquist,
22:18the dog owners are a mixed lot,
22:20and they make for some genuinely hilarious moments.
22:22We're getting word that the dog is being handled by Cookie's husband, Jerry Fleck.
22:28This is very unusual.
22:29Boy, this is thrilling.
22:31The bottom of the ninth, a pinch hitter comes in.
22:34Am I nuts?
22:37Or does he, something's wrong with his feet.
22:39Number two.
22:40Borat.
22:41This is my country of Kazakhstan.
22:44It's located between Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and assholes, Uzbekistan.
22:50Sacha Baron Cohen's unique style of guerrilla mockumentary making
22:53burst onto the big screen with Borat.
22:56It was so well-received that he continued the style in 2009's Bruno.
23:00That is not part of the uniform, Ken. You need to take that off.
23:02This outfit is too matchy-matchy as it is.
23:05And so I was just trying to break it up with some simple horizontal lines.
23:09And a direct sequel, but the original Borat marked a pop culture milestone.
23:13Cohen's title character is a journalist from Kazakhstan on a tour of the United States,
23:18which results in significant culture shock and silliness.
23:21How fast do I need to go to guarantee I kill him?
23:24Let me tell you something.
23:25With this vehicle here, probably doing 35, 40 miles an hour would do it.
23:28Great.
23:29Okay.
23:30When I buy my wife, at the start, she was cook good,
23:37her vagine work well, and she's strong on plow.
23:40Many of the interactions are with real people
23:42who believed Cohen was the character he portrayed.
23:44And this approach leads to some unexpectedly honest reactions, for better or worse.
23:56I have no friends.
23:58I am alone in this country.
24:00Nobody like me.
24:02My only friend Azamat, he take my money and my bear and he leave me alone.
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24:24Number 1.
24:25This is Spinal Tap
24:26Rob Reiner's fictional rockumentary, This is Spinal Tap, was not the first mockumentary,
24:36but it laid the groundwork for all that came after it.
24:39The film follows the fictitious heavy metal band Spinal Tap on a problem-plagued U.S. tour.
24:43I don't think that a sexy cover is the answer for why an album sells or doesn't sell,
24:48because you tell me, the White Album?
24:50What was that?
24:51There was nothing on that goddamn cover.
24:53From its vision of a teeny tiny Stonehenge set, to an amp that memorably goes to 11,
24:58This is Spinal Tap is comic brilliant.
25:01So much so, that the lead actors have continued to reunite the band periodically for some memorable
25:06concerts, recordings, and the 2025 sequel.
25:09Which mockumentary makes you laugh until it hurts?
25:30Let us know in the comments below.
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