The funniest mockumentary films

To many, this is the first quintessential mockumentary, and still one of the best. The film focuses on a band, the titular Spinal Tap, as they try and navigate their career highs and lows…mostly lows. “This is Spinal Tap” set the standard for mockumentary comedies.

Christopher Guest is in “This is Spinal Tap,” and no man is associated with the mockumentary more than he is. However, he didn’t direct “Spinal Tap” Rob Reiner did. “Waiting for Guffman” saw Guest take the reins and become the driving force of his mockumentary world, and a lot of his regular cast pop up in this film as well.

Yes, the impressions got tired pretty soon, but don’t hold that against “Borat.” The first is a different type of mockumentary, as it features a character, in this case, Borat, mostly interacting with real people. It takes the idea of the fake documentary to a new level and became a huge hit as well.

Many years later, and in a surprise move, Sacha Baron Cohen brought us a second “Borat” film. This time, he brought along Maria Bakalova as Borat’s daughter Tutar, handing a lot of the film over to her. Bakalova got a lot of awards love for her work, which included pulling the wool over Rudy Guliani’s eyes.

Let’s rip the band-aid off early and get a Woody Allen film in here. Allen made a few mockumentaries in his career, but the one that sticks out the most is probably “Zelig.” The titular character’s name became shorthand for a certain sort of figure, one who finds themselves in the center of the storm time and time again somehow, giving “Zelig” more of a lasting legacy than, say, “Take the Money and Run.”

Remember when poker was briefly huge? “The Grand” came at the tail end of that, but it has quite the cast. Also, it took an interesting approach to being a mockumentary, really letting the improvisation flow. So much so the poker games were not staged, and there was no winner written into the script. They let the poker games play out and then figured out the ending from there.

The Lonely Island guys never quite found commercial success in film, but they made a couple of cult hits. “Hot Rod” easily could have been a mockumentary, but it wasn’t. Instead, “Popstar” shoulders that load. Andy Samberg stars as a Justin Timberlake-esque figure who sees his career collapse, leaving him to pick up the pieces.

“Reno 911,” the TV show, is a parody of “Cops.” Thus, it naturally is a mockumentary. They took that concept and brought it to the big screen. Also, they took the cops and moved them to Miami, like a regular “Police Academy” sequel. “Reno 911: Miami” was a little shaggy, but still had its charms.

The best of Guest’s mockumentaries. This one features a dog show, and trots out a ton of talent as the people involved in the dog shows. We’re talking Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Jane Lynch, the icon Fred Willard, and so on and so forth. The characters are so funny, and the choices so strong, it really delivers on all a mockumentary can do.

OK, one more Guest. Look, the guy has directed more mockumentaries than anybody. It’s only fair to have a few of them in the mix. Plus, “A Mighty Wind,” got an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song! We had to shout that out.

Before he was one of Marvel’s number-one guys, Taika Waititi made low-budget mockumentaries about vampires. “What We Do in the Shadows” is low-key, but hilarious and gory in equal measures. The film was more of a cult hit, but then spawned a successful TV spinoff on FX.

A political satire that is a bit less funny than some of these other films, but still quite good, “Bob Roberts” was a labor of love for Tim Robbins, who starred, wrote, and also made his directorial debut with this movie. The actor pulled some strings to put together a killer cast, including the film debut of a young Jack Black, who is quite good.

Obviously, when you watch “Surf’s Up” you know it isn’t a real documentary. The fact it is an animated movie about surfing penguins makes that quite clear. That being said, it is still done in the mockumentary style, and that’s interesting. Why not use that framing device for a cartoon, even if it is a cartoon about surfing penguins?

“Between Two Ferns” is a series of online videos that are themselves presented as real interviews but are in fact comedy bits. Zach Galifianakis plays a boorish version of himself interviewing celebrities, who eventually tire of his nonsense. In this film adaptation, though, Galifianakis and his crew have to go on the road to quickly make several episodes of “Between Two Ferns,” all of which is documented. That means celebrities playing themselves to varying degrees of success, though most of them are up to the task.

Something of a gangsta rap take on “This is Spinal Tap,” “CB4” can’t quite live up to that source of inspiration, but that doesn’t mean it is some sort of pale imitator. Chris Rock leads the cast, and while he was not yet a strong actor necessarily, he can throw around enough charisma to make it work.

Now seen as a cult comedy, “Drop Dead Gorgeous” focuses on a teen beauty pageant in Minnesota. One in which an unusual number of contestants are, well, dropping dead. The film has quite a cast, including Amy Adams in her film debut.

This is technically an HBO film, but it’s a mockumentary that is a parody of a sports documentary, and we wanted to cover that realm of documentary filmmaking. Andy Samberg returns, this time starring alongside Kit Harrington in a documentary about the longest tennis match in professional history. A match that, of course, goes to absurd levels.

Craig Ferguson is probably best remembered for his time as a late-night talk show host, but before that he rose to fame in America as Mr. Wick, Drew Carey’s boss on “The Drew Carey Show.” While he was on that show, he got a chance to star in a mockumentary film. “The Big Tease” is about a Scottish hairdresser who comes to America to participate in a hairdressing competition. It’s a fish-out-of-water comedy mixed with a competition documentary, which is the kind of thing mockumentaries were basically made for.

“LolliLove” works as well as a curio as anything else. Jenna Fischer is iconic for playing Pam on “The Office.” James Gunn is, well, one of the five most important people in Hollywood. Back in the day, though, they were a married couple (long since divorced) who costar in this mockumentary directed by Fischer. It feels indebted, to some degree, to Gunn’s early days as a Troma guy, which is to say there’s plenty of shock value comedy in the mix. There’s also some good jokes about self-indulgent, self-aggrandizing people that makes this an effective satire, but also it’s just fascinating to see Fischer and Gunn in “before they were famous” mode.

Even before “This is Spinal Tap,” Albert Brooks tapped into the idea of the mockumentary. The idea of “reality television” had freshly been born, and Brooks, a shrewd of a comedy mind as has ever existed, immediately jumped on the change to parody it. “Real Life” sees Brooks playing an egotistical filmmaker who intends to capture the life of your typical American family. It goes disastrously for him and the family, but not for the viewer. “Real Life” is still as good as any mockumentary ever made.