Editing Mockumentary

{{Short description|Film genre}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2023}}

A '''mockumentary''' (a [[portmanteau]] of ''mock'' and ''documentary'') is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events, but presented as a [[Documentary film|documentary]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dictionary.com/browse/mockumentary|title=the definition of mockumentary|website=Dictionary.com|access-date=2017-01-15}}</ref> Mockumentaries are often used to analyze or comment on [[current events]] and issues in a satirical way by using a fictional setting, or to parody the documentary form itself.<ref name="Campbell">{{cite journal |last1=Campbell |first1=Miranda |year=2007 |title=The mocking mockumentary and the ethics of irony |journal=Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=53–62 |url=http://freireproject.org/files/Taboo2007BoratIssue.pdf#page=52 |access-date=26 July 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726065500/http://freireproject.org/files/Taboo2007BoratIssue.pdf#page=52 |archive-date=26 July 2011 }}</ref> The term originated in the 1960s but was popularized in the mid-1990s when ''[[This Is Spinal Tap]]'' director [[Rob Reiner]] used it in interviews to describe that film.<ref name="Roscoe">{{Cite book |last=Roscoe |first=Jane |title=Faking it: Mock-documentary and the Subversion of Factuality |author2=Craig Hight |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=2001 |isbn=0-7190-5641-1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2010 |title=mockumentary, ''n''. |encyclopedia=Oxford Dictionary |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american_english/mockumentary |access-date=1 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121201213717/http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american_english/mockumentary |archive-date=1 December 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Don Giller |date=26 December 2015 |title=Paul Shaffer on Late Night, March 20, 1994 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lT-ONdy2ck&t=1m |url-status=live |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211103/1lT-ONdy2ck |archive-date=2021-11-03 |access-date=17 October 2017 |via=[[YouTube]]}}{{cbignore}}</ref> 

While mockumentaries are  [[comedy|comedic]], [[pseudo-documentary|pseudo-documentaries]] are their dramatic equivalents. However, [[pseudo-documentary]] should not be confused with [[docudrama]], a fictional [[genre]] in which dramatic techniques are combined with documentary elements to depict real events. Nor should either of those be confused with [[docufiction]], a genre in which documentaries are contaminated with fictional elements.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}

Mockumentaries are often presented as historical documentaries, with [[B roll]] and [[Pundit|talking heads]] discussing past events, or as ''[[cinéma vérité]]'' pieces following people as they go through various events. Examples emerged during the 1950s when archival film footage became available.<ref name=Campbell/> A very early example was a short piece on the "[[Spaghetti tree|Swiss spaghetti harvest]]" that appeared as an [[April Fools' Day|April Fools' prank]] on the British television program ''[[Panorama (TV series)|Panorama]]'' in 1957.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024|reason=And/or add to "Early examples" with a source.}}

Mockumentaries can be partly or wholly [[improvisational theatre|improvised]].

==Early examples==
Early work, including [[Luis Buñuel]]'s 1933 ''[[Land Without Bread]]'',<ref>{{cite journal | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jfilmvideo.67.3-4.0003 | jstor=10.5406/jfilmvideo.67.3-4.0003 | doi=10.5406/jfilmvideo.67.3-4.0003 | title=The Unreliable Narrator in Documentary | date=2015 | last1=Otway | first1=Fiona | journal=Journal of Film and Video | volume=67 | issue=3–4 | pages=3–23 | url-access=subscription }}</ref> [[Orson Welles]]'s 1938 radio broadcast of ''[[The War of the Worlds (radio)|The War of the Worlds]]'', various [[April Fools' Day]] news reports, and ''vérité''-style film and television during the 1960s and 1970s, served as precursor to the genre.<ref name=Roscoe/> Early examples of mock-documentaries include various films by [[Peter Watkins]], such as ''[[The War Game]]'' (1965), ''[[Privilege (film)|Privilege]]'' (1967), and the [[Dystopia|dystopic]] ''[[Punishment Park]]'' (1971).<ref>{{Cite web|date=2017-08-18|title=This 70s Sci-Fi Mockumentary Predicted Our Current Political Climate|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/70s-scifi-mockumentary-politics-punishment-park/|access-date=2021-12-20|website=Vice|language=en-us}}</ref>

Further examples are ''[[The Connection (1961 film)|The Connection]]'' (1961), ''[[A Hard Day's Night (film)|A Hard Day's Night]]'' (1964), ''[[David Holzman's Diary]]'' (1967), ''[[Pat Paulsen for President]]'' (1968), ''[[Take the Money and Run (film)|Take the Money and Run]]'' (1969), ''[[I clowns|The Clowns]]'' (1970) by [[Federico Fellini]] (a peculiar [[hybridity|hybrid]] of [[documentary]] and [[fiction]], a docufiction), ''[[Smile (1975 film)|Smile]]'' (1975), [[Carlos Mayolo]]'s ''[[The Vampires of Poverty]]'' (1977) and ''[[All You Need Is Cash]]'' (1978). [[Albert Brooks]] was also an early popularizer of the mockumentary style with his film ''[[Real Life (1979 film)|Real Life]]'', 1979, a spoof of the 1973 [[reality television]] series ''[[An American Family]]''. [[Woody Allen]]'s ''Take the Money and Run'' is presented in documentary style with Allen playing a fictional criminal, Virgil Starkwell, whose crime exploits are "explored" throughout the film.<ref name="Trompe">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7pbJHd6i9nwC&pg=PA343|title=Trompe (-)l'oeil: Imitation & Falsification|last2=Sy-Wonyu|first2=Aïssatou|publisher=University of Le Havre Press|year=2002|isbn=2877753344|series=Publications de l'Université de Rouen|volume=324|page=343|first1=Philippe|last1=Romanski}}</ref> [[Jackson Beck]], who used to narrate documentaries in the 1940s, provides the voice-over narration. Fictional interviews are inter-spliced throughout, especially those of Starkwell's parents who wear [[Groucho Marx]] noses and mustaches. The style of this film was widely appropriated by others and revisited by Allen himself in films such as ''[[Men of Crisis: The Harvey Wallinger Story]]'' (1971), ''[[Zelig]]'' (1983) and ''[[Sweet and Lowdown]]'' (1999).<ref name=Trompe/>

Early use of the mockumentary format in television comedy can be seen in several sketches from ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' (1969–1974), such as "[[List of Monty Python's Flying Circus episodes|Hell's Grannies]]", "[[Piranha Brothers]]", and "[[The Funniest Joke in the World]]". ''[[The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour]]'' (1970–1971) also featured mockumentary pieces that interspersed both scripted and real-life man-in-the-street interviews, the most famous likely being "The Puck Crisis" in which hockey pucks were claimed to have become infected with a form of [[Dutch elm disease]].

''[[All You Need Is Cash]]'', developed from an early series of sketches in the comedy series ''[[Rutland Weekend Television]]'', is a 1978 television film in mockumentary style about ''[[The Rutles]]'', a fictional band that parodies [[The Beatles]].  The Beatles' own 1964 feature film debut, ''[[A Hard Day's Night (film)|A Hard Day's Night]]'', was itself filmed in mockumentary style; it ostensibly documents a few typical (and highly fictionalized) days in the life of the band as they travel from Liverpool to London for a television appearance.

==Since 1980==
{{original research|section|date=October 2020}}

===In film and television===
Since the beginning of the 1980s, the mockumentary format has gained considerable attention. The 1980 [[South Africa]]n film ''[[The Gods Must be Crazy]]'' (along with its [[The Gods Must Be Crazy II|1989 sequel]]) is presented in the manner of a [[nature documentary]], with documentary narrator [[Paddy O'Byrne]] describing the events of the film in the manner of a biologist or anthropologist presenting scientific knowledge to viewers. ''[[The Atomic Cafe]]'' (1983) is a Cold-War era American "mockumentary" film that made use of archival government footage from the 1950s.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NI4dBAAAQBAJ&q=%22atomic+cafe%22+mockumentary&pg=PA342 |title=The Oxford Handbook of Science Fiction |last=Latham |first=Rob |date=2014-09-01 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199838851}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.horrorview.com/movie-reviews/atomic-cafe-the |title=The Atomic Café (1991) |website=Horrorview |quote=Straddling the fence between surrealism and pop culture is this eccentric "mockumentary," subsumed entirely by stock footage from the height of the Cold War. "The Atomic Café" is pieced together with a certain clairvoyant vision that captivates and inspires as the seamless fluency of the film builds to a denouement. In the same neighborhood as "[[Dr. Strangelove]]," this cynically festive mock-serious piece /../ Because the documentary is just that, fashioned entirely out of a seamless montage of newsreel footage, government archives, and military training films, the movie itself is just a deadpan reflection of history's charade executed with an assertive wry humor that makes us question the sanity of Cold War politics. |access-date=18 May 2018 |archive-date=7 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200207030807/http://www.horrorview.com/movie-reviews/atomic-cafe-the |url-status=dead }}</ref> Woody Allen's 1983 film ''[[Zelig]]'' stars Allen as a curiously nondescript enigma who is discovered for his remarkable ability to transform himself to resemble anyone he is near, and Allen is edited into historical archive footage.<ref name=Trompe/> In 1984, [[Christopher Guest]] co-wrote and starred in the mockumentary ''[[This Is Spinal Tap]]'', directed by [[Rob Reiner]]. Guest went on to write and direct other mockumentaries including ''[[Waiting for Guffman]]'', ''[[Best in Show (film)|Best in Show]]'', and ''[[A Mighty Wind]]'', all written with costar [[Eugene Levy]].<ref name=Trompe/>

In Central Europe, the first time that viewers were exposed to mockumentary was in 1988 when the Czechoslovak short film ''[[Oil Gobblers]]'' was shown. For two weeks, TV viewers believed that the oil-eating animals really existed.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BauXIDKrNyc TV2 (Hungary) Jan. 23 1991 23:35, Napzárta. Interview with the producers of Ropaci and Vilmos Csányi] (In Hungarian)</ref>

[[Tim Robbins]]' 1992 film ''[[Bob Roberts]]'' was a mockumentary centered around the senatorial campaign of a right-wing stock trader and folksinger, and the unsavory connections and dirty tricks used to defeat a long-term liberal incumbent played by [[Gore Vidal]]. ''[[Man Bites Dog (film)|Man Bites Dog]]'' is a 1992 [[Belgium|Belgian]] [[black comedy]] crime mockumentary written, produced, and directed by [[Rémy Belvaux]], [[André Bonzel]], and [[Benoît Poelvoorde]]. In 1995, [[Peter Jackson]] and [[Costa Botes]] directed ''[[Forgotten Silver]]'', which claimed [[New Zealand]] "director" Colin McKenzie was a pioneer in filmmaking.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nzonscreen.com/person/colin-mckenzie/biography|title=Colin McKenzie – NZ On Screen|website=Nzonscreen.com|access-date=17 October 2017}}</ref> When the film was later revealed to be a mockumentary, Jackson received criticism for tricking viewers.<ref>{{cite book |title=F Is for Phony: Fake Documentary And Truth's Undoing |first1=Craig |last1=Hight |first2=Jane |last2=Roscoe |chapter=Forgotten Silver: A New Zealand Television Hoax and Its Audience |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TXaFokB-qx4C&pg=PA172 |pages=171–173 |editor=[[Alexandra Juhasz]] and Jesse Lerner |publisher=U of Minnesota Press |year=2006 |isbn=0816642516 |volume=17 |series=Visible Evidence}}</ref>

''[[Borat|Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan]]'' from 2006, and its 2020 sequel ''[[Borat Subsequent Moviefilm]]'', are two controversial yet successful films that use this style, as does ''[[Brüno]]'', a similar film from 2009 also starring [[Sacha Baron Cohen]]. [[Sony Pictures Animation]] released their second animated feature, ''[[Surf's Up (film)|Surf's Up]]'' in 2007, which was the first of its kind to incorporate the mockumentary style into animation. ''[[REC (film)|REC]]'', a 2007 Spanish film by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza, uses journalism aesthetics to approach a horror universe set up in a real building in [[Barcelona]]. The film was [[remake|remade]] in the [[United States]] as the 2008 film [[Quarantine (2008 film)|''Quarantine'']].<ref>{{cite web|title=Exclusive: '[REC]4 Apocalypse' Teaser Poster Sees Red!|url=http://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3231637/exclusive-rec4-apocalypse-teaser-poster-sees-red/|work=Bloody Disgusting|publisher=Bloody Disgusting LLC|access-date=22 June 2013|last=Miska|first=Brad|date=6 May 2013}}</ref>

Ivo Raza's 2020 mockumentary ''[[Reboot Camp]]'' is a comedy about a fake cult that uses an ensemble cast of celebrities from the film ([[David Koechner]], [[Eric Roberts]], [[Chaz Bono]], [[Ed Begley Jr.]]), performing arts ([[Ja Rule]], [[Billy Morrison]]), and TV ([[Lindsey Shaw]], [[Pierson Fode]], [[Johnny Bananas]]) to play fictional versions of themselves.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Pfeifer|first=Paige|title='Reboot Camp' Will Recruit Even the Most Stubborn Viewers! {{!}} Young Hollywood|url=https://younghollywood.com/scene/reboot-camp-will-recruit-even-the-most-stubborn-viewers.html|access-date=2021-05-30|website=younghollywood.com|language=en}}</ref>

In television, the most notable mockumentaries in the 2000s have been [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation|ABC Australia]]'s ''[[The Games (Australian TV series)|The Games]]'' (1998–2000), the Canadian series ''[[Trailer Park Boys]]'' (1999–present), the British shows ''[[Marion and Geoff]]'' (2000), ''[[Twenty Twelve]]'' (2011–2012) (which follows the fictional Olympic Deliverance Commission in the run-up to the [[2012 Summer Olympics]]), and ''[[W1A (TV series)|W1A]]'', which follows the main characters of ''[[Twenty Twelve]]'' as they start work at the BBC, as well as ''[[The Office (UK TV series)|The Office]]'' (2001) and its [[The Office|many international offshoots]], and ''[[Come Fly with Me (2010 TV series)|Come Fly with Me]]'' (2010), which follows the activity at a fictional airport and its variety of staff and passengers. British comedy duo [[Jennifer Saunders]] and [[Dawn French]] often presented short mockumentaries as extended sketches in their TV show ''[[French & Saunders]]''.  Discovery Channel opened its annual Shark Week on 4 Aug 2013 with ''[[Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives]]'', a mockumentary about the survival of the [[megalodon]]. The Canadian series ''[[Trailer Park Boys]]'' and its films (1998–present) were one of the first mainstream examples of Canadian mockumentaries. Popular examples in the US include sitcoms ''[[The Office (American TV series)|The Office]]'' (2005–2013), ''[[Parks and Recreation]]'' (2009–2015), and ''[[Modern Family]]'' (2009–2020); the American improv comedy ''[[Reno 911!]]'' (2003–2009); ''[[Derek (TV series)|Derek]]'' (2012–2014); the comedy series ''[[The Muppets (TV series)|The Muppets]]'' (2015); ''[[People Just Do Nothing]]'' (2011–2018) and the Australian [[Chris Lilley (comedian)|Chris Lilley]] shows ''[[Angry Boys]]'', ''[[Summer Heights High]]'', ''[[We Can Be Heroes: Finding the Australian of the Year]]'', ''[[Ja'mie: Private School Girl]]'', ''[[Jonah from Tonga]]'' and ''[[Lunatics (TV series)|Lunatics]]''. Shows currently running in this format include ''[[What We Do in the Shadows (TV series)|What We Do in the Shadows]]'' (2019–2024), ''[[Abbott Elementary]]'' (2021–present), and ''[[St. Denis Medical]]'' (2024–present). Strictly speaking, a mockumentary refers to films, while the term "[[comedy verite]]" refers to TV series, though term is widely used here.<ref>{{citation|first=Brett|last=Mills|title=Comedy verite: contemporary sitcom form|journal=Screen |date=2004 |volume=45 |pages=63–78 |doi=10.1093/screen/45.1.63 |url=https://academic.oup.com/screen/article-abstract/45/1/63/1623961?redirectedFrom=PDF|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The series ''[[Documentary Now!]]'' (2015–present) on [[IFC (U.S. TV channel)|IFC]], created by ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' alumni [[Bill Hader]], [[Fred Armisen]], and [[Seth Meyers]], spoofs celebrated [[documentary film]]s by parodying the style and subject of each documentary. Hight argues that television is a natural medium for a mockumentary, as it provides for "extraordinarily rich sources of appropriation and commentary".<ref>Hight, Craig. 2014. "Mockumentary." In Encyclopedia of Humor Studies, Salvatore Attardo, Thousand Oaks: Sage, pp.  515-516.</ref>

In 2018, the [[BBC]] released the series ''[[Cunk on Britain]]'' created by [[Charlie Brooker]] and starring [[Diane Morgan]] about British history with Philomena Cunk, an extremely dim-witted and ill-informed interviewer, asking various experts ridiculous questions. The follow-up ''[[Cunk on Earth]]'' featuring a similar plot was released by [[BBC Two]] in 2022 and is available on [[Netflix]].

===On radio===
The [[BBC]] series ''[[People Like Us (mockumentary)|People Like Us]]'' was first produced for radio in 1995 before a television version was made in 1999. [[Kay Stonham]]'s ''[[Audio Diaries]]'' was a similarly short tenured radio mockumentary that premiered the year after ''People Like Us''<nowiki/>'s run on Radio 4 ended.

==See also==
<!-- Please keep entries in alphabetical order and add a short description if necessary [[WP:SEEALSO]] -->
{{div col begin}}
* [[List of mockumentaries]]
* [[Comedy verite]]
* [[Docudrama]] – a fictional recreation of past events
* [[Docufiction]] – a blend of documentary and fiction
* [[Documentary comedy]]
* [[Found footage (pseudo-documentary)]]
* [[Mockbuster]]
* [[News satire]]
* [[Pseudo-documentary]] – a fake documentary, often presented as real
{{div col end}}
<!-- please keep entries in alphabetical order -->

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Hight, Craig 2008: ''Mockumentary: A Call to Play,'' in Thomas Austin and Wilma de Jong (ed.), ''Rethinking Documentary: New Perspectives, New Practices.'' Berkshire: Open University Press.
* Hight, Craig 2010: ''Television mockumentary. Reflexivity, satire and a call to play.'' Manchester: Manchester Univ. Press.
* Juhasz, Alexandra/Lerner, Jesse (eds.) 2006: ''F is for Phony. Fake Documentary and Truth's Undoing.'' Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press (Visible evidence, vol. 17).
* Rhodes, Gary D. (ed.) 2006: ''Docufictions. Essays on the intersection of documentary and fictional filmmaking.'' Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
* Roscoe, Jane/Hight, Craig 2001: ''Faking it. Mock-documentary and the subversion of factuality.'' Manchester/New York.

==External links==
* [http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/mockumentaries.html Fake and Mock Documentaries (list)] at the Media Resources Center of the UC Berkeley Library
* [http://www.waikato.ac.nz/fass/mock-doc/ Mockumentary – Reflexivity, satire and a call to play] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151102063801/http://www.waikato.ac.nz/fass/mock-doc/ |date=2 November 2015 }} at The University of Waikato, New Zealand

{{Film genres}}
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[[Category:Mockumentaries| ]]
[[Category:Fiction forms]]
[[Category:Film genres]]
[[Category:Television genres]]
[[Category:Comedy genres]]