What is Mockumentary?
1.
n. A fictional film that is in the style of a documentary and pretends to be a documentary. A mock documentary.
The mockumentary "This is Spinal Tap" documents the fictional band Spinal Tap.
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2.
A fake documentary - done with a lot of tongue-in-cheek "seriousness" and often closely mimicing an actual documentary.
"This Is Spinal Tap" and "The Rutles" are classic mocumentaries
3.
a film that has the look and feel of a television documentary, but with the irreverent humor and slapstick of a comedy, designed to "mock" the documentary or subject it features.
"Drop Dead Gorgeous," which ridicules a local Minnesota beauty pageant, is the illegitimate child of "This Is Spinal Tap" -- a weak link in the people-are-stupid tradition. In that it portrays a group of film students making a documentary about a local witch legend, "The Blair Witch Project" is not unlike those "the making of" movie documentaries with which subscribers to HBO and Showtime are all too familiar.
4.
A show or film which parodies a "serious" documentary.
Movie examples include Spinal Tap, Drop Dead Gorgeous, The Specials (starring Rob Lowe, very underrated). One profound example on TV in Britain that nobody has mentioned is "Brass Eye" - a series of 6 documentaries and one special. They are available on DVD and video and are totally worth a look.
5.
A mockumentary or mocumentary is a fiction film presented as a documentary film. They are usually comedic, often parodic in nature, and are often presented as historical documentaries with b-roll and talking heads discussing past events or as cinema verite pieces following people as they go through various events.
"This Is Spinal Tap" is a mockumentary.
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6.
Anything made by Michael Moore; whether or not he meant it to be that way.
Dude: Damn, MM, that was hilarious!
MM: It wasn't a comedy.
Dude: C'mon! It was so full of bullshit that it had to be a comedy.
MM: No! It was all true! Waaahhh!
Dude: Whatever you say, fatass.
7.
A completely farcical documentary, which is intended to be viewed as a comedy.
"This is Spinal Tap" and "Fear of a Black Hat" are two examples of a mockumentary.
