The Spin Off: Mockumentary
As every form of art took a sense of post-modernism upon itself so parodies appeared. The Mockumentary is a clever fictional genre which shows the audience how easy it is to make people believe something that is not true really is.
The first and most famous Mockumentary, that wasn’t intended to be a Mockumentary at all in the first place, but had the effect of one, was Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds radio broadcast (1938).
Halloween, October 30th, 1938 Orson Welles directed a version of H.G Wells War of the Worlds science fiction novel, to heighten dramatic effect in his radio play, Welles decided to perform the story as a series of news broadcasts, often interrupting music to bring the latest update on the “huge flaming object” had dropped on a farm near Grovers Mill, New Jersey. The authenticity of the actors and the fact that many people had only tuned into the play after it had started, so where not aware it was War of the Worlds lead to the biggest case of mass hysteria ever, Americas everywhere thought they were under attack by aliens.
Next, a “parody” of Pennebaker’s rockumentaries came Spinal Tap: A Rockumentary by Martin Di Bergi (1984), synopsised on the internet as:
“In 1982 legendary British heavy metal band Spinal Tap’s attempt an American comeback tour accompanied by a fan who is also a...
