5 Most Iconic Mockumentaries Ever, Ranked
Mockumentary is a comedy genre that makes fun of the idea of a documentary: it presents itself as synch while being 100% scripted and planned out.
Here are the five best mockumentaries as of now.
5. Burning Love
Burning Love parodies the concept of The Bachelor and over “dating shows.” The series’ bachelor of choice is a selfish and dull firefighter that has to pick his new love interest from a selection of very different and clearly stereotypical contestants. The show is witty and on-point, and the amazing cast makes it truly memorable.
4. What We Do in the Shadows
Our personal favorite, WWDITS is not just an overwhelming abbreviation but also an incredibly well-made mockumentary that follows the lives of vampires and other unholy creatures in modern-day America. After a great movie of the same name, an entire series was launched that builds and develops upon Taika Waititi ’s ideas.
3. The Office
The father, mother, and older sibling of most contemporary mockumentaries, The Office — or rather, the American version of the original British show — set a whole bunch of new trends in comedy for the years to come. The Office’s insane popularity paved the road for others to follow, and its weird and out-of-place humor is iconic.
2. Abbott Elementary
The newest show in this list, Abbott Elementary is pretty much the pinnacle of the mockumentary genre. The series follows a severely underfunded and ineptly-led school where an ensemble of teachers and other employees try to deal with both their direct responsibilities and the wild situations they find themselves in.
The direct follower of The Office, Parks and Recreation took its ideas one step further: instead of focusing solely on the weirder type of comedy, PaR adds quite a bit of heart into the mix. This made this amazing local-politics show into a phenomenon in its own right that had more series following in its footsteps later on.