Hacker Cinema
Documentary Now!
2015 · TV series · 23 min episodes · 4 seasons
Created by Seth Meyers, Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, Rhys Thomas
Loving parodies of some of the world's best-known documentaries. Each episode is shot in a different style of documentary filmmaking, and honors some of the most important stories that didn't actually happen.
10 positive1 neutralfrom 11 commenters
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11 comments on Hacker News
I agree with this entirely, and I think if you've watched some of his other shows you'll understand why. Some of the most consistently funny, well cast comedy on TV has had him behind it. Kids In The Hall, 30 Rock, A.P. Bio, Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee, Documentary Now!, Portlandia and so on and so on.
I'm sure he's quite a handful to deal with, but whatever that entails the end result of his presence on a project is that the project is often a good idea and well run. Don't get me wrong, he's had his money grabs and failed concepts, but the sheer number of hits he's involved with boggles the mind. He's willing to put money behind concepts few others even consider.
I don’t think your analogy to the band from Documentary Now (clearly music made by a very much real band, albeit satire) holds up as well as you think it does.
AI music generation sucks and I expect it to suck for a long time. It's hard to make good music. Even a fake band from a mocumentary show is infinitly better (Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, Documentary Now)
The Blue Jean Committee "Catalina Breeze"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfrHCNo2I3M
"Documentary Now!" did a great spoof of this called "Final Transmission". Give it a watch if you haven't: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt5821512/
The Globesman by Documentary Now! is just genius. They door to door globe salesmen at one point lament the atlas salesman keeps beating them to new territory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81m8vygf_8Q
And after watching that, I would recommend the Documentary Now! episode Juan Likes Rice and Chicken.
Documentary Now actually got me to look more into Vice with their 'Dronez' episode: https://www.netflix.com/title/80010778
Episode 2 of Documentary Now on Netflix/IFC is also a pretty good parody of their style. The episode is called Dronez: The Hunt for El Chingon
The BBC's Planet Earth series is fantastic. Reminds me of Shakespeare: "There are more things in heaven and earth then are dreamt of your in philosophy"... Makes you really appreciate the beauty on this planet.
Also - a bit of a curveball answer: I really like Documentary Now! (on Netflix). They are parodies of really well known documentaries. So I ended up watching the parody and then looking for the source material on which it was based. I realized that my wife (art major) knew almost all the original documentaries and I knew almost none (engineer...)
EDIT: Wikipedia has the mapping of parody->original : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_Now!
IFC's documentary parody series Documentary Now! (https://www.ifc.com/shows/documentary-now) did a great episode in its first season called "DRONEZ: The Hunt for El Chingon" that is an hilarious, pitch-perfect sendup of the Vice documentary style. It's on Netflix, if memory serves.
In the "Gentle and Soft: The Story of the Blue Jean Committee" mockumentary, Kenny Loggins and the show and get their digs in at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in ‘Documentary Now!’ by Lorne Michaels, Fred Armisen And Bill Hader.
In the show, Loggins complains about the one album wonder Blue Jeans Committee that you can be working in the business for 30 years and have many hits and never even get invited to the ceremony (which describes Loggins.)