This book is the first to take comedy seriously as an important aspect of the popular
mockumentary form of film and television fiction. It examines the ways in which mockumentary
films and television programmes make visible-through comedy-the performances that underpin
straight documentaries and many of our public figures. Mockumentary Comedy focuses on the rock
star and the politician two figures that regularly feature as mockumentary subjects. These
public figures are explored through detailed textual analyses of a range of film and television
comedies including A Hard Day's Night This is Spinal Tap The Thick of It Veep and the works
of Christopher Guest and Alison Jackson. This book broadens the scope of existing mockumentary
scholarship by taking comedy seriously in a sustained way for the first time. It ultimately
argues that the comedic performances-by performers and of documentary conventions-are central
to the form's critical significance and popular appeal.
