Wallace, Richard James (2011) 'The fine line between stupid and clever' : re-thinking the comic mockumentary. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

Comic mockumentaries have been a regular fixture on cinema and television screens
since the early 1960s, and texts such as A Hard Day’s Night, This is Spinal Tap, The
Thick of It and the work of Christopher Guest have all achieved mainstream popular
success. However, current scholarship has side-lined virtually all discussion of these
comic texts, which are both the most popular and the most common examples of the
fake documentary form, in favour of those instances which exhibit an intense reflexive
relationship with the straight documentary. This thesis proposes a critical and aesthetic
re-evaluation of the comic mockumentary form, by using detailed textual analysis of a
range of radio, television and film texts, to explore how they function critically and
historically, and how the comedy within them works. I also argue for the consideration
of the mockumentary as a genre rather than simply an aesthetic mode.
My main contention is that the primary aspiration of the comic mockumentary is
entertainment, rather than the construction of a reflexive critique of the straight
documentary form. As a result, the mockumentary has begun to sever its direct links to
documentary, and it is no longer useful to examine these texts solely in terms dictated
by their relationship with documentary proper. By emphasising the role that comedy
and tone play within the genre, I hope to open the form up to a wider range of critical
approaches than current discussions have so far allowed.
The thesis also highlights the centrality of performance, suggesting that the
performative aspects of genuine musicians such as The Beatles and Bob Dylan, and the
public personae of politicians such as Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair, are the focus
of the mockumentary text. Examples such as This is Spinal Tap and The Thick of It can
be seen to create an ironic critical distance, complicating the way that we understand the
straight documentary through the comedic interplay of the real and the fictional.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1990 Broadcasting
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Documentary-style television programs -- History and criticism
Official Date:	October 2011
Dates:	Date Event October 2011 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Film and Television Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Bruzzi, Stella, 1962-
Extent:	xii, 343 leaves : ill.
Language:	eng

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