Film

Billy Crystal: Don't Get Me Started

Billy Crystal's 1986 concert film frames his stand-up with a mockumentary about preparing for the show itself. It's a loving parody of This Is Spinal Tap's documentary format, populated with absurd characters and backstage chaos. Sharp, silly, and built for people who find the mechanics of comedy as funny as the jokes themselves.

If you liked this

This Is Spinal Tap1984

The obvious ancestor, but essential: a mockumentary about a doomed rock band that essentially invented the format. Devastating parodies of rock excess, pretension, and the gap between ambition and execution.

But It's structurally repetitive if you're not in the mood for one-note absurdity stretched to feature length. Some of the humour has dated badly.

This Is Spinal Tap poster

Ghostbusters II1989

Billy Crystal appears in this, but the real connection is the comedic sensibility: broad, character-driven comedy wrapped around a plot skeleton. Proof that Crystal belonged in films, not just standing at a microphone.

But It's bloated and diluted compared to the original. The supernatural plot genuinely doesn't matter.

Ghostbusters II poster

The Sure Thing1985

Rob Reiner before he became a serious director—a charming romantic comedy with clever dialogue and genuine chemistry. Shows what Reiner brought to the mockumentary form: discipline underneath the chaos.

But It's conventional in structure and themes. A fairly standard road-movie romance dressed in 1980s clothes.

The Sure Thing poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Billy Crystal: Don't Get Me Started

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Something you would not have found on your own.

Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy1996

Both use documentary framing to make comedy feel like it matters, but Brain Candy weaponizes absurdity where Don't Get Me Started keeps the ground solid.

A sketch troupe makes a mockumentary-adjacent film about a depression pill gone wrong. It's chaotic, stupid-brilliant, and anarchic in ways Crystal keeps controlled. Proof the format could go far weirder.

But It's deeply Canadian sketch comedy—aggressively peculiar and not interested in your comfort. The plot barely holds it together.

Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy poster
More like this (6)

A Mighty Wind2003

Christopher Guest's mockumentary about a reunion concert by a 1960s folk group. Proves the format still works twenty years later when the creator understands exactly what makes it funny.

But It's gentler and more affectionate than Spinal Tap, which some find less incisive. Folk music isn't everyone's subject.

A Mighty Wind poster

Best in Show2000

Christopher Guest again, this time demolishing dog-show culture with an ensemble cast playing absurd owners. The structure Crystal and Reiner pioneered applied to something completely different, and it still kills.

But Relies heavily on improv and character eccentricity. Some viewers find it self-indulgent and meandering.

Best in Show poster

The Princess Bride1987

Rob Reiner's fairy tale adventure: funny, charming, and genuinely inventive. Proves he could marry comedy with genuine emotion and adventure without making any of it feel cheap.

But It's beloved to the point of oversaturation. Watching it now means competing with three decades of cultural baggage.

The Princess Bride poster

Waiting for Guffman1997

Christopher Guest's first mockumentary solo: a small-town musical pageant directed by a lunatic. Tighter and funnier than later Guest work, with Fred Willard giving a masterclass in comic supporting acting.

But The joke—small towns are ridiculous—gets repetitive by the end. It doesn't quite reach Spinal Tap's heights.

Waiting for Guffman poster

Modern Family2009

A scripted mockumentary about a blended family. Takes the format Crystal and Reiner played with and makes it structurally central to a narrative. Shows how the form adapted for television.

But The mockumentary gimmick quickly becomes invisible, and the show is fundamentally a sitcom. After the novelty, it's just network comedy.

Modern Family poster

Stop Making Sense1984

Both struggle with the fundamental awkwardness of filming live performance, but Demme abandons narrative entirely while Crystal doubles down on it—opposite solutions to the same formal problem.

Jonathan Demme's concert film of Talking Heads doing a show. It's a concert film that's actually innovative cinema—the opposite of Crystal's half-mockumentary, half-live-show split, but solving the same problem differently with genuine style and invention.

But It's a concert film by a director who treats music as serious art. If you want comedy, this is essentially the wrong tone.

Stop Making Sense poster

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