Which was it?
Best In Show?
Waiting for Guffman?
Spinal Tap?
Not sure I can pick just one. If I had to, however, I think I’d have to go with Best In Show.
It’s close, but I’d have to agree with you. Best in Show, with Guffman in a close second.
Guffman didn’t do all that much for me; but Best in Show and Spinal Tap are neck and neck right now.
Gotta go with Spinal Tap.
I didn’t like Best in Show at all. I don’t understand why people say it’s funny, but that’s my problem.
I liked Spinal Tap very much, but refused to go see Waiting For Guffman after an interview I read with Christopher Guest.
In the interview Guest said he attended a community-theater production of some play, I think it was Annie Get Your Gun. It was a mediocre, amateurish production but at the end there was a standing ovation and the leading lady received flowers from the patrons…just as if it had been a good production! And that’s where he got the idea for Waiting For Guffman.
Now, heavy metal bands invite parody with their over-the-top antics, but who the hell does Guest think he is, mocking the sincere efforts of amateurs just because they’re not Hollywood smoothies like he is? Go fuck yourself, Christopher Guest!
If anyone who has seen Waiting For Guffman can explain to me how it’s not really like that, I’m listening.
i’m very active in many local community theaters, and received my advanced degree in directing. i have seen many, many bad productions. i have acted in a few, and honestly, i’ve probably directed a couple. i try to always have something nice to say, since many of the actors know me and respect my opinion. i have seen productions that were so bad, that the only positive thing i could come up with to say was “well, it looked like you were having fun up there!” i LOVED “guffman”. i thought it was right on the mark about people who take things way to seriously. the scene where corky asks the board for the money to mount a huge production is priceless. i showed it to a bunch of my “theater friends”, and people just howled.
as for the interview fiver talked about, all of christopher guest’s movies are about people who take themselves way too seriously, whether they be musicians, dog owners, or actors. i bet if he ever did a movie about people who post on message boards, fiver would be REALLY p.o.'ed.
My ranking? In order: This is Spinal Tap, Best in Show and then Waiting for Guffman.
Although I truely love Christopher Guest’s work and all the detail and imagination that goes into creating the fictional worlds his cast of loonies occupy, somehow Guffman just didn’t appeal to me nearly as much as the others.
- Spinal Tap, 2) Best in Show, 3) Guffman.
Guffman isn’t bad, but let’s face it, making fun of community theatre is like shooting fish in a barrel. Also, the main plot device of the Big Broadway Agent coming to see the show has been used on more than one sitcom over the years.
I’m gonna go with:
- Spinal Tap
- Guffman
- Best in Show
As an ex-theatre person I’m in the same boat as naughty wiked zoot (great name BTW) and I could identify with it and the type of people he’s poking fun at.
For Best in Show, I’m in the same camp as bafaa. I just didn’t like it, didn’t see what was so funny about it.
That would kick ass.
It would include at least one scene of a full-on flamewar–harsh words being thundered with the voices of furious gods, perhaps (that’d be the difficult bit, filming interaction that’s all in text). There would then be a quick dissolve into a contrived meeting of the prime flamewar participants in the same room face-to-face, in awkward, itchy silence.
thank you. yours too!! lots of python inspired names here, that’s one of the many things i like about this board.