Documentary comedy is a form of

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

. The comic material used is presented in documentary style—usually, a report on a particular theme or issue—and with the same investigation and reporting methods used to gather the material. Well-known documentary comics include Dave Gorman, Danny Wallace,

Tony Hawks Antony Gordon Hawksworth, MBE (born February 27, 1960), known professionally as Tony Hawks, is a British comedian and author. Early life Born in Brighton, Sussex, Hawks was educated at Brighton, Hove and Sussex Grammar School and Bright ...

, John Clarke and Bryan Dawe,

Alex Horne Alexander James Jeffery Horne (born 10 September 1978) is a British comedian and musician. Horne is the creator of BAFTA award-winning TV series '' Taskmaster'', in which he also performs as the Taskmaster's assistant. He is the host and ban ...

, and

Mark Steel Mark Steel (born 4 July 1960) is an English author, broadcaster, stand-up comedian and newspaper columnist. He has made many appearances on radio and television shows as a guest panellist, and has written regular columns in ''The Guardian'', ' ...

. Often they are also done in a Gonzo journalism style, incorporating the documentarian as a comedic element or foil.

All Gas No Brakes All Gas No Brakes is an American YouTube channel originally created and previously hosted by independent journalist Andrew Callaghan, based on the book of the same name by Callaghan. The channel has 1.7 million subscribers and over 71 million v ...

, Louis Theroux,

Nathan Fielder Nathan Joseph Fielder (born May 12, 1983) is a Canadian comedian, actor, writer, director, producer, and entrepreneur. He is best known for co-creating, directing, and starring in the Comedy Central parody reality show ''Nathan for You'' (2013� ...

, and John Wilson are prominent figures in this sub-genre. Docucomedy specials are also a common example of documentary comedy, interspersing traditional comedy with personal moments. However with the advent of social media comedy, the lines between traditional comedy and the presentation of authentic personal lives has been blurred It is not to be confused with

mockumentary A mockumentary (a blend of ''mock'' and ''documentary''), fake documentary or docu-comedy is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events but presented as a documentary. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on c ...

, a form of

spoof Spoof, spoofs, spoofer, or spoofing may refer to: * Forgery of goods or documents * Semen, in Australian slang * Spoof (game), a guessing game * Spoofing (finance), a disruptive algorithmic-trading tactic designed to manipulate markets __NOTOC__ ...

in which a documentary is played "straight" but based on fictitious material.

References

Documentaries Comedy genres {{comedy-stub