Waiting for Guffman

Christopher Guest’s films walk a fine line because they imitate documentary material while consisting of entirely fictional material, falling squarely in the “mockumentary” genre. His camera crew imitates clichéd elements of documentaries like frequent handheld tracking shots and intentionally out of focus moments while the frame hunts for action. At several moments in Waiting for Guffman, Guest has the actors speak directly to the camera, imitating the social actor diaries. Shortly after Director/actor Corky St. Claire and his ensemble of idiotic townspeople-cum-actors finish presenting their ridiculous play, the “documentary crew” slips out in the house to get the “audience” reactions. Corky’s long time admirer and city-councilman Steve Stark faces the camera and discloses his effusive opinion of the performance. Due to its length, Waiting for Guffman viewers only saw strategic snippets of the play, so Stark is used to talk about what exists invisibly beyond the camera, and how much he liked it. His first person account is slightly, but very functional. Conversely, Ron and Sheila Albertson, who double as travel agents when not rehearsing with St. Claire, spend several minutes talking about their relationship status. Specifically, they tell the camera about Mr. Albertson’s very personal genital operation. While humorous, it has does not develop the plot. Like a checkout counter gossip rag, it taps human curiosity but serves no other purpose. Through these exploitations, Guest lampoons the fake nature of Reality TV by paralleling it with his fictions.

Waiting for Guffman, based on Waiting for Godot, is a thinly veiled attack on modern media consumption. Cable television now provides 24-hour access to shows about overly sexual Laguna Beach teens that sit around all day in a pool. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent cataloging how a hotel heiress handles herself on a pig farm, and millions tune in every week to see complete unknowns cover famous songs in a desperate attempt to win a record contract. Guest illustrates the fact that viewers no longer demand a destination, only an interesting journey, because. Just like Godot, Guffman never arrives, and Guest makes the point that this film and our modern media is “much ado about nothing.”