The Funniest Documentaries Of All Time

This intimate portrait examines one of the world's most inventive comedians. Robin Williams' life and career unfold through his own voice and archival footage never seen before.

Mark Borchardt, an aspiring filmmaker from working-class Wisconsin, tries to finish his low-budget horror movie despite many problems. Lacking cash, unreliable help, and personal issues plague Mark. He wants to complete the film to raise money for a bigger drama. His bumbling but loyal friend Mike Schank helps Mark struggle forward, creating many bittersweet moments.

The story covers "The Dana Carvey Show."

The Aristocrats is a 2005 documentary about the famous dirty joke of the same name. Penn Jillette and Paul Provenza conceived and produced it; Emery Emery edited it. TH!NKFilm released the film. The film honors Johnny Carson, because "The Aristocrats" was his favorite joke.

Danny Gold directed the 2022 American documentary film, The Super Bob Einstein Movie. It explores Bob Einstein’s unexpected discovery and lasting career, showing the many evolving layers of his comedy through people who knew him best.

Ben Steinbauer wrote and directed the 2010 comedy documentary film Winnebago Man, with Malcolm Pullinger and Ben Steinbauer.

Twelve-year-old Emily Hagins makes a feature zombie film called "Pathogen." This documentary tracks her two-year path to production, showing what drives young filmmakers. The film focuses on Emily and her mother, who acts as her agent, crew, and producer. It chronicles the challenges of low-budget production while celebrating youthful enthusiasm, determination, spirit, and optimism.

Billy Mitchell set a record score in "Donkey Kong" in 1999, earning the "Video Game Player of the Century" title. In 2003, Steve Wiebe, having recently lost his job, learned about the record. He set out to beat it and succeeded. Both men then battled across the country for inclusion in the 2007 Guinness Book of World Records as the supreme king of the electronic game.

Lisa Dapolito directed the 2018 documentary film Love, Gilda. Comedienne Gilda Radner reflects on her life and career using recently found audiotapes, interviews with friends, rare home movies, and diaries read by current comediennes.

Shut Up, Little Man! features audio vérité recordings of two argumentative, violent alcoholics, Peter J. Haskett and Raymond Huffman, in San Francisco. Bananafish magazine released the tapes commercially in 1992. "Eddie Lee Sausage" and "Mitchell D." made the recordings. They lived in a bright pink apartment building called the "Pepto Bismol Palace" in San Francisco's Lower Haight district. Eddie Lee and Mitchell moved into the apartment in 1987. They found that their neighbors, Haskett and Huffman, argued almost constantly. Peter often shouted, "shut up."

Banksy, the infamous, shadowy British graffiti street artist, left his mark on cities globally. He met Thierry Guetta, a Frenchman from Los Angeles who videotaped underground art escapades. Guetta later became an art phenomenon called "Mr. Brainwash." Rhys Ifans narrates an overlapping documentary. The film blurs the line between real and fake as modern art and celebrity face scrutiny.

Dumb: The Story of Big Brother Magazine is a 2017 American documentary film directed by Patrick O'Dell. The film examines the rise and fall of the subversive skateboarding magazine Big Brother. Big Brother gained prominence in the mid-1990s. It had a big effect on the skating subculture with its unfiltered approach.

Dave Chappelle, actor, writer, and comic, loads a bus with residents from his Ohio hometown. He takes them to Brooklyn, N.Y. Travelers enjoy a concert featuring Kanye West, the Fugees, Big Daddy Kane, and others. Rehearsal footage and Chappelle's comedy energize the event.

This documentary focuses on two stand-up comedians: Jerry Seinfeld and Orny Adams. Their careers differ greatly. Seinfeld is a veteran of the comedy scene, known for his TV sitcom. Adams is a rising star in business, far less successful. Both comics face a crisis to some extent. Seinfeld wants to restart his standup career. Adams seeks regular gigs on late-night TV and eventually a sitcom.

Identical triplets separate at birth and are adopted by three different families. Years later, their reunion becomes a global sensation. This reunion also unearths an unimaginable secret with huge consequences.

Canadian heavy-metal band Anvil released a highly influential 1982 album. This album inspired bands like Anthrax and Metallica. The band then faded from the scene, starting decades of obscurity. Director and former roadie Sacha Gervasi follows guitarist Steve "Lips" Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner. They stumble through a difficult European tour. They reflect on failure, friendship, resilience, and the will to pursue even the hardest dreams.

Donick Cary directed the 2020 documentary 'Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics.' The film uses comedic retellings of celebrity hallucinogen use alongside a deep look at psychedelics. It examines the pros, cons, science, history, future, pop culture effect, and cosmic ideas of hallucinogenic drugs.

Mel Brooks: Make a Noise shows Brooks' early live TV career with Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows. It covers the film genres he satirized, like Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, High Anxiety, and Spaceballs. The documentary also shows Brooks' life: his childhood, his first wife, and his 41-year marriage to Anne Bancroft. It captures his personal reflections and confessions.

Political documentary filmmaker Michael Moore examines what led to the 1999 Columbine High School massacre and the spread of guns and high murder rates in America. Moore provokes Kmart employees, asking them to stop selling bullets. He investigates why Canada lacks the same high gun violence rate and questions actor Charlton Heston about his support for the National Rifle Association.

Chris Smith directed the 2017 American documentary 'Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond.' The film shifts between current interviews with Jim Carrey and old footage from making Man on the Moon nearly 20 years prior. It explores how Carrey adopted the role of quirky comedian Andy Kaufman.

Errol Morris, a top documentary filmmaker, examines the wild story of Joyce McKinney. McKinney was a former Miss Wyoming beauty queen. She became notorious after being accused of kidnapping, chaining, and raping a young Mormon missionary in England in 1977. The unbalanced McKinney speaks widely about her goal to write a memoir detailing her side of the story.

George Carlin’s American Dream is a 2022 American documentary film. Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio directed it. This two-part documentary tracks the life and work of the legendary comedian, charting Carlin’s rise to fame. It opens a look into Carlin’s personal life: his childhood in New York City, his long drug struggles that harmed his health, his legal issues, his love for Brenda, his 36-year marriage, and his second marriage to Sally Wade. Interviews with Carlin and Brenda’s daughter, Kelly Carlin, provide unique insight.

Dreams with Sharp Teeth is a 2008 film about writer Harlan Ellison. It uses original and archive footage of Ellison plus talking heads from colleagues and fans like Robin Williams, Peter David, and Neil Gaiman.

Director Morgan Spurlock ran a social experiment in fast food. He tried eating only McDonald's food for a month. His weight grew; his energy dropped. He faced strange and scary side effects. Spurlock also studied the corporation's growing power over American consumers and how it indoctrinates youth, linking it to America's obesity epidemic.

The Gold Spinners tells the story of a strange, invisible, and powerful business empire. This empire was the film studio Eesti Reklaamfilm, the only company making commercials in the Soviet Union.

Life, Animated is a 2016 American documentary. Director Roger Ross Williams made it. It shows a boy and his family overcoming big challenges. They did this by using Disney animated movies as a way to show love, loss, kinship, and brotherhood.

Commentator-comic Bill Maher uses religion as a devil's advocate while speaking to believers about their faith. Maher travels the world, examining Christianity, Judaism, and Islam's beliefs. He asks questions about homosexuality, proof of Christ, Jewish Sabbath laws, and violent Muslim extremists.

This retrospective covers the first five years of Saturday Night Live. Interviews feature executive producer Lorne Michaels, crew members, musicians, past and present cast members, and former hosts. They examine the show's start and behind-the-scenes events.

Louis Theroux's documentary, Louis and the Brothel, aired on August 9, 2003. This sixty-minute documentary shows Louis Theroux visiting the Wild Horse Adult Resort & Spa brothel. Louis Theroux later revisited these subjects in his book, The Call of the Weird: Travels in American Subcultures.

Slasher: an IFC Original is a 2004 documentary. John Landis directed it; Chris Kobin, Stephen Cantor, and Daniel Laikind produced it. The film tracks Michael Bennet, a top used car salesman, as he travels to Memphis, Tennessee, to stage a slasher sale. The film shows a conflicted man and a shady business. It premiered at the 2004 South by Southwest Film Festival before airing on the Independent Film Channel.

The Legend of Cocaine Island is a 2018 documentary. Theo Love directed and produced it. It's an urban legend: a duffel bag of cocaine buried in the Caribbean leads a misfit band to plan to find it in this comic documentary.

Michael Douglas, Alice Cooper, chef Emeril Lagasse, and others honor Shep Gordon. Gordon made other people famous as a Hollywood insider.

Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project is a 2007 film about stand-up comedian Don Rickles. It aired at the 2007 New York Film Festival and then on HBO. Producers Robert Engelman, John Landis, Mike Richardson, and Larry Rickles earned a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Variety, Music, or Comedy Special in 2008. Don Rickles also won a Primetime Emmy Award for Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program for his role.

Henry puts his music and reputation at risk by playing gigs in L.A.

Michael Flynn reinvents himself as 'Mattress Mick,' an online persona, to save his struggling mattress business with friend Paul Kelly. As the business grows, their friendship starts to break down.

This film shows the Nickelodeon network's rise. It uses interviews with actors and creators of popular shows.

A man pretends to be a rich, jet-setting diamond mogul. He charms women online, then steals millions. Now, some victims plan revenge.

The Pistol Shrimps is a 2016 Canadian-American sports documentary. Brent Hodge directed it. The film follows the Los Angeles-based all-female recreational basketball team, the Pistol Shrimps, during their 2015 season. Members include Aubrey Plaza, Molly Hawkey, and Angela Trimbur.

Several men search for rare, expensive Alba truffles deep in the Piedmont forests of Italy.

Czech Dream is a 2004 film directed by Czech filmmakers Vít Klusák and Filip Remunda. It shows a large hoax Klusák and Remunda staged for the Czech public, ending with the opening of a fake hypermarket in Prague's Letňany neighborhood. The film served as their film school graduation project.

The film tracks multiple women comedians on stage, backstage, and off stage. It explores their difficult path to become voices for their generation.

This film looks into the history of Guy Torry's Phat Tuesdays at The Comedy Store in 90s Los Angeles.

The Comedians of Comedy is a stand-up tour. It features alternative comedians Patton Oswalt, Zach Galifianakis, Brian Posehn, and Maria Bamford. A 2005 film and Comedy Central series, both directed by Michael Blieden, documented the tour. Eugene Mirman replaced Zach Galifianakis after he left the tour.

Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock tours the Middle East. He seeks to understand the area better, which leads to one of the world's worst criminals.

Operation Odessa is a 2018 film directed by Tiller Russell. The movie tells the story of three friends who tried to hustle the Russian mob, the Cali cartel, and the DEA for a lifetime score.

J. Elvis Weinstein directed the 2017 American documentary 'I Need You to Kill.' American comics Tom Segura, Chad Daniels, and Pete Lee tour Hong Kong, Singapore, and Macau on six shows.

This documentary shows the bizarre residents of Shutka, a Macedonian village built on a former city dump.

Archival footage and interviews with the troupe members document their history. Filming largely happened at The Rivoli, the Toronto club where the troupe began their stage career.

David Darg and Price James directed the 2020 American sports documentary 'You Cannot Kill David Arquette.' Actor David Arquette returns to the professional wrestling ring for a series of matches.

Filmmaker Neil Berkeley documents Dan Harmon ("Community") during a 20-city tour. Harmon is a sitcom writer and podcaster.