Spinal Tap vs. Gimme Shelter

Gimme Shelter and This is Spinal Tap are both films that portray the lives of rock and roll bands. While Gimme Shelter is a serious documentary about the Rolling Stone’s 1969 Altamont Freeway concert, and Spinal Tap is a mockumentary about a fictitious British metal band, both contain their own aspect of humor. 

Spinal Tap is a straightforward comedic documentary, whereas the humor in Gimme Shelter is more of an ironic humor, showing how a concert based on the principals of being free turns in to a violent murder scene. Both however depict an image of the bands presented, which in Spinal Tap is a humorous one, mocking and satirizing other rock bands of the 1980’s, and Gimme Shelter depicts a somber, but nevertheless narcissistic, Mick Jagger and crew. 

This is Spinal Tap was released in 1984, and is the brainchild of Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, and Rob Reiner. With no script, the four men made the film based almost entirely on improvisation skills. The only aspect of the film that was planned was the music that Spinal Tap preformed; Michael McKean states “Since there wasn’t a script, we had to write something.” 

The absence of a script was the truly comedic genius component to this film, as Dr. Kelly (best teacher in the world) McGuire states “The only thing funnier than being stupid, is being able to act stupid when you aren’t.” The ability of the actors to create dialogue on the spot adds a genuine stupidity to the film that would not have existed if the lines were carefully constructed. 

The feeling that is invoked from an improve of stupidity is a truly genuine one for the audience, although to many who do not know that there was no script for this film would perceive the dialogue as a carefully constructed comedy. This was the intended effect by the films creators, by using improvisation; they were delivering a realistic comedy with jokes and references that one might encounter in their everyday life.