Flashback Friday: Turkeys in Gumboots, Forgotten Silver and EML kills Shrek

Jeremy Wells on Eating Media Lunch.

Opinion

NZ On Screen Content Director Irene Gardiner selects six great New Zealand mockumentaries to get you primed for April Fool’s Day next week.

From the iconic Town and Around "Turkeys in Gumboots" piece, to the classic Country Calendar spoofs, to Peter Jackson's Forgotten Silver and beyond, New Zealand has a fine tradition of film and television mockumentaries. There's something about the slyness of spoofs that seems to appeal to the dry Kiwi sense of humour. But there are also always those who don't initially realise that the wool is being pulled over their eyes, and that can lead to controversy.

Our first notorious TV spoof was on a 1968 Wellington episode of the regional news show Town and Around, when reporter Erin Sinclair investigated an innovative farmer whose turkeys were shod in gumboots. The legendary hoax apparently fooled two executives from Skellerup, who flew to Wanganui to secure a contract to manufacture the boots' lining.

You can see Town and Around - Turkeys in Gumboots here:

The Turkeys in Gumboots piece is often wrongly remembered as being from Country Calendar, but in fact the long-running rural programme didn't begin its unforgettable spoof items till some years later. They went on to become one of the most popular features of the show. Created by producer Tony Trotter and Bogor cartoonist Burton Silver, the first (in late 1977) was the fencing wire-playing farmer and his "rural music". This special episode collects the best of the spoofs, from the infamous radio-controlled dog, to the gay couple who ran a "stress-free" flock, and more.

View Country Calendar - Spoof Special here:

One of New Zealand's most enduringly popular mockumentaries is Peter Jackson and Costa Botes' Forgotten Silver, which first screened on TV ONE in 1995. An epic documentary chronicling the extraordinary, unbelievable life of pioneer Kiwi filmmaker Colin McKenzie. Or is it? The first clue that none of this story is true is that the film begins with Peter Jackson leading the viewer down a garden path.

You can watch the first 10 minutes of Forgotten Silver here:

Six years after the controversy of Forgotten Silver, TVNZ took another walk down the mockumentary path with Love Mussel, starring the late Kevin Smith. A TV network hires Smith (playing himself) to front a documentary about a town divided by an unusual discovery. Gooey Duck - a shellfish with reputed aphrodisiac qualities - has appeared off Ureroa. The quota is owned by a local couple but the rest of the town, big business, the government and the local iwi all have their own ideas. Smith's involvement gets complicated when he innocently consumes the mollusk while watching Prime Minister Jenny Shipley on TV. The medium, celebrity, small town NZ, gender, politics and penises are all satirised.

View an excerpt from Love Mussel here:

Award-winning early 2000s media satire series Eating Media Lunch became infamous for its irreverent spoofs, some of them causing all manner of controversy. In this 2006 "worst of EML" special, host Jeremy Wells tests the patience of talkback radio hosts; reveals the horrifying "truth" behind the demise of celebrity merino Shrek; plus there are sneak pre-views of the al-Qaeda blooper reels; and Anal Mana, our first indigenous porno flick (you have been warned: not suitable for children).

Watch Eating Media Lunch here:

Peter Jackson moved into mockumentary/spoof territory again when he made a cameo appearance in this 2004 short film, written by Peter Tait and directed by Grant Lahood. Bogans follows three bogans on a mission to join the world of movies. After hearing that Jackson is putting Lord of the Rings on film, they set off from West Auckland for Wellywood, hoping against the odds to score acting roles as hobbits. Later on, some of the cast really did appear in The Lord of the Rings.

View Bogans here:

You can see a more comprehensive selection of television and film mockumentaries and spoofs in NZ On Screen's Fool's Gold collection, prepared for April Fool's Day next Wednesday.