{"id":111706,"date":"2025-09-01T21:48:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T21:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/111706\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T21:48:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T21:48:10","slug":"ben-stiller-conan-obrien-praise-spinal-tap-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/111706\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Stiller, Conan O’Brien Praise ‘Spinal Tap’ Legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tConan O\u2019Brien, Ben Stiller<\/a>, Ricky Gervais<\/a>, and more discuss the legacy of This Is Spinal Tap<\/a> \u2014 and talk the mockumentary\u2019s impact on generations of comedy \u2014 in a new mini-doc pinned to the sequel\u2019s upcoming arrival<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe aforementioned trio, as well as the Roots\u2019 Questlove (who camoes in the sequel<\/a>) and comedian Nate Bargatze, all reminisced about the first time they watched the Rob Reiner-directed 1984 classic.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was 19 and it kind of rocked my world,\u201d Stiller said, while O\u2019Brien remembered, \u201cI\u2019m in college. We hear about this movie. We have to see it. It was revelatory.\u201d Gervais added, \u201cA friend of ours had a bootleg. It immediately became my favorite comedy film of all time, and still is.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s something that\u2019s so grounded about Spinal Tap that you could have something that\u2019s ridiculous, and funny, but is also very real. The mockumentary became a form that inspired so many movies and TV shows,\u201d Stiller said. O\u2019Brien reinforced, \u201cThere\u2019s a whole generation now that\u2019s grown up on The Office, Parks and Rec, all these shows\u00a0 that used the documentary-style, deadpan, awkward pauses.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Office was first created in the U.K. by Gervais before the American version arrived years later. Gervais was not shy about admitting that Spinal Tap inspired his groundbreaking series.<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI stole that for The Office. I loved the fact that I was doing what Spinal Tap did,\u201d Gervais said in the mini-doc. \u201cI just had to make it look like one of those documentaries on the tellie. And it\u2019s funny that I stole that from America and then I sold it back to them like it was my idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter the interviewees all shared their favorite This Is Spinal Tap scenes, they looked forward to the decades-in-the-making sequel, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, out September 12. \u201cI would say it\u2019s the perfect time for Spinal Tap 2 because it\u2019s fantastic that 40 years have gone by,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cI\u2019m fascinated to find out where they are now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conan O\u2019Brien, Ben Stiller, Ricky Gervais, and more discuss the legacy of This Is Spinal Tap \u2014 and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,79539,8956,134,344,79792,79793],"class_list":{"0":"post-111706","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-ben-stiller","11":"tag-conan-obrien","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-movies","14":"tag-ricky-gervais","15":"tag-spinal-tap"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}