{"id":495003,"date":"2026-06-25T14:55:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T14:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/495003\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T14:55:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T14:55:13","slug":"our-characters-like-to-be-naughty-the-makers-of-the-nirvanna-mockumentary-on-illegal-skydiving-taboo-breaking-and-time-travel-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/495003\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Our characters like to be naughty\u2019: the makers of the Nirvanna mockumentary on illegal skydiving, taboo-breaking and time travel | Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"

If there is ever a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for fictional bands, the likes of Sp\u0131n\u0308al Tap<\/a> and the Rutles will be guaranteed a place. Less certain is the fate of the duo created by Toronto college friends Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol in Nirvana the Band the Show, a 2007-08 mockumentary web series that was later picked up for two seasons by Vice TV. Johnson and McCarrol play incorrigible no-hopers Nirvana the Band, nothing whatsoever to do with Kurt Cobain\u2019s grunge pioneers, who pin everything on securing a gig at Toronto\u2019s Rivoli club. Undaunted by a total lack of songs, they pull off one cockamamie stunt after another, many filmed among unwitting members of the public, to promote their as-yet-nonexistent show.<\/p>\n

From smashing a display case in the Royal Ontario Museum and being pursued by security guards to jumping on to the tracks of the Toronto subway, they are willing to do anything \u2013 except simply ask the venue for a gig. Then again, common sense isn\u2019t their strong suit. Receiving a cease-and-desist letter pertaining to their name, they are incredulous: \u201cThere\u2019s already a band called the Band?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were so proud of that joke,\u201d says Johnson now. On this sticky morning in Toronto, he is wearing a red sweatband over his shaggy hair and flapping his T-shirt to keep cool. He and McCarrol are in a friend\u2019s apartment, talking to me over video call about the new big-screen spin-off, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie. (They added that extra \u201cn\u201d on their lawyer\u2019s recommendation during the Vice TV years.) This ingenious cinematic high-wire act, directed by Johnson, combines the life-endangering stunts of Jackass, the hidden-camera comedy of Borat and the plot of Back to the Future. Installing a flux capacitor in their RV, the duo zip from 2025 to 2008 in a bid to bag that Rivoli slot and change history.<\/p>\n

\u2018There\u2019s already a band called the Band?\u2019 \u2026 McCarrol and Johnson in Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie.<\/p>\n

Borrowing another film\u2019s plot, says Johnson, is \u201ckind of a writing hack. It ups the stakes, which are otherwise nonexistent: if these guys don\u2019t play at the Rivoli, who gives a fuck? But because we absorb the built-in stakes of Back to the Future, for some reason you\u2019re like: \u2018Of course this is important!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

A faint Boyhood effect is achieved, too, via dexterous editing that splices the pair as they are now in their early 40s into footage from 18 years ago. Travelling back in time, they spy on themselves as young whippersnappers but accidentally create an alternate universe where McCarrol is now a solo star playing to thousands of adoring fans.<\/p>\n

double quotation markThe less context you go in with, the more of a \u2018What the fuck?\u2019 experience you have <\/p>\n

On screen and off, the pair, with their mirror-image initials (MJ and JM), are temperamentally dissimilar yet on the same wavelength. The emphatic, excitable Johnson, whose other directing credits include Blackberry and the forthcoming Anthony Bourdain biopic Tony starring Dominic Sessa and Leo Woodall, talks in mile-a-minute monologues. McCarrol, formerly one half of the brother-sister synth duo Brave Shores, whose song Never Come Down was hijacked by Maga supporters and turned into a 10-hour video loop starring a dancing Donald Trump, is the more reserved and poker-faced of the pair: the Seinfeld to Johnson\u2019s Kramer, the ellipsis to his exclamation mark.<\/p>\n

Both men knew that Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie had to appeal far beyond devotees of the series. \u201cJay and I have a somewhat controversial belief,\u201d says Johnson, \u201cwhich is that people who have never seen anything from us before will enjoy the movie more. The less context you go in with, the more of a \u2018What the fuck?\u2019 experience you have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several sequences are made to be watched slack-jawed through splayed fingers, not least the moment early in the film when Johnson and McCarrol charm their way through security at Toronto\u2019s CN Tower with the intention of skydiving from the EdgeWalk platform 356 metres (1,168ft) up. The disparity between their goal (playing a neighbourhood music venue with a capacity of just 240) and the extreme lengths to which they will go to achieve it (time travel, illegal skydiving) creates a kind of comedy of disproportion.<\/p>\n

Credit \u2013 or blame \u2013 for that CN Tower escapade goes to McCarrol. \u201cI knew we needed scope, otherwise the movie would feel like a long television show. I said, \u2018We\u2019ve got to jump off the CN Tower or something.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

I assume they must have been giggly with glee as they got closer to the top of the tower, but McCarrol disabuses me of that notion. \u201cThe whole thing had to be so meticulously planned that there really wasn\u2019t ever any celebration. We had so many targets to hit. What\u2019s in your head as you pass each one is: \u2018OK, that\u2019s 17 out of 50 targets hit \u2026 That\u2019s 18 out of 50 targets hit \u2026\u2019 And then we\u2019re in an Uber afterwards, leaving the scene of the crime, saying, \u2018Oh, that was bad.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018We were not going as far as Family Guy or South Park\u2019 \u2026 Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie.<\/p>\n

Making the movie, he says, \u201creally wasn\u2019t fun. It was 90% stressful.\u201d The only time he and Johnson permitted themselves a sigh of relief was when they saw the rough-cut of a sequence filmed at a live crime scene. Hearing on the evening news in May 2024 that a security guard had been shot outside the singer Drake\u2019s mansion in Toronto, the pair and their skeleton crew dashed over there and gathered footage that was then incorporated as the backdrop to a fictional crime in the film. \u201cI don\u2019t think we had a high that was higher than that,\u201d says Johnson, still amazed at what they got away with.<\/p>\n

Talking of getting away with things, longtime fans will spot that the humour in the movie is of a kinder hue than the web series. There are no homophobic insults, except in a clip from The Hangover that is used to illustrate how times have changed. Also gone is the original series\u2019 fixation with racist humour: its use of the N-word and P-word, its dubious impressions. (As late as 2017, the pair were to be found singing Cornershop\u2019s Brimful of Asha in \u201ccomedy\u201d Indian accents.)<\/p>\n

double quotation markYou could argue that if the web series came out now, it would be tasteless, [but] that was the water we were swimming in<\/p>\n

The change, McCarrol insists, is down to \u201cthe goalposts of life moving. You could argue that if the web series came out now, it would be tasteless.\u201d At the same time, he says, \u201cWe were not going as far as Family Guy or South Park.\u201d Johnson blames early 21st-century pop culture: \u201cThat was the water we were swimming in.\u201d<\/p>\n

He describes the characters as \u201clike 10-year-old boys at summer camp. They are determined to discover the edge of whatever community they\u2019re in. We always wanted to know, \u2018How important are these rules? If we break them, do we die?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

McCarrol says their comedy relies on \u201cthe well-trodden trope of how much fun it is when naive or ignorant characters are \u2026\u201d Johnson finishes the thought: \u201cTrespassing on taboos. Our characters like to be naughty. I\u2019m sure if I watched the web series now, I\u2019d think: \u2018I can\u2019t believe we did that!\u2019 But I would never condemn my past self because I\u2019m still animated by that same feeling: \u2018Show me the edge. What can I do that is gonna make my parents tell me I\u2019m not allowed to do that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s revealing that Johnson evokes the idea of parental disapproval. The Toronto publication Now did just that<\/a> in 2017, likening the show to \u201cwatching two very comfortable white teenagers hang out in the safety of their parents\u2019 basement\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s difficult for us to be class clowns unless there\u2019s a teacher\u2019 \u2026 Johnson in Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie. <\/p>\n

After all, when Johnson and McCarrol use racist language, it isn\u2019t their parents who get hurt. It is viewers such as the Letterboxd fan who applauded<\/a> the early series but added that \u201cthe amount of racism does wear on you \u2026 for me as a non-white person it \u2026 makes me feel like I have to grin and bear it which is not a good feeling for a comedy to elicit\u201d.<\/p>\n

Johnson takes the point: \u201cI understand what you\u2019re saying: \u2018Oh, it\u2019s not your parents, it\u2019s the public at large.\u2019\u201d But he insists the \u201cframework\u201d for their comedy, which hinges on pushing back at accepted norms, remains valid. \u201cI\u2019m still using it today. Jay and I have a line on set: \u2018It\u2019s difficult for us to be class clowns unless there\u2019s a teacher.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

They diverge starkly only once today, when reflecting on their youthful material. \u201cWe did get it wrong, admittedly,\u201d concedes McCarrol. Johnson, though, is defiant: \u201cOh, I\u2019m not willing to go that far,\u201d he says. Perhaps the point is moot. For this movie, they have put their edgelord ways behind them and made an effervescent comedy that is risky without being racist.<\/p>\n

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is in UK cinemas from 3 July, with previews from 1 July, which is Canada Day<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If there is ever a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for fictional bands, the likes of Sp\u0131n\u0308al…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-495003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}