scammers Feb. 10, 2022

Documentary Now! Enters the Scammer Doc Space

Portrait of Rebecca Alter

By Rebecca Alter, a staff writer who covers comedy and pop culture

Photo: Allyson Riggs/IFC

Inventing Anna. The Dropout. WeCrashed. The Tinder Swindler. Four years after the Summer of Scam, enough rights were acquired and talent gathered for there to be a whole batch of new content coming out about the art of trickery. Documentary Now!, the latest to join the trend, is returning to IFC for a fourth season (or, as Dame Helen Mirren will tell you, season 53) sometime later this year. The comedy series, which sends up every style of documentary under the sun, announced the concepts for three of six new episodes. “Two Hairdressers in Bagglyport” marries the BBC’s Three Salons at the Seaside with ~~Anna Wintour horror film~~ Vogue doc The September Issue. “How They Threw Rocks” will be about a fake Welsh sport, which makes us very excited for Fred Armisen and Bill Hader’s accentwork.

But the episode we can’t wait to watch is “My Monkey Grifter,” which “follows a filmmaker who forms a deep, emotional, and financially taxing relationship with a monkey who may have ulterior motives.” The press release says it will be done in the style of perverted awards darling My Octopus Teacher, but it also sounds like Armisen, Hader, and executive producer Seth Meyers’s take on the scammer docs that have become so popular on streaming. But a doc called “My Monkey Grifter” should really be about Bored Ape Yacht Club.

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Documentary Now! Enters the Scammer Doc Space

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