Christopher Guest makes foolish people funny by taking their explanations seriously. We rate him most highly when we can understand their pride, though the comedies he builds around them sometimes keep returning to a joke we have already understood.
Fi1m perspective
Explaining why an amplifier goes up to eleven, Christopher Guest’s Nigel Tufnel allows no room for doubt. In This Is Spinal Tap (1984), he gives the extra number the patient explanation most of us would reserve for something that made sense. We laughed because Guest never lets Nigel suspect how foolish he sounds. There is no invitation to admire the actor’s cleverness, and no haste to get to the next joke.
Rob Reiner gives that seriousness room to work, appearing as interviewer Marty DiBergi and listening with enough interest to encourage more explanation. Michael McKean and Harry Shearer, who share the writing credit with Guest and Reiner, make the band’s disagreements sound like conversations nobody has managed to finish. Guest makes Nigel sound as though he has explained all this before and still expects agreement. The care taken over the music matters too, since a band capable of those riffs has some reason to be proud.
Reiner also directs him as Count Rugen in The Princess Bride (1987). Guest holds our attention by taking the man seriously, even in a fairy tale full of comedy. We find him more engaging than the central romance, which is given less interesting material. He does not need the documentary interview to make that approach work.
With Waiting for Guffman (1996), Guest began directing a series of improvised ensemble comedies. Detailed character outlines give the performers something to work from, rather than a conventional script. In Best in Show (2000), his Harlan Pepper is funny without apparently knowing it, while Catherine O’Hara and co-writer Eugene Levy make the Flecks’ embarrassment seem habitual. Guest understands that the dog-show competitors’ hopes must matter, however absurd their behaviour becomes. We recommend the film for that generosity as much as its jokes.
The limitation is how long a familiar anxiety can remain funny. Best in Show sometimes gives its characters another exchange without finding anything new in them, and the actors cannot entirely prevent the repetition. For the clearest introduction to him as an actor, start with Nigel and his amplifier.
Biography
Christopher Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest, is an American-British actor, comedian, screenwriter and director. He was born in New York City on 5 February 1948.
Guest co-wrote and appeared as Nigel Tufnel in the mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap (1984). He has since written, directed and starred in further mockumentaries including Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003), For Your Consideration (2006) and Mascots (2016). His acting credits include Death Wish (1974), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), The Princess Bride (1987) and A Few Good Men (1992), in which he played Dr. Stone. He was a cast member on the tenth season of Saturday Night Live.
Guest holds a hereditary British peerage and sat in the House of Lords until 1999. He is married to actress Jamie Lee Curtis.
