(Music On Filments). In 1984, four comedians Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Rob Reiner, and Harry Shearer unleashed This Is Spinal Tap , the world's first "mock-rockumentary" and a joke that has lasted into the 21st century and inspired a generation of imitations. Now, award-winning film journalist John Kenneth Muir ( An Askew View: The Films of Kevin Smith ) escorts the reader through a quarter-century of heavy metal laughs, offering a detailed history of the film's genesis and an up-close look at the reasons why this beloved rock-and-roll movie comedy has endured for so long, and even met acceptance in the rock-and-roll culture it lampoons. Features interview material with the cinematographer, editor, and some supporting cast members of This Is Spinal Tap as well as "King of Nostalgia" Joe Franklin.