Best in Show

Some dogs deserve a little more respect than others.

A 2000 Mockumentary film directed by Christopher Guest and written by Eugene Levy with Guest co-writing. It has many of the same cast and crew as Guest's other films, including the earlier This Is Spinal Tap and Waiting for Guffman and the later A Mighty Wind.

The movie follows five dogs and their owners who enter the annual Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show, and the unique relationship the people have with their dogs and with one another. Best in Show features a heavily improvised script that results in some wild tangents concerning everything from red pistachio nuts to a grisly description of a body being flung off a skyscraper.

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Tropes used in Best in Show include:

• Camp Gay: Scott. By contrast, his partner Stefan is more of a Invisible to Gaydar.
• Cuckoolander Commentator: The ex-Football player announcer.
• Improv
• Large Ham Announcer: They make the dog show even funnier, as they're an Odd Couple - one a genteel English dog-breeding expert and the other a desperately misplaced American Football commentator.
• Les Yay
• Mockumentary
• No Celebrities Were Harmed:
  • Buck Laughlin bears more than a passing resemblance to Joe Garagiola, the former baseball player and announcer who provided commentary for the USA Network's coverage of the Westminster Kennel Club Show for many years.
  • Sherri Ann Cabot is an obvious reference to Anna Nichole Smith.
• Noodle Incident: The hotel manager (Ed Begley Jr.), when discussing the difficulties cleaning up after a dog show, mentions an unnamed rock band (probably a Spinal Tap reference). Details are sparse, and include only the comment that "they probably didn't realize there was a toilet in the room", as well as something about "roasting a goat," and how how hard it was to get the smell of charcoal and cumin out of the curtains.
  • There are also frequent un-elaborated-upon references to Cookie Fleck's past sexual history; as she coincidentally encounters numerous former partners.
• Really Gets Around: Cookie Fleck, before she married Gerry.
• Running Gag: Many of them.
• Serious Business
• Spiritual Successor: To Guest's previous Mockumentary, Waiting for Guffman.
• Trophy Wife: Sherri Ann Cabot is a spoof example in the Gold Digger vein, and, unusually, is cheating with another woman, not a man.