Submitted by Erin:

The Final Edition, a New York Times Parody from Spinal Tap Star Tony Hendra
Vanity Fair
by Juli Weiner
May 10, 2011

Internet, meet The Final Edition, a nihilistic and deeply silly parody of The New York Times and the city it serves. The Final Edition is edited by Tony Hendra, the Spinal Tap actor, Vanity Fair contributor, and Spy and National Lampoon alumnus.

With articles about the cycling culture wars (“New Second Avenue Subway Will Include Bike Lanes“), section names that refer to the Times”™s Manhattan-centric perspective (“World /U.S./SoHo“), and conspicuously sympathetic business coverage (a recurring feature spotlights the “story of a great American businessman who, despite his lack of ethics, has bravely stayed out of jail”), The Final Edition is like a very parochial Onion.

There are sly winks to journalism nerds, too: an article about Spider-Man was authored by R. W. Appleipad. There”™s even a parody of Timescast, the Times”™s endearingly purposeless daily video starring the paper”™s reporters. (Actually, it reminds us of the trailer for Page One.) The Final Edition”™s version of Timescast is anchored by Mike the Intern. “No one wanted to do this Timescast thing today,” he explains. “I could have a shot at a Pulitzer! Or better yet””get on Gawker!” Hendra plays Times executive editor Bill Keller.

The Last Timescast from The Final Edition on Vimeo.

Lego Rejects a Bit Part in a Spinal Tap DVD
by Andrew Adam Newman
The New York Times
August 10, 2009

In 2007, when Coleman Hickey was 14, he made a stop-action film using Lego pieces and figures to depict a concert performance of the song “Tonight I”™m Gonna Rock You Tonight,” by Spinal Tap, the parody band featured in the 1984 mock documentary “This is Spinal Tap.”

YouTube video:

Among the fans of the video, which has garnered 82,000 views on YouTube and includes a musician hurling himself into the audience of Lego figures and crowd surfing atop their upraised plastic arms, are the members of Spinal Tap. The band showed the video during performances of its recent “Unwigged and Unplugged” tour.

But Lego is not amused. (more…)

Submitted by Jorge Luis Marzo, speaking of fake documentaries:

From Wikipedia: Spinal Tap is a parody heavy metal band that first appeared on a failed 1979 ABC TV sketch comedy pilot called “The T.V. Show”, starring Rob Reiner. The sketch, actually a mock promotional video for the song “Rock and Roll Nightmare”, was written by Reiner and the band, and included songwriter/performer Loudon Wainwright on keyboards. Later the band became the fictional subject of the 1984 rockumentary / “mockumentary film This Is Spinal Tap. The band members are portrayed by Michael McKean (as David St. Hubbins), Christopher Guest (as Nigel Tufnel) and Harry Shearer (as Derek Smalls). The same trio of actors subsequently reunited as the American folk music revival band The Folksmen in the 2003 mockumentary A Mighty Wind.

On March 2, 2009, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer held a press conference at the House of Blues in Los Angeles to announce their forthcoming album of new and old Spinal Tap songs, plus a 2009 “Unwigged & Unplugged” tour to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the film, This Is Spinal Tap. According to an L.A. Weekly report, when MTV News’ Kurt Loder asked the trio “if they had plans beyond an album and tour, Shearer answered, ‘We’re gonna bomb Iran.'” (more…)