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TAP RUNS DRY

The Independent

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September 12, 2025

If the belated sequel to ‘This Is Spinal Tap’, the classic spoof rockumentary, is irrelevant and half-baked, that may be half the point. But, asks Clarisse Loughrey, where are the jokes?

- Clarisse Loughrey

TAP RUNS DRY

Could it be that I just didn’t get the joke when it comes to Spinal Tap II: The End Continues? Maybe all that meandering self-indulgence was intentional.

Maybe the fact that this sequel to the 1984 comedy spends an enormous chunk of its hour-and-24minute runtime on cameos by Paul McCartney and Elton John is in itself a meta-commentary on the inherent narcissism of self-produced documentary portraits of musicians?

Or is this merely a delusion created to stomach the fact that a film concocted by a returning Rob Reiner, Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer - who together essentially birthed the mockumentary genre - could be so startlingly unfunny?

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