Netflix Is a Joke Keeps the Laughs Coming This Fall With New Comedy Documentaries

Netflix keeps the laughs coming all year long.

After our third successful edition of NIAJ Fest this past spring, Netflix Is a Joke brings the funny this fall with a slew of powerful and poignant new comedy documentaries.

To celebrate this slate and the talent involved in front of and behind the camera, we hosted a preview event featuring clips and conversation from four of our upcoming comedy documentaries: Who Is Martin Mull? ; Norm: The Tale of Norm Macdonald ; Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story ; and SCTV: The Greatest Show You've Never Heard Of, followed by a reception connecting the worlds of comedy, art, and music.

The event, "A Celebration of Comedy Legends," was held at our own Tudum Theater and moderated by comedian (and four-time Netflix stand-up star) Patton Oswalt. The conversation included Judd Apatow, director and producer of Norm: The Tale of Norm Macdonald and co-director and producer of Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story; Neil Berkeley, co-director and producer of Who Is Martin Mull? and Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story ; and Jason Hehir, director and executive producer of SCTV: The Greatest Show You've Never Heard Of.

The audience included comedians like Tig Notaro ( Tig , Happy to Be Here ) and Ed Helms ( Family Switch , Coffee & Kareem ), filmmakers such as Morgan Neville ( Breakdown: 1975 ; They'll Love Me When I'm Dead ), guests from the famous Los Angeles comedy club The Laugh Factory and students from the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Who Is Martin Mull? , now available on Netflix, dives into the lifelong artistic passions of the late world-class comedian, who was also an accomplished painter, writer and musician. "We knew that we were going to tell this story about a guy who was pretending to be a character in entertainment, playing people that he wasn't, and then found success and satisfaction by being himself in the craft he really loved," said Berkeley.

The creation of the documentary also took many twists and turns after the original director, comedian Bob Saget, passed away in 2022 three years into filming. Two years later, Mull died. "It really was this movie that should have gone away many many many times," said Berkeley. "So it's a miracle that it's here."

Norm: The Tale of Norm Macdonald (on Netflix October 16) centers on the late master of deadpan humor, whose life and career were uncompromising yet full of contradictions.

Although MacDonald passed away five years ago, he serves as the narrator of the documentary. "The idea was to let Norm tell you who he was by what he left behind," Apatow said. "We just thought, taking his book and his sketches and stand up and the interviews, we can make this collage to show what he was really like."

In Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story (on Netflix October 23) , the Lady Dynamite star unpacks the mental health journey behind her fearless comedy through interviews as well as stand-up. "We watched her go through the Altadena fires, the death of both of her parents, and she just handled everything with such strength and grace," said Apatow. "And then you realize that it's a story about someone who got through it and survived and is stronger than ever and more creative than ever. So it's a very hopeful story."

SCTV: The Greatest Show You've Never Heard Of (on Netflix October 30) reunites many of the show's living cast members (as well as the late Catherine O'Hara) in a funny and heartfelt celebration of how the scrappy Canadian sketch show made comedy history. "It's my favorite project I've ever worked on in my life," said Hehir, who credited the surviving cast members' "honesty and their willingness and enthusiasm to tell their own story."

In addition to old seasons of SCTV , which are now available to stream on Netflix, the doc features extensive clips from the cult classic series as selected by the cast members themselves. "One of the first things that I did when we started the project was to talk to each surviving cast member and ask them for a list of sketches that they wanted included in the doc," said Hehir. "And we tried to be as true to that as possible."

Speaking about all four documentaries, Oswalt praised Netflix for being a home for great comedy and "making sure that these people, these artists, these creatives are being remembered."

For more on these star-studded documentaries and our entire comedy lineup, check out Tudum and Netflix Is a Joke on Instagram , TikTok and X .