The archive · Content & Film · Product decision · 2017–2018
American Vandal films a school dick-prank as true crime — parody format, Peabody winner
Yacenda and Perrault treat 'who drew the dicks?' with Making a Murderer's solemn grammar, so the mismatch is comedy and the craft keeps it gripping.
Netflix · Tony Yacenda · Dan Perrault
What it had to solve
In 2017 Netflix was both the biggest producer and distributor of true-crime documentaries — Making a Murderer, Amanda Knox, The Keepers. Comedy writers Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault asked what that solemn machinery would do to the smallest possible crime: someone spray-painting penises on 27 cars in a school faculty lot.
How it works
American Vandal is a Netflix mockumentary about a high-school senior accused of spray-painting penises on 27 cars in the faculty parking lot. The joke is structural: creators Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault film this dumb prank with exactly the solemn grammar of the true-crime documentaries Netflix itself had popularized — Making a Murderer, Amanda Knox, The Keepers.
The show presents itself as the work of two student documentarians, complete with title credits mimicking the genre note for note, deadpan on-camera interviews, dramatic stills and evidence twists. There is no winking at the camera: the absurdity is that the machinery is so serious and the crime so petty, and the format is followed so faithfully that viewers end up genuinely wanting to know who drew the dicks.
The Verge previewed it as Netflix lampooning the true-crime resurgence it helped fuel, and reviewers on opening day described the conceit as almost brilliant. Vulture's critic admitted that despite the juvenile subject, the show's understanding of the genre made him invested in the investigation beyond a reasonable doubt.
Why it lands
- A petty crime under a prestige documentary's full grammar makes the genre's self-importance visible — the audience laughs at the form while the story still plays fair.
- Presenting the series as two students' own documentary gives the fiction a believable author, so the parody never breaks its own world.
- The creators committed to every trope instead of winking at them, which is why the comedy aged into a model for satirizing a format by mastering it.
- True crime was Netflix's own genre, so the satire landed on the platform's signature product — making the show commentary and entertainment at once.
What it did
Season one launched on Netflix on September 15, 2017 to immediate acclaim; reviewers admitted the joke kept them invested in who drew the dicks. The series ran two seasons, won a Peabody Award, and Netflix itself called it innovative comedy.
What you can take
The form is the joke: apply an over-earnest genre's full grammar to a trivial subject, and the mismatch is comedy — doing the form properly keeps viewers hooked.
Since then
American Vandal ran two seasons on Netflix and was then canceled in October 2018. Netflix's statement called it innovative comedy, and Vulture noted that CBS Studios had already heard from other outlets interested in picking up the Peabody Award-winning series, leaving open the possibility of life beyond the streamer. The show became a reference point for how to satirize a documentary genre from the inside rather than merely mocking it from outside.
Sources
- Netflix will lampoon the true crime resurgence it helped fuel
- Netflix's American Vandal Is a True-Crime Parody That's… Almost Brilliant?
- Netflix Cancels American Vandal After Two Seasons
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