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Documentary Now! Takes On the Rajneeshees

The two-part episode, titled "Batshit Valley," is a pitch-perfect spoof of Wild Wild Country.

By Marty Patail February 11, 2019

The Rajneeshee cultural revival is far from over. 

As first reported by Willamette Week, IFC's Documentary Now! has parodied last year's Emmy-winning Netflix documentary Wild Wild Country, which covered the insane rise and fall of the Rajneeshee cult in Antelope, Oregon. (That latter documentary may also get turned into a movie starring Priyanka Chopra.)

Documentary Now!—created by Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, Seth Meyers, and Rhys Thomas—is a Portland-produced mockumentary series that's now in its third season. Past episodes of the show have satirized classic and modern documentaries (everything from Nanook Revisited to Grey Gardens and Jiro Dreams of Sushi) with A-list cameos from stars including Ty Dolla $ign and Kenny Loggins. 

The two-part Wild Wild Country spoof, called "Batshit Valley," stars Owen Wilson as Father Ra-Shawbard, the bearded leader of a spiritual cult taking over the town of Chinook. His cultists appear to be well-meaning hippies who, among other things, ask permission from their fruits and vegetables before they eat them. Inevitably, conflicts and clashes with local townsfolk ensue. Necar Zadegan, playing a cultist named Ra Sharir—a pitch-perfect send-up of the cold-blooded lieutenant Ma Anand Sheela from Wild Wild Country—sets the tone from there.

"People always say, if I had been nicer to the townspeople, none of this would've happened," she says to the camera early on. "Well, maybe I would've been nicer to the townspeople if they would not have been so fat and stupid."

You can watch the full episode above or on YouTube

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