Actually, I find dog shows rather creepy, a lot like children's beauty pageants. There's something profoundly unsettling about forcing an innocent creature to undergo obsessive grooming, wear ridiculous attire, and prance mechanically around a room in a competition where natural behavior is not only discouraged but actively punished, all so that some frustrated parent/owner can live out his or her failed fantasies of fame and acclaim without ever having to accomplish anything him- or herself.
Many of the actors from Waiting for Guffman star in Best of Show as well. Best in this show is Fred Willard as the perfect embodiment of a clueless announcer who keeps up a steady patter of nonsense just to fill air time -- you get the impression he's a baseball play-by-play man, or maybe just a weather guy, demoted to dog shows and not very happy about it, though he masks his anger behind bland, addled cheer. As funny as Best in Show is, you can amuse yourself even further by imagining the inner life of the characters. Like Catherine O'Hara's Cookie, who finds an ex-lover behind every door. Or the high-strung yuppie couple played by Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock (whose character has the fabulous name "Hamilton Swan") who've made their elegant Weimaraner a nervous wreck. Or Guest's Harlan Pepper, a down-home Carolina boy who gets it into his head to show his bloodhound.
Best in Show is good, silly fun, inherent dog show creepiness notwithstanding. Definitely recommended.
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