‘This is the Tom Green Documentary’ revisits the life of the 1990s’ most notorious TV prankster

The new documentary, which Green directed himself, explores why Green was important, even as it at times resembles a glorified clip show.

Comedian Tom Green’s career arc is fairly well-known: He emerged from Canada in the early days of the Internet, hosting a talk show that went from the Canadian equivalent of cable access to Canada’s Comedy Network to, in 1999, MTV.

Green’s show, which combined an off-kilter reimagining of the talk show form with crazy stunts and pranks, many of them involving animals, was a huge hit on both sides of the border, of the sort of outrageous, extreme content that was so in vogue in the late ‘90s. The success was followed by a quick succession of events: Green started to get movie roles, was diagnosed with testicular cancer, did a brilliant, subversive special about his diagnosis and surgery, and dated and married Drew Barrymore.

Around the turn of the millennium, things shifted for Green. During his hiatus after the diagnosis, Jackass came along, also on MTV, and did a lot of the same things Green’s show was doing.

Then, Green starred in and directed a movie called Freddy Got Fingered, which — while generally true to the spirit of the work Green had been doing up to that point — was a massive flop, swept that year’s Razzies, and not only ended Green’s career as a director and leading man but pretty much brought the Tom Green mainstream epoch to a close. He and Barrymore split up around the same time.

It turns out that Green’s career as a filmmaker isn’t over after all: He’s the director of This is the Tom Green Documentary, a new examination of Green’s life and career that landed on Prime Video last week. It’s part of a multi-pronged Green comeback, all on Amazon, which will also include a stand-up special and a reality series.

It’s not exactly an impartial thing for a guy to direct a documentary about himself, and I might have liked the project more if it had been approached with a bit of distance- especially in the Tom Green Show segment, which is little more than a glorified clip show.

It also must be said that a lot of that stuff isn’t that funny anymore. Not because it’s offensive or anything, it’s just the comedy style that’s firmly of a different era. The old Jackass bits — and especially the parental prank stuff on its spinoff Viva La Bam — feel a lot more timeless for some reason.

Also included are Green’s parents, as well as his old sidekick, Glenn Humplik; there was a period in the late ‘90s when about three people a week told me how much I resembled Humplik, to the point where I had campers when I was a camp counselor who called me “Glenn.”

Much more interesting, in the documentary, is the examination of that eventful 2000-2001 period, as well as what Green got up to after the end of his time in the zeitgeist. Green hosted various other talk shows in different formats, especially once podcasting took off, and Joe Rogan is seen claiming that Green inspired him to create The Joe Rogan Experience.

This may mean Green played an indirect part in the outcome of the 2024 presidential election, although the film leaves out Green’s appearance on The Celebrity Apprentice and his dabbling in UFO/Jeffrey Epstein conspiracy theories.

We also see Green agreeing to appear on his former wife Barrymore’s talk show, their first in-person meeting in the almost 20 years since their divorce.

More recently, Green has left Hollywood and returned to Canada to start a farm; that’s the subject of the reality show. And thankfully, Green has remained healthy, for more than 25 years after the cancer battle.

Green has also lived long enough to see a critical reappraisal of the once-much-hated Freddy Got Fingered; I’m happy to admit I was early on that train. Here’s what I wrote for the movie’s 20th anniversary a couple of years ago:

The early 2000s were a very different time. That’s one of the only explanations for the existence of Freddy Got Fingered. It was the time, 20 years ago this month, that a major Hollywood studio allowed a movie to be made that represented the unreconstructed comedic id of Tom Green. It’s something they would never do ever again, but let’s all be thankful that they gave him that one chance.

I think fans of Green’s, whatever era of his career is their favorite, will likely enjoy This is the Tom Green Documentary, although the story would likely have been better told if someone other than the subject had directed it.