"The Highlander was a documentary, and events happened in real time"

Dana Snyder’s remark, “The Highlander was a documentary, and events happened in real time,” revels in contradiction and playful absurdity. “The Highlander,” referring to the cult classic 1986 film and its ensuing franchise, is a fictional tale about immortals battling across centuries, collecting each other’s power until only one remains. Framing such an outlandish narrative as “a documentary”, the very epitome of nonfiction, collapses the boundary between reality and fantasy. Snyder’s joke suggests, with deadpan humor, that the magical, sword-wielding, time-hopping chaos of “The Highlander” unfolded before cameras as plain truth, rather than a crafted story.

The second part, “events happened in real time”, adds a thick layer of comedic exaggeration. Not only does the scenario become matter-of-fact, but the compressed cinematic events, spanning centuries and multiple lifetimes, supposedly played out in the exact duration of the film. This positions the viewer as a witness to extraordinary occurrences pacily and credulously reported, as if newsworthy or historically verified.

Underlying Snyder’s statement is a sly commentary on how audiences suspend disbelief and become invested in fictional worlds, sometimes to the extent of nostalgia or inside jokes. Elevating escapist fantasy to the status of journalistic fact pokes fun at fandoms who treat their beloved stories with a seriousness verging on religious reverence or conspiracy theory. Additionally, the joke captures the way pop culture sometimes infiltrates reality: how characters and catchphrases from fiction enter everyday speech, collective memory, or even identity.

Snyder also draws attention to the playful side of narrative and media consumption, blurring the boundary between what’s fact and what’s fun, a recurring theme in the age of memes, mockumentaries, and online satire. Ultimately, the quote celebrates the freedom to enjoy the absurd, honor the spirit of storytelling, and momentarily inhabit worlds unconstrained by logic, a loving wink to all who’ve ever wanted to believe the impossible.