“Yes, a shrimp fried this rice. And it tastes fu**ing amazing!”

In this zany mockumentary, a talented shrimp chef whose ego outweighs his tiny body wages a vendetta against a certain cooking-loving rat, putting the Shrimp’s human puppet in danger of expulsion.

With Shrimp Fried Rice, Dylan Pun uses one of the internet’s most popular memes and delivers a mockumentary about a televised cooking competition where a shrimp and a rat face off. An insane concept, staged with puppets.

An Assumed Mockumentary 

There are two types of mockumentaries. There are those that pretend to be a real documentary until the very end, and those that embrace the label of being fake, of the “not real.” Shrimp Fried Rice belongs to the second group.

It’s through a mix of absurd humor and realism that Dylan Pun tackles the world of cooking reality shows. He follows this aggressive and disrespectful shrimp, reminiscent of a certain British chef. What’s particularly funny is that this shrimp is a puppet, operated by the film crew’s puppeteers, who uses a human as a puppet by manipulating them by the hair. His human thus becomes a tool allowing this creature to cook and try to defeat its enemy. This enemy is a rat named Ratatouille… Oops, no. He is never named, because each time it’s censored. That too is part of the film’s unique humor.

So goes the film, as the shrimp abuses his humans to create the perfect fried rice.

Popular Culture to the Aid of Independents 

Cooking shows have been everywhere for several years. There are far too many, in my opinion. This mockumentary therefore comes at the perfect time. Something absurd was finally needed to denounce the absurdity of this culinary wave.

Everything is there to show the absurdity of these shows. There are even the pathetic interviews with the participants. The human who responds like a puppet, to say what is expected of him; the ultra-mean participant; the overly nice participant… everything needed to create a good reality TV show.

Some elements could have been different, but the use of genre elements leads to a virulent and effective critique, delivered under the guise of humor. Frankly, an original short film that is worth seeing!

Shrimp Fried Rice is presented at the Fantasia Festival, on July 28, 2025.

Trailer