What do real documentary filmmakers think of ‘Documentary Now!’?

Taking the documentary format and twisting it every-so-slightly, he, Seth Meyers, Bill Hader and Rhys Thomas have created a series that pokes fun at the genre’s conceits. Because the interpretations differ wildly, the team could be doing a spoof of “My Octopus Teacher” one week, an homage to “Aguirre, Wrath of God” the next.

“It’s pretty niche,” Executive Producer Alex Buono says. “And it’s pretty hard to make. But we all came out of the same era of ‘Saturday Night Live’ together. I just think of it as a show (that allows us) to hang out together for like nine months.”

Some entries aren’t even based on actual documentaries, just touchstones. “It’s kind of honing in on that,” says Thomas.

“My Monkey Grifter,” one of the entries in the fourth season, got its inspiration from “My Octopus Teacher,” a recent Oscar winner that got exposure on Netflix.

“You use it as a jumping off spot,” Meyers says of the documentary. “I started with the title and worked from there.”

Adds Buono: “We were amused at the idea of taking on a documentary that had just won the Oscar. One of the fun things about this show is taking documentaries from all different eras and not really worrying about whether it’s the most popular documentary that everybody has seen.”

“Original Cast Album: Co-Op,” for example, used cameras similar to the ones that filmed “Original Cast Album: Company.” Characters mimic moments from the original and attempt to create the vibe that made it a lasting documentary. Often, the producers say, they’ll get praise from the filmmaker whose style is being spoofed.

“We’ve never had a filmmaker say they didn’t like it,” Buono says. “When we start the season, we try to reach out to the filmmakers and we often are just asking them, ‘How did you make this documentary?’ ‘What was your approach?’”

Initially, those filmmakers didn’t know what the “Documentary Now!” folks were talking about. Now they’re on board and, says Buono, know “how much we love documentaries and (that) we’re trying to just honor them.”

When director Werner Herzog was on Meyers’ show, the talk show host brought pictures and showed them to him. “I said, ‘We’re trying to recreate the documentary about filming “Wrath of God”’ and he went, ‘No one will ever watch that’…which was perfect.”

Helen Mirren, who acts as the series’ host, signed on without really knowing what was afoot. Meyers happened to see the Oscar winner and she said, “The next time you see Fred, will you tell him how much we love ‘Portlandia’?”

“I said, ‘if you love it, we have something we need you to do,’” Meyers recalls. “And she fully bought in based on the fact that she had such trust and confidence in Fred.”

Now, Buono says, when she’s doing the stand-up part of her assignment, she goes over to the screen and kisses a picture of Armisen.

While making their spoofs (this season will include “Documentary Now!” takes on “When We Were Kings” and “The September Issue”), the producers marvel at the work that went into the originals.

“I think of editors of documentaries all the time because, just imagine, it’s like, ‘Well, here’s 500 hours.’ They have to make a story,” Meyers says.

Adds Thomas: “I’m always amazed at someone who embarks on an adventure, making a film about something, not knowing whether the film actually exists or not yet. That’s the side of it that blows my mind.”

The mockumentary “Documentary Now!” airs on IFC and AMC+.