The other morning I was driving through rush hour traffic when a van with a "Proud to be an Afghan Owner" sticker loomed right in front of me. I noticed that the back of the van had a wire fence that had to be especially made for the prized possession and that there was another bumper sticker on the back that said "I stop for Dog Shows." That convinced me that there was a different breed of humans out there who had to be ripe for parody, and that I had to check out Best in Show.

The beginning reminds me of the legendary Gates of Heaven in which Errol Morris documents pet owners and pet cemeteries, but director/writer Christopher Guest has revisited his pioneering This Is Spinal Tap and his Waiting for Guffman to create an hilarious parody of pure-breed dog shows. You';ve probably heard that dog owners and their pets often match up perfectly with each other in personality; that is certainly the case in this film!

Initially we find distraught lawyer couple Meg and Hamilton Swan (Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock) discussing their sex life with a psychiatrist because their newfound Kama Sutra position has disturbed their prized Weimaraner. The dog is depressed, won't speak to them, and shows passive aggressive behavior by pooping in their bed.

This seemingly homogenized catalog-shopping couple, who met at Starbucks and can measure their personal growth by lattes and cappuccinos, occasionally goes a little berserk around dog-show time. The husband goes nutso in the airport with an innocent stranger who tries to pet their Weimaraner, and the wife freaks out at a pet store owner who doesn't have the right squeaky bumblebee toy for her dog.

After the initial therapy session, we are introduced to the other major players, who all have humorous quirks.

Take the proud owners of Winky the Norwich terrier, Gerry and Cookie Fleck from Florida (played by Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara). A running joke throughout the film has numerous men recalling meeting Cookie in the most intimate detail, while Gerry shuffles embarrassingly on his two left feet. He literally was born with that foot condition, and there's a great sight gag of Gerry when he claims that he was once quite the "Casanova" himself.

A likeable Harlan Pepper, played by director/writer Christopher Guest, owns a bloodhound. Pepper is a good ol' boy from the South who is single and owns a fishing shop, but aspires to become a ventriloquist. He has a few humorous lines, but is one of the more "normal" dog owners we meet.

The same must be said for the gay couple that first met through their Shih Tzus. Stefan Vanderhoof (Michael McKean) and Scott Donlon (John Michael Higgins) play the couple with a lot of flamboyant flair that demonstrates their attention to detail and devotion to their dogs. These are savvy veterans who know what it takes to win a championship.

The other favorite for winning the championship is a beautifully prepared poodle aptly named Rhapsody in White, owned by Sherri Ann Ward Cabot (Jennifer Coolidge) and her silent millionaire husband, who must be at least 70 years older than she is. Cabot says that she and her husband are very happy not talking to each other and can not talk about things for a long time. She actually seems much more interested in the lesbian dog trainer that she has hired.

This is Christy Cummings (Jane Lynch), who is the wiliest competitor and the most determined to win, clenching her fists whenever her poodle wins a championship. Furthering the joke, Cummings starts a magazine called American Bitch for the lesbian pure-breed dog owner.

After these characters are introduced in a mockumentary style that Guest pioneered with This is Spinal Tap, the film transitions to another Guest standard—a Waiting for Guffman-style parody of a dog-show contest in Philadelphia. Some great sight gags and other Saturday Night Live-type humor are incorporated here, and a measure of suspense is held as the show continues towards the Best in Show climax.

We are actually educated about the inner workings of a dog show, so someone has done his homework here. To provide us with a humorous education is Fred Willard as Buck Laughlin, who asks goofy questions and makes comments like They have them do more advanced commands instead of Sit, Stay, and Fetch, right? Some of this gets a little over the top, like talking about his proctologist when he sees the judge examining the genitals of a beagle, but Willard effectively throws out some dumb questions that some of us might actually have going to one of these shows.

Guest has pulled together a veteran comic team along with his co-writer Eugene Levy, who also starred and wrote with Guest in Waiting for Guffman. The script is lively and most likely contains a great deal of improvisation with the kind of actors involved. Many of the actors are veteran comic actors who also starred with Guest and Levy in Guffman—Willard, Posey, O'Hara, and Hitchcock. Rejoining from This is Spinal Tap is Ed Begley, who plays a hotel manager in Best in Show.

Of course this comedy isn't for everyone; I saw three people leave after just 15 minutes. But if you enjoy intelligent parody the likes of Guest's previous work, you are sure to like this. Best in Show contains a little less zaniness than Monty Python, but has much of the same spirit and can appeal to most audiences.

(Note: If you're worried about sexual content for the younger set, there's only some suggestive talk without any actual sex scenes. Well, there is this one dog and a pants leg, but your kids have probably seen that before.)