A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon is a 2001 film written, produced and directed by Nashville-based filmmaker Bart Sibrel.
Sibrel is a proponent of the conspiracy theory that the six Apollo Moon landing missions between 1969 and 1972 were elaborate hoaxes perpetrated by the United States government, including NASA. The film is narrated by British stage actress Anne Tonelson.
In 2001, documentary filmmaker and conspiracy theorist Bart Sibrel released a documentary called “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Moon”. The film explored potential government cover-ups surrounding the 1969 Apollo 11 mission and argued that the U.S. government faked the mission in order to win the space race against the Soviets.
Sibrel argued that the video footage of the Apollo 11 trip was tampered with and that the astronauts never even made it to the surface of the moon. He pointed to anomalies in the video, incongruities in the astronauts’ accounts, and secrecy surrounding various aspects of the mission as evidence of a cover-up. Sibrel also claimed that government officials had lied about the time it had taken for the mission to reach the moon, and that the moon landing was a staged event.
Sibrel's film was met with mixed reviews. Some critics argued that the documentary presented an unfounded and illogical conspiracy theory, while others praised Sibrel for daring to challenge conventional thinking. The debate surrounding the film is still ongoing and has become part of the larger debate about the legitimacy of the Apollo 11 mission.
Ultimately, Sibrel's documentary highlighted the importance of checking assumptions and taking nothing for granted. His exploration of potential government cover-ups and his challenge of the Apollo 11 mission demonstrated that false narratives can easily be perpetuated if people are not careful to assess the evidence presented and to question everything they hear.