Audio vérité is the somewhat pretentious- sounding term that describes "found" sounds, recorded phone pranks, and real-life audio recordings made surreptitiously—audio voyeurism in its purest form. In 2011, there's an ocean of stuff like this on YouTube. But back in 1987, when two Wisconsin college kids moved into a ratty, low-rent apartment in San Francisco next to two men, Peter Haskett and Raymond Huffman, this sort of thing was SPECIAL. And Peter and Ray, specifically, were SO special that recordings of their everyday dialogue went preinternet "viral" on analog cassette. Peter and Ray would become cult heroes—the stars of a major-label record, countless pieces of underground comic art, stage plays, and, later, a tug-of-war for feature film rights. Kurt Cobain, Mark Mothersbaugh, and illustrator Daniel Clowes were some of Peter and Ray's more famous fans.

So what did Peter and Ray do to earn this renown? The oddest odd couple that ever shacked up together FOUGHT. Holy Christ on a crutch—theirs is some of the dirtiest, booziest, hatefulest bickering and fighting you've ever heard. It makes YouTube's Winnebago Man sound like he's in obscenity kindergarten. Peter, the gay one, and Ray, the homophobe, beat each other up verbally almost as often as they got drunk, which according to their neighbors, Eddie Lee and Mitchell D, was almost every night. The savagery and absurdity of their drunken rants is as uncomfortable as it is darkly hilarious.

Shut Up, Little Man! chronicles why neighbors Eddie and Mitch started making audio recordings of Peter and Ray's late-night clashes, how these recordings made their way onto hundreds of mixtapes traded around the world, and then finally, years later, after much media frenzy, Eddie and Mitch trying to come to terms with a realization that their audio obsession had perhaps exploited two broken-down old men. One could have a solid debate about whether the recordings are "art"—but who cares? I mean, "Who cares, goddamnit, you cocksucking piece of shit! You little man! Shut your rotten fucking mouth!"

The beauty of the film is in hearing all the original recordings, then meeting the real Peter near the end of the film. Somehow, the combination makes it okay to both laugh and feel compassion for this alcohol-damaged human. It's a great American folktale.