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When Paramount Pictures was finally absorbed by a conglomerate in 1966, it had been a long-running Hollywood powerhouse that was now contending with a new set of challenges.

Perfectly described by historian Robert Sklar as “the house Adolph Zukor built,” Paramount was one of the first major studios. As its leader, Zukor set in motion both industrial vertical integration along with a carefully constructed machinery for curating and maintaining celebrity image. Though Zukor was no longer chairman of the board by the time Gulf + Western swept in to take over Paramount, the founding mogul’s influence still permeated the studio gates.

At a time when Hollywood was searching for a new identity — founding moguls were gone or largely retired, shattered self-censorship practices were making way for a modern ratings system, studios were being gobbled up by companies outside of the entertainment realm — Paramount managed to prevail in glorious fashion. Within a couple years,...

Once you’ve spent six episodes snarking on the likes of Saddam Hussein, Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler, the idea of wringing wry laughter out of a few cult leaders must not seem intimidating.

At the same time, once you’ve spent six episodes snarking on the likes of Saddam Hussein, Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler, how much challenge is there in poking fun at colorfully outsize personalities and their devoted followers when they’ve already been the butt of jokes for, in some cases, generations?

Those two statements are, respectively, the principle behind and the primary limitation to Netflix’s new six-episode documentary-comedy How to Become a Cult Leader, a follow-up in tone, style and structure to 2021’s How to Become a Tyrant.

Boasting a common production team led by Jake Laufer, Jonas Bell Pasht and Jonah Bekhor, as well as the invaluable support of narrator and executive producer Peter Dinklage,...