diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 585dd42b7..3fa74fea5 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -34,6 +34,8 @@ Bugs fixed
 * #4928: i18n: Ignore dot-directories like .git/ in LC_MESSAGES/
 * #4946: py domain: type field could not handle "None" as a type
 * #4979: latex: Incorrect escaping of curly braces in index entries
+* #4956: autodoc: Failed to extract document from a subclass of the class on
+  mocked module
 
 Testing
 --------
diff --git a/sphinx/ext/autodoc/importer.py b/sphinx/ext/autodoc/importer.py
index 00a55c4c5..e3bf1560c 100644
--- a/sphinx/ext/autodoc/importer.py
+++ b/sphinx/ext/autodoc/importer.py
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ from sphinx.util.inspect import isenumclass, safe_getattr
 
 if False:
     # For type annotation
-    from typing import Any, Callable, Dict, Generator, List, Optional  # NOQA
+    from typing import Any, Callable, Dict, Generator, List, Optional, Tuple  # NOQA
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
@@ -31,6 +31,14 @@ logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 class _MockObject(object):
     """Used by autodoc_mock_imports."""
 
+    def __new__(cls, *args, **kwargs):
+        # type: (Any, Any) -> Any
+        if len(args) == 3 and isinstance(args[1], tuple) and args[1][-1].__class__ is cls:
+            # subclassing MockObject
+            return type(args[0], (_MockObject,), args[2], **kwargs)  # type: ignore
+        else:
+            return super(_MockObject, cls).__new__(cls)
+
     def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
         # type: (Any, Any) -> None
         pass
@@ -47,6 +55,10 @@ class _MockObject(object):
         # type: () -> None
         pass
 
+    def __mro_entries__(self, bases):
+        # type: (Tuple) -> Tuple
+        return bases
+
     def __getitem__(self, key):
         # type: (str) -> _MockObject
         return self
diff --git a/tests/test_ext_autodoc_importer.py b/tests/test_ext_autodoc_importer.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..fe0c9f2bc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_ext_autodoc_importer.py
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+"""
+    test_ext_autodoc_importer
+    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+    Test the autodoc extension.
+
+    :copyright: Copyright 2007-2018 by the Sphinx team, see AUTHORS.
+    :license: BSD, see LICENSE for details.
+"""
+
+from sphinx.ext.autodoc.importer import _MockObject
+
+
+def test_MockObject():
+    mock = _MockObject()
+    assert isinstance(mock.some_attr, _MockObject)
+    assert isinstance(mock.some_method, _MockObject)
+    assert isinstance(mock.attr1.attr2, _MockObject)
+    assert isinstance(mock.attr1.attr2.meth(), _MockObject)
+
+    class SubClass(mock.SomeClass):
+        """docstring of SubClass"""
+        def method(self):
+            return "string"
+
+    obj = SubClass()
+    assert SubClass.__doc__ == "docstring of SubClass"
+    assert isinstance(obj, SubClass)
+    assert obj.method() == "string"
+    assert isinstance(obj.other_method(), SubClass)