The Aristocrats is a documentary that analyzes, deconstructs and probes its subject in such an original, rigorous manner that it stands up to the finest scholarship of our age. This film takes its cue neither from some PBS special on the Big Bang nor from a Discovery Channel nature program. Rather, the experts here are one hundred leading comics and the topic is the dirtiest joke ever told.
Created and directed by Penn Jillette and Paul Provenza, The Aristocrats traces the history, theory and a plethora of versions (I counted approximately 70) of a single filthy joke whose punch line is the film's title. The punch line, however, is rendered irrelevant, since it is in the setup of the joke where the humor lies. This buildup is an improvised routine, compared by several comics to a jazz solo -- it's more about the singer than the song. Originally a vaudeville act, the joke evolved into an insider's weapon. It has stood as an entry in comics' arsenals that would be used to show off to fellow comics, all while trying to outdo one another by lasting longer or being more extreme.
The movie features George Carlin, Whoopi Goldberg, Drew Cary, Gilbert Gottfried, Bob Saget, Phyllis Diller and many others who give their own renditions of the joke as well as their thoughts about the infamous routine. Several of the best versions featured include a fabulously disgusting rendition from Bob Saget, another by Kevin Pollak done with a perfect Christopher Walken impersonation, and one by Sarah Silverman who tells it as if it weren't a joke at all. But perhaps the version that surpasses the rest is Gilbert Gottfried's. Three weeks after Sept. 11 at the Friar Club's roast of Hugh Hefner, Gottfried abandoned his original routine to rant and rave through an extremely obscene variation of "the aristocrats", which had the audience and fellow comics keeling over in fits of laughter.
The Aristocrats is more than just filmed standup comedy. In this documentary, the joke is examined in its societal context. Chris Rock reflects that before the comedy world opened its doors to black comics, such taboos did not constrain African American entertainers, as getting booked in mainstream clubs or on television was not a prospect. Phyllis Diller remembers that in her early years comics were forbidden to be lewd or even suggestive. While it might be said that such a vile and obscene joke as the Aristocrats does not warrant such a thorough discussion, it lends the movie some irony that balances the filth which consumes the majority of the movie.
To say that The Aristocrats is plagued by filth, obscenity and other topics that will make you gag in revulsion is not a criticism. Its unabashed rejection of political correctness and embrace of all things vulgar and offensive are what make The Aristocrats a film that will leave you paralyzed in shock and teary-eyed with laughter.
Starring: Gilbert Gottfried, Bob Saget, Sarah Silverman
Director: Paul Provenza
Run Time: 89 min
Rating: Unrated
Showing at: The Charles Theatre
