A guy walks into the office of a talent agent and says "I have a great act I think you might be interested in."
"Alright," responds the agent. "What do you got?"
[expletive deleted]
The agent, horrified, cries out "Dear Christ! What do you call yourselves?"
The man smiles and says "The Aristocrats!"
Anyone who's ever told a joke has at one point or another learned this: explaining the humor in a joke kills the joke. And yet Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller) and Paul Provenza have decided to make a documentary tribute to this one old joke known as "The Aristocrats", which works as sort of a free-form for comedians to insert every vile thing they can think of into the heart of this joke. This is an old joke but one that's know mostly to comedians rather than the mainstream (until now). The middle part of the joke tends to involve incest, bestiality, and basically various combinations of piss/puke/scat/semen to try and create the most offensive scenario possible. It's a great exercise in seeing the talents of various comedians and exploring comedy as more of a jazz-type art form than just a routine. As the film says, the song stays the same but it differs widely from performer to performer.
Except, not really.
My expectations of the film were that I was going to hear 100 comedians tell the same joke but each in their own unique way, creating a work of non-stop hilarity that would have me vomiting up blood in laughter. In this respect, the film fell short of that goal.
While the film is certainly funny, it's also fundamentally flawed because Jillette and Provenza insist on taking time to just have comedians talk about the joke rather than tell it. I would say that the film is half-joke, half-commentary on the joke. More disappointing still, is that we get input from some really funny comedians and never get to hear them tell the joke. And what should be the highlights of the film are ruined by terrible editing which breaks the rhythm. And this editing usually happens with the comedians the film builds up as the funniest tellings of the joke. This, of course, leads to a bit of a letdown. Bob Saget (whose filthy style of humor will almost always be shocking as its being told by the dad from Full House) does a great telling but it's ruined through the crosscutting of other comedians praising him as well as by Saget cracking up at his own telling. The same thing happens with Gilbert Gottfried because while I'm sure his telling was cathartic in the weeks following 9/11, it suffers from the same broken rhythm along with just not being very creative. I guess you had to be there and apparently be Rob Schneider who looks like he might die from laughter. Unfortunately for us all, Gilbert wasn't funny enough to save us from Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo.
But back to the joke itself, it's not so much that incest, bestiality, and all that jazz isn't offensive, but to simply say "so the family is f---ing and sucking each other while rolling around in s---" simply doesn't have much effect in today's world (at least the circles I travel in), especially when you've heard it said pretty much that way from at least five different comedians in the past thirty minutes. I guarantee you that when people point to their favorite telling, it will be the South Park rendition or Sarah Silverman's personal take or some other comedian who decided to take it beyond the expected and added something special to it. Some comedians rise to the challenge and others think that ending on "The Sophisticates!" will save their weak rendition of the joke. Simply rearranging the order of pissing, puking, s----ing, and vomiting along with the sex-pairings completely misses the opportunity presented with this kind of joke.
What the film doesn't seem to grasp is that what's funny due to being shocking/offensive is only seen as shocking/offensive because it exists in a context where such concepts stand out as such. Walking around naked in a nudist colony isn't going to turn any heads. If we know that the joke is "intro-commonly offensive themes-The Aristocrats!" then it's just empty words and emptier still when comedians attempt to attach meaning and thoughtful analysis.
The Aristocrats is certainly one of the most interesting films of 2005 and anyone who enjoys the art of comedic performance owes it to themselves to see this film. While the film seems a little indulgent at times, the simple existence of the film shows that we're being invited to gain a better understanding of the art of comedy. But oddly enough, the film isn't as funny as it could have been. --Matt Goldberg, WantonDistraction.com
