The Aristocrats

The easily offended should definitely not see this movie, as you would probably pass out from shock within the first five minutes. Let me put it this way, the aim of each comedian who tells this one joke is to make it as raunchy, inappropriate, disgusting, shocking, and offensive as he/she possibly can using rather imaginative visual imagery. The movie is funny, as is the joke despite its inappropriateness, because it features comedians doing what they do best—telling stories and joking around.

The Aristocrats is a century-old joke that has heretofore only been shared privately among comics. It has never been performed in public and has served as a secret handshake of sorts between professional comedians. The joke has a basic framework, and each comedian puts his or her own personal spin to it. The only similarity between one comedian’s version and another’s is the opening sentence and the two-word punch line at the end—well, that and the fact that each comedian tells it in the most disturbing way possible. As it has historically been kept within the confines of professionals, you can imagine how far they must go in order to impress or top each other with each telling. Seriously, there were some descriptions in this movie that I had never before heard or even imagined could possibly exist—these guys get extremely creative. The format of the movie itself is simple: professional comedians are separately interviewed about their take on the joke, the first time they heard it, and what it means to them. Almost all of them agree that the joke itself really isn’t that funny, and some of them actually hate it. But what makes both the joke and the movie funny are the personalities of all the different comedians.

You won’t find any “memorable quotes” from this film on IMDB and for good reason. Most of the time the joke starts out innocently enough but quickly progresses into the truly pornographic and disturbed. It was hard to pick a favorite telling, as it would be akin to choosing a favorite comedian, but I was shocked when I actually laughed—hard—at a mime routine of the joke. It’s definitely the first time I’ve ever thought mime was funny, but I also laughed at the card trick version, the juggling version, and even a great rendition from a ventriloquist and his foul-mouthed dummy. There was an especially good animated South Park version of the joke, and Kevin Pollack did a hilarious dead-on impersonation of Christopher Walken telling The Aristocrats. The editorial staff at The Onion is featured trying to come up with the dirtiest and most offensive elements of the joke that they can create, and Bob Saget (the dad from Full House) is briefly featured telling perhaps the most shocking variation in the entire movie with a helpful public service type announcement mid-way through.

I thought the movie was very funny, albeit highly disturbing, and it does indeed feature the same joke told over and over; however, I was amazed at the filmmakers’ ability to prevent the movie from dragging or becoming repetitive. Comedians specialize in making people laugh through casual dialogue and storytelling, which is the entire focus of this movie. The Aristocrats, both the film and the joke itself, are only as funny as the comedians themselves, and when the very best get together in the same documentary, you can bet that it will be entertaining. And apparently extremely dirty.