Posted: 07/31/2005

The Aristocrats

(2005)

by Hank Yuloff

Did you ever want to be IN on the joke? It was some story or something that happened that you wish you were on the inside of and knew all the players and what was happening? In Paul Provenza’s film The Aristocrats, we are taken into the world of the stand up comic to learn the background of what might be one of the classic “inside jokes” of all time. It is a joke that every comic has heard about, most have told in their acts, and when comics get together, they tell the joke to each other to see who can tell it the best. Which is to say, the most vulgar.

But there is a catch. The winner of the contest, is the one who can stretch it the longest while making it the filthiest, nastiest, most offensive joke possible. Because by doing that, you make the punch line (the title of the movie) that more effective.

I saw one explanation of the joke on line. “The idea is simple: “The Aristocrats” is both a joke and a game. It was originally probably devised simply for fun, but the uniqueness of the joke allows comedians to improve their imaginations and split second improv ability for their acts. When it was first started, the joke was only told amongst fellow comedians. Each time the joke was told, certain rules had to be followed, but the rest of the joke was made up. The winner was the comedian who told the funniest, most outrageous version!” That works for me.

In this film, Provenza interviews 100 different comics and writers about the history of the joke and how their telling of it differs from everyone else. It is not rated because the only possible rating is NC-17 for, well, the most foul language you could imagine. My thought going in was that at a certain point in the watching, the movie would get stale because how many times can you here “Why did the chicken cross the road?” kind of things and have it NOT get old. But I can not begin to tell you how funny this movie is or how much you will laugh….. The audience was applauding some of the performers after their telling of the joke. How funny is it? In a film about comedy where they will not edit anything you say, Robin Williams is NOT the funniest person in it.

Who is? Depends on your bent of humor. George Carlin and Paul Reiser are great in the thinking man’s humor. For off the wall adaptations it’s Hank Azaria, Sarah Silverman, Taylor Negron, or Martin Mull (who made me laugh the hardest). Also Judy Gold who used her pregnancy to make the joke her own and another (I didn’t get his name) magician who used a deck of cards to diagram the joke. For filth, you have to go with Bob Saget, or well, any of the rest of them. This is a filthy filthy filthy movie. But did I mention how much you will laugh? We even see the kids from South Park take a crack at it, but Bart Simpson is nowhere to be seen. In fact, I think we only hear the entire joke, nonstop 8 times. Carlin, Steven Wright, Gilbert Gottfried and even Steven Banks as Billy the Mime make it through. Kevin Pollack tries to do it as Christopher Walken and can’t make it all the way through.

There seems to be a strong buzz about this movie. Not a My Big Fat Greek Wedding kind of buzz because of the filth, but among those who love to be made to laugh and who think the FCC is far too conservative. The 8 p.m. show on a Saturday, I was told, had been sold out since the movie was announced at a theater in Hollywood. We opted for the 5:30 and saw no one who stayed for the whole movie leave (one couple evidently thought this was a screening of the Disney movie of the similar name and were sorely disappointed but still stayed for an hour) until the credits ended. You should not leave either. There is always one more punch.

The Aristocrats gets, from me, the highest recommendation I can give it: SPEND YOUR MONEY to see it in the theater surrounded by an audience. Laughter is contagious and to pay to laugh is great for your psyche. So what’s the joke? OK… A guy walks into a talent booker’s office…

Hank Yuloff is our writer in L.A. who gets the most hate mail on the site for offensive language. We would like to applaud him for not using the words fuck, shit, motherfucker, crap, cunt, twat, cum, splooge, dickwad, ass, goddamn, or cocksucker in his review, though most of them are used liberally throughout the movie.

Got a problem? E-mail us at filmmonthly@gmail.com