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35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One hundred comedians deconstruct the world's dirtiest joke, August 11, 2005
WARNING: Spoilers galore and discussion of off color topics.
First, it has to be emphasized to anyone contemplating seeing this film that it without any question contains more offensive language than any other general release film in American history. If you are offended by graphic descriptions of every conceivable form of sexual perversion including incest and bestiality or by the most extreme descriptions of scatological activity, you really should pass on this one in favor of another film. That being said, this is without question one of the funniest films I have ever seen, and the preview audition I saw it with was laughing loudly from beginning to end.
"The Aristocrats" is, we are told near the beginning of the film, a joke that comedians often tell one another. In basic outline, it is quite simple. The basic elements are a man walking into a talent scout's office and telling him that he has a great act, and then describes a performance in which the man and his wife and children and other relatives, including the family dog, come onstage and perform some bizarre combination of sexual, incestuous, scatological, bestial, and murderous acts. After a long catalog of acts straight out of the Marquis de Sade, the scout then asks what they call themselves, to which the man replies, "The Aristocrats." The joke--admittedly not a very good one--is the extreme contrast between the barbarity and outrageousness of the acts, and the man having the gall to imagine that their actions could in any sense be aristocratic. This is not a joke that many comedians tell in public; it is simply too nasty, too extreme. It is, instead, a bit of a test that comedians take in front of other comedians, to see if they have a right to respect among their peers.
As the movie progresses, it becomes obvious that the challenge for comedians is to come up with some new variation of the joke that allows them some claim of originality. It is like a chess problem that requires some new resolution. Or, to put it in another sense, a comedian telling the joke anew is like a gunfighter taking on all previous gunslingers, creating a reputation for themselves. And indeed, as the movie goes along, a number of comedians do manage new variants that are increasingly surprising. Though obscene throughout, the film ends up being almost an academic, anthropological study of the nature and possibilities of humor.
A vast number (I read somewhere that a hundred comics participate) of well known and lesser known comedians appear in the film, from such prominent stand ups as Robin Williams and George Carlin to a host of unknowns, as well as older veterans such as Larry Storch and Tim Conway. A number provide their own retellings of the joke, with some being more successful than others. Although there are many quite hysterical versions of the joke, I thought four stood out. The best, in my opinion, was shockingly that of Bob Saggett of FULL HOUSE. His version is unique in that as he tells it, he feigns shock that he is doing so, and seems momentarily to have doubts as to its wisdom, hesitates, and then plunges right back into the joke. Very nearly as good is a somewhat less nasty, more cerebral version by Martin Mull, with the best punch line of the movie. No one hates mimes more than I do, but a mime I did not previously know called Bill the Mime performed a brilliantly obscene mime version of the joke. Finally, a truly awful ventriloquist (his mouth moved almost normally throughout) with a badly constructed puppet told the joke very ineptly, only to have his puppet jump in and show him the way it should be done. We get an endless variation on the joke, from Sarah Silverman's very strange rendition which morphs into an accusation of rape by Joe Franklin, to versions where the acts on stage are described as gentile and sophisticated, but the name of the act is unspeakably offensive.
This is very definitely not a movie for everyone. If you are easily offended, you should pass. But if you want to see a very, very funny movie that involves more comedians than you could shake a stage at, don't miss this.
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190 of 228 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Utterly Brilliant -- and FAR more than just a dirty joke, September 1, 2005
This is a movie about one of the dirtiest jokes ever. But it's not really. It's really about the art of telling a joke. It's about the philosophy of comedy, of transgression, of challenging the rules of "polite society" as comics have done for centuries, about how the human mind works, how men and women see humor differently, about what we find funny, what surprises us, what revolts us, and more to the point, what DOESN'T revolt us even if it seems it should. And to discuss all these topics, the film makers have assembled a top flight group -- stand-up comedians, comedic actors, writers, and others, from old-time comics to the youngest and hippest new talents (is anyone funnier than Sarah Silverman when she really gets going?).
It's a free turtorial in how comedy works, as we watch a large and diverse group of artists tell this same joke in dozens of different ways, with many different set-ups, many different payoffs, and more ways of exploring the middle of the joke (some compare it to an improvised jazz solo) than you could ever imagine. We see how men and women emphasize different things, how the younger comics make it more sexual and the older comics make it more scatalogical. Somebody could teach a semster course on this...
It's a smart, insightful film about America and the American sense of humor, and about the real "us" that we rarely show the rest of the world. It's a fascinating philosophical document that will appall you even as you fall out of your seat laughing, and then drive home thinking about it for hours afterward.
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31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Come all ye minions of filth and rejoice., August 31, 2005
I walked into the theater this past weekend to see THE ARISTOCRATS fully expecting to be thoroughly appalled, yet equally certain that I would be amused. I was more than amused, as it turned out, and not quite as appalled as I would have expected to be. I'm not saying that this was not the filthiest movie I have ever seen, it was. But perhaps we live in a jaded society: one in which words alone can no longer cause us to lose our lunches, abuse our neighbors, or vote without thinking.
THE ARISTOCRATS, despite the unspeakably filth of its language, is a very funny film. I can understand, however, that one may need to be a fully-engaged connoisseur of the comedic arts in order to completely appreciate what is being attempted here. The aristocrats joke itself, as has been said countless times, is not in itself the main attraction of the movie. The free-form soloing that can occur in the very best setups to the [admittedly pedestrian] punch line is. Bob Saget (legendary dirty comic of comics, we are told) offers glimpses into his brilliant long-form telling of the joke (glimpses containing ghastly horror, but humorously) that clearly alter our perceptions of the man, yet credit his virtuosity in the form. Tim Conway, in maybe the cleanest interpretation on film, remains his hilarious (and innocent) self. George Carlin, who guides us through most of the film, tells the joke in uncomfortable but nuanced detail, causing much squirming, but also explosive laughter from the theater audience.
Not every comedian scores well in the telling of the joke, however. Emo Phillips is not quite dirty enough to get kicked out of a kindergarten story hour, but at least he gave it a try. Needless to say, he was not the highlight of this film. Nor was Chris Rock who, inexplicably, just shows up for a few seconds to say something about race (I've already forgotten exactly what). Other stars and semi-stars pop in and out of the film, some offering more and some less, as it were. The film labors in a few other points (what exactly is Eddie Izzard saying or trying to say?), but for the most part, it is entertaining from start to finish.
THE ARISTOCRATS succeeds at what it tries to be: the inside documentary of the king of all inside jokes. It is the goofy home movie of the comedy set. For those of us on the outside, it is a glorious peepshow into the comedy industry. And here's the kicker: grandma's dead.
Jeremy W. Forstadt
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