I was lucky enough to get to see a pre-screening of The Aristocrats, a new documentary that was co-produced by Penn Jillette from Penn and Teller, and it was just as filthy and wonderful as I had hoped.

            The film follows the history of one particular joke that is known to all in the comedy world. The basic premise and the punch line of the joke remains the same, but every individual comedian adds his or her own special flare. It’s like the secret handshake of funny people in the entertainment industry. The joke begins with, “A man walks into a talent agency and says to the agent, ‘me and my family have a great new act.’ The agent asks, ‘ok, tell me a little about the act.’ And the man begins to describe (or demonstrate) the act.” At this point, each comedian rises to the challenge of describing the worst, dirtiest, and most perverted acts imaginable for as long as possible before ending the joke with the punch line, “The agent says, ‘my god, that’s awful. What do you call that act?’ and the man replies, ‘We call it The Aristocrats.’”

The joke is little more than a string of dirty ideas and words, but it’s what the joke represents that it so intriguing. Interviews from a wide variety of comedians and overall funny people showcase the originality that each person can put on the joke. It’s so important to some people that they distinctly remember the first time they heard the joke. On top of being a sort of initiation into the comedy scene, it also says a lot about the person telling it. For example, you’d probably get a very different version of the joke if you heard Jerry Seinfeld telling it as opposed to Margaret Cho, neither of whom appear in this film.

The joke itself is also retold in a variety of ways by nearly everyone in the film. My favorite version, or course, is the Trey Parker/Matt Stone version, done with South Park characters. Some other pieces to pay attention to are the segments with Sarah Silverman, Robin Williams, Drew Carey, Mario Cantone (who tells the joke as Liza Minelli), Hank Azaria, and surprisingly Bob Saget, who tells a decently filthy version of the joke for his family-friendly career. But really, there are so many good comments in the film that it's impossible to pick the best ones.

Definitely go see The Aristocrats when it comes to your town, or if it comes to your town. I heard that AMC Theaters was refusing to release the film because of its content and they bypassed the MPAA inevitable NC-17 altogether and released it unrated. Be warned, this film does contain really, really graphic language, but no graphic images, nudity, or violence.

I’ll enclose a link to a site with the South Park version of the joke, but pull up the film on imdb.com for more info.

 

http://spschat.com/misc/media.html

The South Park version - near the bottom in 'Videos'

 

http://imdb.com/title/tt0436078/

IMDB page for the film