A man walks into a talent agent’s office and says, “I just saw the most profane movie ever made, and I’ve seen snuff films.”
The Aristocrats is a documentary released this summer by Penn Jillette of “Penn and Teller” and comic Paul Provenza chronicling the various ways to tell “the dirtiest joke ever told.” Toward that end, they interview comics from Phyllis Diller to Robin Williams about the evolution of the joke from the days of Vaudeville, along with the infinite number of ways to tell it. Oh, and the movie is so obscene it would make the proverbial sailor weep.
The joke is easy to tell. First, a man walks into a talent agent’s office and says he has a great act to sell. Then, describe the most scatological and incestuous performance you can, then end with the talent agent asking “What do you call yourselves?” and the man responding “The Aristocrats!” (Drew Carey recommends adding a snap with the punch line, for effect). One of the sections of the movie centers around when and how much to include of the scat and incest, which is a subject of great debate.
Of course, it sounds like a pretty crappy joke, and it is. The only funny part is hearing how extreme people can take it, and many of the comics go beyond the extremes. Even a mime, a ventriloquist, and a magician make the simple joke into something so unbelievably foul that people started leaving the theatre. Not one performer, however, could top Bob Saget, who began castigating himself on camera for being so disgusting. Watching the star of “Full House” spout off the filthiest part of a filthy movie is alone well worth the price of admission.
This movie is not for everyone, of course. Of the group I went with, half left complaining that their cheeks hurt from laughing so hard, and the other half just chuckled. If hearing stories of infants being violated in previously unspeakable ways by household pets does not strike you as funny, you would be better off not spending the $8 to watch comedians describe that for 90 minutes.
If, on the other hand, you just started laughing in the middle of class at the thought of hearing that described, this movie is perfect for you. Each comedian tries to top the one before them, asking what had already been done and trying to disgust the camera crew even more, so that by the end of the movie you won’t be able to come up with a social taboo that has not been violated.
It is just not possible to overstate how obscene this movie is. It is sadistically funny. It is patently offensive. It will actually make you uncomfortable at times. It will make George Carlin’s regular routine sound like a lecture by the Dalai Lama. It is guaranteed to make you laugh.
