The Aristocrats


A crude joke gets its time in the spotlight--too much time, if you ask me.

"The Aristocrats" is an old backstage joke that is rarely told to noncomedians. It starts with a man pitching an act to a talent agent, followed by a crude telling of unspeakable acts of scatology, fornication, and incest, and followed up with the agent saying, "That's quite an act, what's it called?" The punchline is "the aristocrats!"

Here, Penn Gillette and Paul Provenza spend 90 minutes discussing this joke to death. While it's interesting to see a panoply of comedians discussing and dissecting the joke, it goes on way too long. Anybody who's uncomfortable with scatology and incest is not going to like it.

The point of the joke, which many folks "don't get," is that it's not a joke that's meant to be gotten. The point is to drag out the disgusting middle part out to its most bedraggled possibilities before tossing out the punchline, which seems best punctuated by a snap of the uplifted fingers, as suggested by Drew Carey.

The film does some interesting things, like having two comedians telling the joke to their infants. It also delves into the psyches of comedians as well.

But, it could have been an hour shorter, and that's the truth.

[Seen at the Montgomery Cinemas.]

Posted: Wed - November 2, 2005 at 01:10 PM        

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