“The Aristocrats”
The Title of the documentary “The Aristocrats” is the punch line to the dirtiest joke in the business. It’s not a funny joke, well not at first. Comedians don’t tell it on stage, but then, as a few comedians point out in this good and worthy but perhaps stretched out documentary from comedian Paul Provenza, comedians don’t tell jokes on stage. Not anymore anyways. So it’s sort of like the blues. The comedians tell it amongst themselves. It’s a warm-up, or a wind down after the show, a malleable old song to be pulled out at jam sessions. The beginning and end is always the same, but what’s in between is the riff that can go on into, to quote Chuck Berry, “The Wee Wee Hours.” Some compete to see how long they can stretch the joke. Most of them admit it’s a horrible joke, but a few of them have clever variations. And it’s in the jokes very audacity that the comedy is felt.
And that’s the documentary, the joke told and discussed by nearly one hundred comedians. Virtually every living comedian of note is involved so I won’t list them. If you’re wondering about him or her, they are both there, I almost guarantee it. It’s a worthy peek into the art of comedy, but at times it can get redundant. Not to say it isn’t hilarious, and the more I think about it, this unrated doc features the dirtiest things imaginable, (funny how desensitized I am to this stuff.) that’s the fun part for the comedians. So what’s most important and what’s of note is who your favorites are. Mine include Sarah Silverman, who cleverly includes herself in the joke, Kevin Pollack, who tells the joke in character as Christopher Walken, and Bob Saget, who makes his amongst the very dirtiest. Being Bob Saget, playing against his “Full House” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos” characters has been a second career.
So there you have it, comedians riffing and showing there talent at pumping up a lifeless joke. It’s an important document of the art of comedy. I won’t ruin the joke, because hearing it told over and over again, and realizing what it really is, is half the pleasure of viewing the film. Oh, one last thing. The only black comedian involved is Chris Rock. You see, the thing about the joke is it’s dirtiness, and, as Rock observes, black comedians have always been dirty on stage, they have always been allowed to “work blue” as they call it because they were always kept out of the mainstream, so for them the joke wouldn’t make sense. For the whites who weren’t allowed to get dirty on stage in the yesteryear, this was a release.
Story: B +
About a hundred comedians tell the dirtiest joke of all.
Originality/Innovation: B
Very interesting, just not quite this much of it is needed.
Enjoyability Grade: B
Overall Grade: B
An important look into comedians and what they do. This is how they riff.
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