The Aristocrats
Review by Adam Weeks
The Aristocrats at its most basic level is a terrible
joke. As far as the story goes, the super naughty fun that
is The Aristocrats has been much like a secret handshake
between professional comedians for at least a century now,
and typically goes like this:
This guy/promoter walks into an agent’s office, and
says “I have an act that I think you’ll love, and
if you just give me a minute of your time, I know you’ll
want to sign us up”.
The agent says, “Okay, you’ve got one minute to
describe your act.”
What follows is generally one of the most disgustingly obscene
tales that you’re ever likely to hear, and after shocking
the living hell out of anyone hearing it, the joke wraps with
the agent saying “Oh, my God! What the hell do you call
an act like that?”, and the guy/promoter says “The
Aristocrats!”
Not so much with the funny stuff, the aim is to disgust the
listener as much as possible so that they are left so dumbfounded
by the end of the tale that they can’t believe what they’ve
just heard.
Directors Paul Provenza ('Northern Exposure') and Penn Jillette
('Penn & Teller') have put nearly 100 comedians through
their paces, by getting each of them to tell their own version
of the joke, which usually contains every type of bodily function,
fornication, incest, bestiality and typically everything under
the sun that could be considered offensive to the casual viewer.
Among the featured talent is Jason Alexander, Chris Rock,
Eddie Izzard, Robin Williams, Billy Connolly, George Carlin,
Drew Carey, Sarah Silverman, Whoopi Goldberg, Paul Reiser,
Steven Wright, Jon Stewart, the 'South Park' kids, Martin
Mull, Eric Idle, Andy Dick, Carrie Fisher, and with one of
the filthiest versions of the joke, Bob Saget. Yes, that Bob
Saget, the squeaky clean Danny Tanner from TV’s 'Full
House'.
As you can imagine, it would probably be hard to tell the
same basic joke for 90 minutes while maintaining the audiences
interest, and thankfully we are spared that type of repetition
by way of some genuinely original interpretations (many comedians
who tell the same basic joke are intercut with each other),
highlights include Kevin Pollak performing as Christopher
Walken in a spot-on imitation, Sarah Silverman recalling her
audition for legendary agent Joe Franklin, Carrie Fisher completely
trashing her parents (involving a goat), and in what is widely
considered the greatest ever telling of the joke to a large
audience: Gilbert Gottfried, bombing horribly at a roast for
Hugh Hefner, pulls out the trump card and absolutely slays
the audience.
I found The Aristocrats to be one of the funniest
‘events’ that I have ever laid eyes on. It feels
wrong to describe it as a documentary, because with a doco,
you’re inevitably exploring a topic, whereas with this,
it’s more akin to a concert film than anything else.
I will say this – if ever a movie outside of porn was
deserving of the “R” rating it has received here
in Australia, it’s The Aristocrats, and for something
that is not what you are seeing, but hearing, that’s
quite a feat to achieve.
The screening that I attended played to a packed house, and
by the midway point of the film, at least half the crowd had
walked out (not surprisingly, most during the Bob Saget sequence),
and as such, it is really an impossible task to give it the
typical rating out of five (but I will anyway), so I will
leave you with this:
If you are easily offended in the slightest degree whether
due to coarse language or lewd subject matter, you most definitely
should not see The Aristocrats at all. However, if
you have a strong stomach and a slightly twisted sense of
humor, you will laugh your arse off at this film.
4 out of 5
The Aristocrats
Australian release: Thursday the 26th of January, 2006.
Cast: Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Jason Alexander,
Hank Azaria, Drew Carey, Billy Connolly.
Director: Paul Provenza.
Website: Click
here.
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