The Aristocrats (2005)

The Aristocrats (2005)

Directed by: Paul Provenza

Starring: Bob Saget, Gilbert Gottfried, George Carlin

Not to be confused with the Disney movie The Aristocats, The Aristocrats is a documentary about one of the most famous and pervasive jokes in modern times, known as “The Aristocrats”. Obviously. I mean… why else would they name it that?

The film is a series of interviews with A through C-list comedians, getting all of their opinions on the Aristocrats joke. For those of you not in the know, the basic premise of the joke is that a family walks into a talent agent’s office, performs an incredibly vile act, and when the agent asks them what the name of their act is, they say, “The Aristocrats!” It’s not really a joke that comedians tell to audiences, but more of something they use within themselves. Because the meat of the joke is just nothing but the most disgusting thing the person telling the joke can think of, it’s something that can be personalized to each comic, and this film has… well, dozens of different tellings of the joke.

One of the coolest parts of this movie is that it’s got maybe a hundred different people in it (they don’t all tell the whole joke, but they’re in it in some way), and that number covers just about every funny person I’ve ever liked. They’ve even got Steven Wright doing a version of the joke, maybe the last person I’d ever expect it from. Actually, I take that back, I was more surprised by Carrie Fisher. However, the two big standout versions of the joke in the film are by Gilbert Gottfried (which is the recording from when he told it on the Comedy Central roast of Hugh Hefner) and Bob Saget, who does one that is both amazingly disgusting and funny as hell.

This movie is definitely not for people who don’t want to hear about disgusting things like incest, scatology, beastiality, racism… basically anything. The Aristocrats joke is specifically designed to offend as many people as possible, so keep that in mind before deciding to see the movie. However, if you get past that, I’d recommend it. It’s a really funny and interesting look into a very particular branch of humor.

And no, I’m not going to do my version of The Aristocrats here.