Dir.
Paul Provenza, 2005, US, 92 mins
Cast:
Billy Connolly, Carrie Fisher, Whoopi Goldberg, Eric Idle, Eddie Izzard, Michael Mckean, Larry Miller, Trey Parker, Penn and Teller, Emo Phillips, Chris Rock, Bob Saget, Sarah Silverman, Steven Wright and many more
Have you ever wandered what a bunch of comedians would talk about if they got together? Perhaps more specifically, what sort of jokes do comedians tell in the company of other comedians? If this feature length documentary by Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette (half of Penn and Teller) is anything to go by the truth is they exchange dirty jokes. Things get more interesting when we learn that they all tell versions of the same dirty joke, a joke that dates back to the era of vaudeville and music halls, a joke that has apparently never been told to a public audience.
The greatest dirty joke in history, 'The Aristocrats' or occasionally 'the Sophisticates' has been kept an insider secret for the best part of a century. Passed on by one comedian to the next, the joke is perhaps a handshake of initiation into the comedy equivalent of the magic circle. Each version is different - and as such represents the comedian's own signature, as a mirror into their imagination, and a showcase for their talent. Sadly, this is perhaps too grand an introduction for a joke that in the words of one of the contributors 'sucks'.
Far from being the real world incarnation of Monty Python's funniest joke in the world, 'the Aristocrats' is a joke that is not funny in any traditional sense. Most versions are poorly constructed, mostly ad-libbed, and lack a decent punchline. In response to this, the filmmakers have decided to present us with around 100 versions of the same joke. Making little concession to cinema, the documentary has been filmed in a straightforward manner on consumer DV cameras. This could all seem like a recipe for disaster, but instead, the result is the funniest American film of the year. The Aristocrats is not funny in retrospect, nor is it funny in a clever way that creates an internal laugh. On the contrary, it is so funny you can't decide how to sit in your chair for fear of falling/crying/feeling pain.
Director Paul Provenza and collaborator Penn Jillette travelled around America for three years gathering footage for the film, and in that time they amassed contributions from nearly every comedian that matters in the USA. As such, some of the contributors are unknown to British audiences, but in many ways this makes the film an intriguing portal into US comedy. Many faces are familiar (Steven Wright, South Park, Whoopi Goldberg), but much of the pleasure comes from lesser known faces who provide a fresh and alternative take on the format. Bob Saget is best known for playing the father in 'Full House' and as the presenter of the squeaky clean 'America's Funniest Home Videos', but in this incarnation he offers a shockingly depraved version of the joke, whilst Kevin Pollack provides a moment of genius, telling the joke via an impersonation of Christopher Walken.
Whoopi Goldberg observes that the joke is mostly reserved for male comedians, before reluctantly offering her own graphic version, and in many ways it is the females that steal the show. Whilst the male comics attempt one-upmanship via increasingly grotesque content, Wendy Liebman offers a clever take, with a clean storyline and dirty punchline. Sarah Silverman takes things further with a performance piece, rooted in the disturbing idea that the content is real.
The Aristocrats is a gallery of the grotesque, an investigation of the darker side of comedy, and a test of the limits of what we consider acceptable. Each version of the joke becomes a challenge to the audience - how much can you take? Taboos are presented, exposed, and marginalised as humour. At times the content is shocking and unacceptable, but through juxtaposition and repetition we become accustomed to the subject matter and accept it as comedy.
The punchline of the film is represented by Gilbert Gottfried - a comedian little known in the UK asides from his vocal performances for Disney. On September 29th 2001, Gottfried infuriated an audience (mostly comedians) by making a bad joke about September 11th. In desperation he resorted to the only recorded telling of the 'Aristocrats' joke to a TV audience. The results are hilarious, as we witness comedians collapsing from embarrassment that their secret has been screened to a public who are surely not ready.
Robb Horsley 2005 |
