The Aristocrats

God forgive the unsuspecting parents who rent The Aristocrats, mistaking it for Disney's animated bon-bon 'The Aristocats', and God help the children who are made to watch it based on that false assumption. Simply put, my friends, this film has nothing to do with the Wonderful World of Disney. No, this feature-length documentary spends almost 90 minutes unveiling to the world what most stand-up comedians have known for their entire professional lives, as the dirtiest joke ever told. The set-up and punchline rarely differ: a man walks into a talent agent's office and pitches a family act that involves the most obscene, depraved sexual acts imaginable. When the guy finishes describing the act, the agent asks what it's called. The guy's answer? "The Aristocrats!"

Based on my abbreviated (and radically sanitized) delivery, you're no doubt wondering what makes this joke funny. Certainly not its nonsensical punchline. No, it's the middle section, the description of the act itself, that sells the joke, and has made it a rite of passage for comics since the days of vaudeville. Rarely ever performed in front of paying audiences, comics will tell each other their version of the joke offstage, each putting their own twisted spin on the contents of the act itself, in a safe environment where nothing is sacred and no topic is off-limits.

Conceived by Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller fame), the film attempts to deconstruct this most raunchy of gags, and explain its longevity, by stitching together interviews with dozens of comedians: George Carlin, Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, John Stewart, Drew Carey, Phyllis Diller, Don Rickles, Chris Rock, Billy Connoly, Eddie Izzard... the list is endless! Several of the comedians associate the joke with a good jazz song, and the comparison is an apt one; the basic melody will remain the same, but a talented musician will know to how to improvise with its arrangement, and make the tune seem like their own. Fortunately, this documentary follows the same principle, by introducing variations on the joke throughout the film. As I watched THE ARISTOCRATS (laughing the whole time, I might add), I kept waiting for the repetitiveness of the joke's base humour to set in, but before too long someone would dole out a fresh take on it, and induce more giggles from me. The aforementioned Carlin, along with Martin Mull and Sarah Silverman, offer some of the more memorable renditions, and Bob Saget (yes, the loving dad from television's sugar-coated 'Full House') is revealed to be one of the filthiest comics of the bunch.

It goes without saying, that if you find yourself easily offended by off-colour humour, this is NOT the movie for you. Seriously, stay away from it; you will thank me later. For the rest of us, THE ARISTOCRATS is an uproarious, uncensored peek behind the stage curtain, one that will make you question whether any topic is truly off-limits when it comes to humour.