Undoubtedly the smallest subject for a documentary that I�ve ever seen, The Aristocrats is little more than the anatomy of a joke, albeit the most famous joke in comedic history. Told in the form of a hundred or so talking head interviews with the cream of the stand-up world (Robin Williams, Chris Rock, Hank Azaria, George Carlin, Jon Stewart and Sarah Silverman to name but a few), the joke is deconstructed to the point of annihilation before being told over and over and over in a thousand different ways. That no one really knows how it started, who started it, or why, it is nevertheless treated reverentially by the interviewees, most of whom saw it as their rite of initiation into the world of stand-up comedy.
The Aristocrats gag itself essentially revolves around a family going into a talent agent�s with an act. They then proceed to detail the most horrendous acts imaginable, defecation, incest, grievous bodily harm, you name it, to which the agent proclaims, �that�s an interesting act, what do you call yourselves?�, and they reply, �the Aristocrats!�. The joke itself is awful, but that�s not the point. The real reason for telling it, and for listening, is the ability of the comedian in question to run with the middle, to make it as filthy and disgusting and original as possible. No area of human knowledge and history is left unsaid, nothing is off limits. You want to talk about pooping in your grandmother�s mouth while she�s being rogered by the family dog? That�s fine! As such the gag has become so much more than an amusing punchline, it is above all other jokes woven into the consciousness of its world.
As such the documentary mostly follows the same pattern as the quip itself. A fairly standard into, mostly told by the aging George Carlin, explaining the history and mythology of the joke, followed by an explosion of obscenity as it is deconstructed and retold by dozens and dozens of top-flight comedians till your ears bleed, and then finished off with an almost non-ending of a punchline. Accordingly, the movie lives or dies by how much you appreciate The Aristocrats joke, my co-viewer for instance seeing no reason to watch it. Indeed, if it hadn�t been for some brilliantly original tellings by Sarah Silverman, Billy the Mime and Gilbert Gottfried (who tore up the room at Hugh Hefner�s roast when he told it), you�d mostly see a bunch of guys telling the same joke over and over and over. Given that you can do whatever you want in the middle it�s surprisingly tired, and unfortunately that one flaw runs right through the documentary too. |
