The Aristocrats (2005)

I had no idea what this was about -- I was just going with a group of friends to a movie a couple of them wanted to see. I love stand up comedy, improv, skits etc. But this isn't a comedy. It's a capture of a piece of history. If they did a movie about the history of stripping, you'd expect to see good and bad stripping scenes, but you wouldn't have the expectation that you'd be seeing porn. Very similar with this movie. It's not comedy. It's the history of a joke (The Aristocrats) and the seeming fact that every comedian knows the joke and has their version to tell. The documentary was cut as well as it could be to hold interest -- after all, we're sitting through a huge number of variations of the same joke. Personally I would have liked to see each comedian identified each time they appeared on the screen.

I've heard things much more shocking than what these comedians seem to think is so taboo. I've been all over the internet. I've seen and heard worse things.Maybe this film would be more funny to someone still sensitive to this type of material. Nearly every delivery of the joke is the same dull poo and incest joke. It's only worth a chuckle when a comedian gives a genuinely unique version of it, or has exceptionally good delivery. I didn't hear any versions that were racial. I get the feeling that would be taking it too far for the people being interviewed here, which is hypocritical. The joke gets its humor from how offensive it is, supposedly.In fact, most of the versions I laughed at weren't particularly "offensive" compared to the rest.Steven Wright, Lewis Black, George Carlin, and Sarah Silverman were the only comedians I enjoyed.

A number of posters have commented that this documentary gives insight into the world/mind of the standup comedian. For people who supposedly earn a living by being funny, I was at a loss to understand why anyone would pay to hear any of these people, 90% of whom you've never heard, for obvious reasons. The whole dreary thing is basically a self congratulatory group of people thinking they're being funny, as they all try to top each other with yet another version of an ancient and incredibly unfunny joke. There are a few funny moments, when a comedian actually tells the joke in a creative or unexpected, imaginative way, but those moments are all too rare. Don't waste your time and money on this thing. There are plenty of videos available that actually show people being funny.

Um, wow, I feel sort of like the last sane man, I'm reading tons and tons of praise for a movie that essentially is the equivalent of thinking it's funny that penis, rape and incest are clearly defined in a dictionary, tee he, seriously? And for 90 minutes! I couldn't get through it, I was bored! My appreciation for my own time was very offended but jeez, from a political viewpoint, by most, I would be considered an extreme liberal with borderline heathen and hedonistic ideals on freedom and the use thereof, but this?! I'm glad we live in a society where even this garbage can be widely produced, great, fine, but I wouldn't want to watch this at length any more than I would want to watch scenes of staged violence and brutality over and over and over again. The level of immaturity to me and the whole composition of the movie would be like making a movie about a brutal child rape scene and having different directors and different actors portraying it in different ways throughout, if you think that's funny, you'll love this movie. I think the jokes on the public at large, if you like this sort of thing, that's disturbing, if you don't like it, you're a snob? If that's the case I've never been more proud to be a snob, wow, what a great waste of time, surely these talented individuals can find something better to do with their time. This seems like a failed attempt at high art and if there's anything I hate more than high art it's a failed attempt at it.