The Aristocrats, Reviewed at Sundance 2005; One of the funniest films ever made

Note: This review does not tell the joke that movie is based upon, so you can read this review without worrying about spoilers.

The Aristocrats is certainly the most vulgar, and with the exception of South Park: The Movie, the funniest film I've ever watched. That's particularly impressive considering it's a documentary.

Directed by Penn Jillette and Paul Provenza, the doc tracks the origin, history, and cultural significance of the world's funniest joke. The joke, which has been traveling around since the Vaudeville days, follows a basic structure which I won't reveal in this review. Let's just say it's a platform on which comedians can showcase not only their style, but also the outer limits of their tastelessness.

Due to the offensive nature of the joke, it has remained within the inner sanctums of comedy for decades. It's told in the back rooms of comedy clubs by comedians to comedians—until now.

So compelling is this film that you can be sure that within the next couple of months people will be

hosting “Aristocrats” parties in their homes, and competitions at bars. It is the logical replacement for karaoke, and the next step in the evolution of poetry slams—but I digress.
 
You’re going to have the opportunity to hear the joke online and at cocktail parties over the next couple of months, but I strongly suggest you don’t give in. It won’t ruin the film for you, but it is certainly more fun to hear the joke for the first time in the film.

Aristocrats features over 100 comedians who tell the joke in rapid fire vignettes that are intertwined with sidesplitting behind the scenes clips. It’s very basic documentary filmmaking, and frankly it’s shot and edited with zero style. However, the directors who put this film together are like chefs working in a kitchen stocked with the world’s most amazing ingredients: they would have to work hard to make something that wasn’t delicious.

Notoriously finicky journalists at the Sundance press screening were laughing so hard, and so often, during the press screen that they were physically exhausted when they walked out of the theater. People were holding their sides, red in the face and recanting all the funny scenes.

Chatter on the way out is one of my key indicators for a film’s success. This year chatter was high on Aristocrats, Grizzly Man, Enron, Hustle & Flow, and Rize. Applause, how many people leave the theater, and verbal reactions are my other indicators for a film’s potential. No one left, everyone laughed, and there was strong applause at the end of the Aristocrats. So, it’s a hit.

Memorable scenes include the best Christopher Walken impersonation since Kevin Spacey played Han “Walken” Solo on Saturday Night Life, Gilbert Gottfried killing at the Friars club three weeks after 9/11, and family-man Bob Saget destroying his clean-cut image forever.

Jon Stewart, Robin Williams, Jackie the Jokeman, Jason Alexander, Lewis Black, David Brenner, Mario Cantone, Drew Carey, George Carlin, and countless others (which you can see at IMDB) contribute to this instant classic.

If Aristocrats has a purposes beyond making you laugh till your head hurts, it’s to take on the absurdity of obscenity. The film will be released without a rating or as an NC-17 film, there is no question about it. This is itself a statement: we need to get a sense of humor, they’re only words after all!

When the Aristocrats platform moves from obscene to racist the audience is challenged for the second time. If we can laugh about sex, violence, and bodily fluids, why can’t we laugh about race?

This film is the equivilant of spending an entire night at a comedy club, but with every pause cut out: just back-to back-jokes for 90 minutes. Right as you’re about to stop—or in some cases start—laughing, the directors cut to the next scene. It’s cruel, but you’ll love it.

I’m thrilled Sundance chose to accept Aristocrats. Forty years after Lenny Bruce was arrested for obscenity at the Jazz Workshop in San Francisco, we’re dealing with the government wanting to control speech again by fining artists directly.

The Aristocrats takes no prisoners and makes no apologies in it’s war against censorship, and to make you laugh.