Book and Film Review

The Aristocrats

Date:14 August 2006
Title: The Aristocrats
Screenwriter: N/A
Director: Paul Provenza
Principal Actors: Tons of highly famous comedians
Released: 2005

Reflections: This film is one I had seen before I watched it again tonight. I initially saw it back in London in the Electric cinema. I remember being fairly blown away by it at that time, but my reactions of tonight are far easier to catch and write down now. This film is a documentary on a joke documented by Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller fame). This film in some ways is not really much of a movie, because it is done in such a casual sort of way, where they simply put different comedians in different settings and interview them about the joke. It both interviews them for their thoughts about the joke, the quality of it, and it also elicits a rendition of it from them. This is a very foul and nasty film, and most of the contents of these jokes are extremely raunchy and terrible. They can involve everything including: incest, excrement, beastiality, bizarre and impossible sexual acts, and about anything one can think of to offset the social barriers and mores of today. Basically that is all that happens, is a lot of people tell the joke, they question the humor quality of it, and talk about how improvised it is, and allows people to be. The major idea behind it is, that it is a joke that comedians tell to each other behind the scenes to see how creative and funny they can be.

My personal take on this was one of interest, because I consider studies on humor and comedy to be ones of vast interest as they are something I have long been interested in academically. The film quality itself, was very well edited, with great splicing of different comedians giving the same elements of the joke at the same time upon each of their tellings. There is also a great variety in the ways the joke is told, alternating it with different versions, inversing it, and so on. And, of course there are different venues of the telling, meaning that there are different stlyes, such as pantomime, magic, ventriloquism, cartoons (South Park), and of course the oral tradition of most stand-up comedians. These were all very interesting to see, but perhaps my favorite two, were the card magician's telling, and the mime's version. I was impressed that anyone would have the courage to release such a film as this, not because of the foul language used, but more because of the premise of a film based on one joke. I briefly read someone else's review on this film, and found they thought it was lacking substance because the focus was too narrow a subject: one joke. I disagree with this, and feel that one can learn a great deal about humor, and people through this film. Depending on what they concentrate on when they tell the joke, and they way in which they tell it. Paricularly notable in my mind were the renditions by Gilbert Godfrey, George Carlin, and Bob Saget (of Full House fame). I would fully recommend this film for anyone with a bit of curiosity and a very very open mind, especially toward 'offensive' language.

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