The Aristocrats

In the wake of everything we've seen on TV and in movies in recent decades, it's amazing that something as harmless as language can still stupefy us. As The Aristocrats demonstrates, there is real humor in the confrontation of taboos.

What keeps the film from becoming obnoxiously redundant is the conviviality of the comedians. These are funny people even when they're not telling the joke.

The picture itself is so ebullient and celebratory that it practically beams with perverted innocence.

The structure of the film mirrors the changes in the joke which in turn reflect the moral of the story -- hey, it's all a matter of perspective.

What fascinates is, first, that these comics treat the joke the way jazz musicians might treat a theme that each of them plays differently; and, second, that the passage of this joke from one comic to another is like the bonding of a profession.

But if you stick around for those final credits, you'll also have the opportunity to hear Robin Williams deliver a clean but nonetheless hilarious joke, a reminder of how funny Williams can be when he's not trying so hard.

As long as it stayed mainstream dirty it was okay, but when it got into perversions the American Psychiatric Society hasn't even named yet, it left me behind.

Its a shame that they did not just have the entire footage for each comedian from start to finish rather than merely showing exerps from each comedian. Not for the faint hearted. Possibly the most foul things to hear. Hilarious to see some comedians such as Gilbert Gottfried but others don't make me laugh as much. It's easier to type it into youtube to find your favourite comedian telling the joke.

The Aristocrats: 3 out of 10: The joke in the Aristocrats is not funny. (Many comedians on tape admit this outright.) It really isn't a joke as much as a Shaggy Dog story. The funny part of a Shaggy Dog story is watching someone who thinks it's a joke squirm. The more you can make a (in this case) prude squirm the funnier the raunch is. The funniest scene in the movie is Gilbert Gottfried's masterful and legendary telling of the joke at the Fryers Club soon after 9/11. What makes it funny is watching a surprising prudish and confused Hugh Hefner's reaction listening to the joke. (The exact performance wouldn't be as funny if Larry Flynt for example was on the dais. And the filmed performance wouldn't work had not Hefner not been shown in frame.) The Gottfried performance comes late in the film and we are treated to dozen's of top comedians wasted telling the same joke sans victim. And since the audience by this time is intimately familiar with the mechanics of the magic this is true tedium. Moreover most of the comedians telling the joke do so to the camera with no audience in sight. There is a reason that comedy routines are done in a concert film style performance before a live audience. There is a lot of top flight talent here. Drew Carey, Robin Williams, George Carlin among others yet it is a mime (Steven Banks) that tells the joke most creativity and Bob Saget who tells the most disgusting version. Honestly the film shoots it's um …. gun much to soon in the feature and nothing removes humor from something faster than explaining it. There are some self serving insights about comedy in general and some so called inside stuff that by its very nature isn't but the majority of the film really is dozens of comics telling the same joke over and over again that wasn't all that funny to begin with.