The Aristocrats (2005)
Lions Gate Home Entertainment

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Delivered right, "The Aristocrats" -- a longtime comedians' in-joke -- is universally acknowledged as the dirtiest joke ever told. In the unrated documentary The Aristocrats, more than 80 comedians impart this joke to the world. Robin Williams, Sarah Silverman, Jon Stewart, Rita Rudner, Jason Alexander, Phyllis Diller, Eric Idle, Whoopi Goldberg, Eddie Izzard, Drew Carey, South Park's Eric Cartman, the editorial staff of The Onion -- no pillar of the comedy world is left unturned. A particular surprise is the typically avuncular Bob Saget who will never be looked at by Mary-Kate and Ashley the same way again. George Carlin serves as the movie's unofficial narrator who introduces the joke's origins in the old vaudeville theaters as a way for the entertainers to shock and amuse themselves backstage. Today the vile thing endures as part improvised jazz riff, part parlor game, part shock therapy and part game of Freudian chicken. Every teller of the joke begins with the same premise: A guy walks into a talent agent's office and says, "Have I got an act for you."

Then the teller riffs about what transpires during the obscene audition. The act is up to the teller, but the more taboo the better; the intent is to shock and disgust the audience and confront people to realize where their limits really are. Most classic tellings begin with oral sex and snowball up to incest, shit-eating and worse. At the end, the dumbfounded talent agent asks what you call an act like that. And the guy says...well, let's just say the joke's punch line is secondary to its delivery.

When interviews with 100 comedians are edited down for a 90-minute movie, you know there's gotta be outtakes. Among the Special Features, 20 comedians riff, uncut, including Bob Saget who expounds on the joke he's nicknamed "Jerque du Soleil" and Sarah Silverman whose allegations about talk show host Joe Franklin caused some controversy. The cleverly titled "Behind the Green Room Door" comprises 16 minutes of other dirty jokes, much easier to recount than The Aristocrats, and some of them quite hilarious. In a vanity short titled "For Johnny Carson," Larry Miller imparts what he contends was the late king of comedy's favorite joke.

Two "Be an Aristocrat Contest" winners tell their versions of the joke and prove just how difficult and dangerous it can be in the hands of amateurs. Save for last "The Aristocrats Do the Aristocrats," an ultimate montage of every comedian in the film telling a line of the joke.

by Rob. Walton