accessAtlanta

'The Aristocrats' is a lesson in comedy

Wanna hear a dirty joke?

A reeeeeeallly dirty joke?

"The Aristocrats," a new documentary featuring 104 comedians, comedy writers and one brilliant mime, celebrates one howlingly awful joke, a Vaudeville-era relic told in countless variations that always end with the same punch line: "The Aristocrats."

THINKFilm 'The Aristocrats' 4 out of 5 stars Director: Paul Provenza Starring: Whoopie Goldberg, Robin Williams, Phyllis Diller, Don Rickles, George Carlin, Steven Wright, Jon Stewart, Drew Carey and many, many more. Run time: 106 minutes Release date: July 29, 2005 Rating: Not rated, but contains massive amounts of nasty profanity and detailed descriptions of sexual perversity. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate "The Aristocrats"   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

The real joke is that "The Aristocrats" is just a framework, a beginning and end that comics fill like overstuffed sausage with the most vile and vulgar imaginings. As such, the joke isn't the kind of thing you tell audiences. It's more a backstage improv exercise comedians use to show off with each other. Sometimes the joke can go on for four hours.

The doc, conceived by comic Paul Provenza and magician Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller fame) and shot backstage at comedy clubs, in cramped writers' offices and at more than a few Starbucks cafes, looks a bit like a no-budget reality show, except it stars some of the biggest names in comedy, including Robin Williams, Jon Stewart, Chris Rock and George Carlin. It also features comedians' comedians, names like Gilbert Gottfried, Larry Miller, Wendy Liebman and Jeffrey Ross, as influential to other comics as their more famous counterparts.

The comedians tell the history of the joke, sometimes where they first heard it, and versions of the joke itself enough times that it becomes less shocking as the film goes on. By halfway through the film, descriptions of bestiality, incest, rampant bodily functions and unimaginable sex acts become routine. The film is unrated, but it's hard to imagine there's ever been a film with more X-rated profanity.

But once the shock wears off, the laughs still come. The film's thesis is that it's not the joke, but who tells it; the endlessly inventive comic minds that populate the film are like jazz musicians riffing on the same material in increasingly free-form ways.

That's borne out later in the doc when Sarah Silverman, a mime named Billy and the convincingly creepy Taylor Negron tell their own unique versions of the joke. (Silverman's, taking on the story as her own family history, is by far the funniest take of "The Aristocrats"; bonus points for the hilarious trailer for her upcoming comedy film "Jesus is Magic," which screened before the film at the Dobie Theatre.)

All the scatology will be exhausting for some, but for those truly interested in comedy, "The Aristocrats" is a lesson in funny. Just when you feel like you've heard the joke one too many times, the documentary introduces a new variation, say an animated "South Park" telling or the identical except in name "The Sophisticates."

"The Aristocrats" is just under 90 minutes, and the biggest miracle of the film is that its makers were able to edit down so much material from so many talents to that length.