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'The Aristocrats': Comedy in the raw

If the comedians sitting around at the Carnegie Deli in Broadway Danny Rose were able to talk as they really do while we are not listening, the result might be a movie like The Aristocrats.

Definitely not for the easily offended, yet laugh-out-loud, did-he-really-say-that funny, here is a documentary look at the art of comedy with a few salient points to make about the power of the spoken word — profanity division.

THINKFilm 'The Aristocrats' B+ The verdict: An insider's look at the mechanics of comedy, as seen from repeated versions of a single classic dirty joke. 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

For those who are jaded and disappointed by what they usually encounter in their local multiplex, it is fair to say that comics-turned-filmmakers Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette (of the subversive magic act Penn and Teller) have created a movie unlike any you have ever seen or heard.

Their initial purpose, they claim, was to illustrate how stand-up comedy is similar to jazz, likening verbal riffs to musical improvisation. That is an interesting enough notion, but it has been eclipsed by the decision to have the more than 100 comics interviewed talking about and telling the same joke, a consciously gross, tasteless anecdote which dates back to the days of vaudeville and yet is little known by the general public.

With the selection of the joke, The Aristocrats — it would be ruining nothing to tell you that the title of the movie is the joke's punch line — also becomes about the outer limits of what is deemed lewd today, what it takes to shock an audience in 2005. So comics from George Carlin to Drew Carey to Robin Williams to the animated kids of South Park all deliver their versions of the joke, ad-libbing their way through its expandable middle section like jazz vocalists. They put the scat in scatological.

So OK, the joke: Into a talent agent's office walks a guy, eager to land a booking. He proceeds to describe his act, an unspeakable series of disgusting bodily functions and sexual interactions with family members. The incredulous agent asks what in the world he calls such an act and the guy responds, with a flourish, "The Aristocrats."

You're not convulsed with laughter, are you? But when you see Mario Cantone tell it in the persona of Liza Minnelli, you will be. Or Sarah Silverman's autobiographical, intimate version. Or as told by Billy the Mime or adapted into a card trick by Eric Mead, and on and on. Comics we never considered very funny, like former Saturday Night Live regular Gilbert Gottfried, rise to the top of the pack. Gottfried's whiny rant version of the joke is told at a Friars' Club roast for Hugh Hefner as the bewildered guest of honor looks on.

The collective roster of comics, not knowing when to leave well enough alone, dissects and analyzes the joke endlessly. Does the punch line gain by being delivered with a jaunty finger snap? Isn't calling the act "The Sophisticates" funnier than "The Aristocrats"? And what if the act were clean, but the name of the group were a string of obscenities?

There is nothing special about the way Provenza films these interviews, though Emery Emery's editing gains a few extra laughs with some clever juxtapositions. Still, a few segments in the movie feel repetitive and the overall effect could have been improved with some tightening.

But just when you are sure the joke has run its course, someone like Steven Wright — shot from afar down a long hallway — deconstructs it anew and catches us offguard with his sly, deadpan delivery.

Too bad Lenny Bruce is not around to give the joke its definitive spin.