 Starring: Robin Williams, Jon Stewart, Paul Reiser, Sarah Silverman
Director: Paul Provenza
Year Of Release: 2005
Plot: Actor/Director Paul Provenza’s documentary features interviews with numerous comedians, who all talk about and do their own version of a single joke. It’s an old joke that comedians tell amongst themselves about a man walking into a talent agent and then describing the most disgusting act imaginable, with each joke teller able to riff and create they own version of this horrifying turn, with the punchline being that despite the fact the act is immensely perverse, it’s called The Aristocrats. |
If you’re reading this hoping I’m going to talk about the fluffy Disney cat movie, you’re in for a shock, because The Aristocrats is about as far from that film as it’s possible to get. On the surface, the documentary that I’m talking about today, is just an excuse to get a lot of the world’s top comedians, from Whoopi Goldberg and Sarah Silverman to George Carlin and Bill Connolly, to tell dirty jokes, allowing them to ad-lid about the biggest taboos they can imagine, by using a single joke, ‘The Aristocrats’, to give them something to talk about.
And it certainly is a foul mouthed movie. This is a film full of people talking about incest, paedophilia, scatology and every sexual act imaginable, using the most imaginative and disgusting language they can think of to tell the funniest version of the joke (which is about a man going to a talent agent and trying to get him to book a truly horrible vaudeville act, with the comedian free to riff on exactly what the act involves).
However, while the film initially just seems to be about who can be the most disgusting comedian on the planet, it soon becomes something much more interesting. As the comedians discuss the joke and start giving their own versions, the film begins to reveal a lot about comedy and what makes something funny. From a simple set-up where each comedian has to start at the same place and end with the same punchline, a vast array of different ways to create comedy emerges.
You have people like Bob Saget, whose approach is to not only take the disgusting details of the vaudeville act to extremes, but also to surprise you with just how imaginative he can be with what people might do to each other. Or there’s Sarah Silverman, who acts as if she used to be part of the act, and slowly turns it from the telling of a joke into a confession of childhood abuse (Silverman is the master of the uneasy laugh). Others turn the joke around and find the humour elsewhere. For example, Billy Connolly imagines that the man is lying and only saying the vaudeville act goes to such disgusting extremes to try and get a booking, but then has to go home and explain to his family what he’s promised they will do.
Some of the comedians even refuse to tell the joke, either because they don’t want people to see them being so filthy or because they’re worried how their version will compare to the competition.
As the punchline to the joke is pretty weak, it’s only as funny as the person telling it, and so what the film does is become a masterclass in how to create comedy, with many of the world’s top comedians both telling their own unique version of the joke and also using it as a starting point to discuss what they believes comedy should be. You see how much of humour is in timing and pace, and how the way you say a dirty word is actually more important than the word itself. It also reveals how vital spontaneity or at least the facsimile of it is, and how everything from body movement to the pauses you add, builds up to make something funny.
In fact, the actual words are probably the least important thing – particularly because the funniest version of the joke in the movie is done by a mime (although I couldn’t quite work out why the filmmaker felt the need to attach a radio microphone to a mime).
The Aristocrats may be one of the most foul-mouthed films in history, full of talk about things virtually no other film would touch, but it’s also a fascinating look at what makes something funny. In the end it turns out there’s a lot of truth in the idea that it’s not the joke itself that’s funny, it’s the way you tell it. If you have any interest in comedy at all, I reckon this really is a must see film.
TIM ISAAC
PREVIOUS: Any Given Sunday - Or, does Oliver Stone need Ritalin or not?
NEXT: Arsenic And Old Lace - Or, is it possible to do good remakes of old movies like this?
CLICK HERE to see the index of 909 films and TV shows the Movie-A-Day Project will be covering
CLICK HERE to find out more about the idea behind The Movie-A-Day Project
CLICK HERE to follow Movie_A_Day on Twitter
