The Aristocrats
A crude joke gets its time in the
spotlight--too much time, if you ask me.
"The Aristocrats" is an old backstage joke that
is rarely told to noncomedians. It starts with a man pitching an act to a talent
agent, followed by a crude telling of unspeakable acts of scatology,
fornication, and incest, and followed up with the agent saying, "That's quite an
act, what's it called?" The punchline is "the
aristocrats!"
Here, Penn Gillette and
Paul Provenza spend 90 minutes discussing this joke to death. While it's
interesting to see a panoply of comedians discussing and dissecting the joke, it
goes on way too long. Anybody who's uncomfortable with scatology and incest is
not going to like it.
The point of
the joke, which many folks "don't get," is that it's not a joke that's meant to
be gotten. The point is to drag out the disgusting middle part out to its most
bedraggled possibilities before tossing out the punchline, which seems best
punctuated by a snap of the uplifted fingers, as suggested by Drew
Carey.
The film does some interesting
things, like having two comedians telling the joke to their infants. It also
delves into the psyches of comedians as well.
But, it could have been an hour
shorter, and that's the truth.
[Seen
at the Montgomery Cinemas.]
Posted: Wed - November 2, 2005 at 01:10 PM