Wednesday, August 6, 2008

The Aristocrats (2005; Paul Provenza)


"You'd never hear a physicist going, "It's a muon, you cunt."

The Aristocrats. The self proclaimed "dirtiest" joke to exist. Paul Provenza goes out in his documentary to have this inside joke between comedians explained to the general public.

"My grandmother, on the stage, has an abortion!"

A documentary on a joke is really hard to write a review about, because the only piece to the story, plot, or even theme, is the joke. So I could simply end this review by saying it is a good joke. Alright, bye.

No, no. I could never leave it at that. I will try to make this review deeper than an Uwe Boll film. I know that it really doesn't make any logical sense to proclaim a joke to be the dirtiest joke or the funniest joke, because those are simply subjective. However, the circumstances of this joke, the rules you have to follow to craft it, make it possible for this joke to be the dirtiest joke ever.

"Lemme tell you, when my seven year old daughter is giving my eleven year old son a blow job, it's priceless. "

I do not want to go into explaining the joke, as that is the job of the film, and boy does this film do it well. I am not a fan of stand up comedy. I do not really enjoy watching people sit around and tell jokes. I always needed to have more substance behind the material, or else it just felt like I was watching a guy jack off on stage. This fear of mine played into me putting this film off for a very long time, because no matter how bad I wanted to witness "The dirtiest joke ever," I had trouble assuring myself it would be funny.

Provenza does a good job keeping the joke, and film as a whole, entertaining throughout. Every time the joke is told, you think that that is as funny as they could make it, but then the next performer comes along and tops it. By the half way point, you feel like you have been in on this inside joke for years, and you almost bond with the little people on your screen. Even the camera use in the film is a joke, with very abrupt, drastic angle changes, making not only you, but the performer uncomfortable as the joke is told.

"Once for Hannukah he gave me a box of slim Tampax, and he says, "Leave them out so men will think you're really tight."

Now as the first review of the page, I will explain the very easy to understand scoring system. I will give it a score out of ten, and then add keywords and phrases to peak your interest. Later on I might decide to make it more complex, but this will suffice

Score: 4/5

Notes: Scat, Incest, 9/11, Bob Saget


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