The Aristocrats

The Aristocrats is about a joke. Just one joke; possibly the worlds most vulgar and offensive joke, told by 100 different comedians over a period of an hour and a half. The film is presented as a documentary about the joke, and essentially comprises interviews with the comedians as they both tell the joke and relate their experiences with it over the years. Usually a single joke would be hard pressed to hold up its own documentary, but a portion of the film is spent explaining the background and development of the joke, presented as a comedic secret known by many comics, but rarely used on audiences. The other reason the joke can have such sustained appeal is that only the opening situation and the punch-line remain the same from telling to telling. Once away from these markers, the joke becomes an exercise in invention, spontaneity, charisma and obscenity as the teller uses the middle part of the joke to produce any kind of story he likes.

The joke can be as long or short as the teller wants and there are no taboo subjects. It is this that lives longest in the memory after seeing the film, as what emerges from comedians with no bounds on their performance is a veritable torrent of filth. This then is a warning, as this film is not for the weak of mind or stomach, not due to any graphic visuals, but graphic descriptions. The subjects covered include every possible combination of sex, violence, paedophilia, incest, bestiality, scatology and bodily functions of any kind. The miracle of the film is that the joke is funny, maybe not every time, and maybe not to everyone, but to those people who are able to laugh at the horror and absurdity of the imagery produced, this film is gold-dust. This will test the will of anyone who feels that while British comics are not particularly well represented, their American counterparts more than hold their own. This is a film which pulls no punches, censors nothing and revels in its own vulgarity at every turn.

Patrick Telford