The Aristocrats
Being a fan of Penn and Teller, I decided to watch The Aristocrats the other
day. Though I am still a fan, I was not impressed, at all.
The Aristocrats is a documentary that tells the story of what is supposedly
the most disgusting, vile, politically incorrect joke ever. This joke
originated back in vaudeville and has been around ever since. No two people
tell it the same and the goal of the joke is to offend and disturb as many
people as possible in telling it. Sounded interesting and fun to me. I
like non-PC and I don't get offended (typically - it takes a lot) so I
figured this would be great. It was awful.
Basically, it has a bunch of famous comedians telling their version of the
joke. Ok, cool. But the thing is, unless you are a stand-up comic or want
to become a stand-up comic, this documentary is just a boring collection of
funny people telling a truly non-funny joke. They say it best in the film
when they say, "The Aristocrats is a joke by comedians for comedians." Great. They should have put that on the DVD sleeve and saved me the three
bucks!
Maybe back in vaudeville a joke that could include incest, all forms of
beastiality, bathroom humor, and rampant dismemberment was new and exciting. However, today it just doesn't stand up. This documentary had over 100
tellings of the joke, only 1 of which I laughed at and that was mostly
because I thought Gilbert Godfried was dead and I found it funny that he was
not only alive but held in such high esteem by his fellow comedians. That
right there is a huge black flag, warning sign about this movie: It has
Gilbert Godfried in it for a good 10 minutes and other people find him
funny. Run away! Hide! The apocalypse is at hand!!!!
There is no way I could explain how this movie could have been better except
to say it just should not have been made at all. Only an aspiring stand-up
comic would even begin to appreciate it and even though, only if he lacks
'the funny gene.'
Seriously, if you are looking for a laugh-out-loud, hilarious movie don't
rent this one. It is like the antonym of funny.
I would give the Aristocrats an overall grade of D.
The Aristocrats would get a grade breakdown as follows:
Story: A. It was a nice idea - a documentary showing the history and
evolution of a classic joke.
Acting: N/A - It was a documentary.
Originality/Innovation: B. Again, it was neat to hear the history of the
joke (though it was a joke I had never heard before).
Enjoyability grade: C-. Just couldn't get into it. It was too specialized
or cliquish for those of us outside the circle to appreciate or enjoy.
Overall grade: D. For all of the reasons stated throughout.
|
