Product Description

"A man walks into a talent agent's office with his family and says Have I got an act for you! The talent agent replies So what do you do?" So begins "The Aristocrats" a joke that has been handed down from comedian to comedian for decades but is rarely told on stage. The next part of the joke varies allowing for improvisation and the only requirement in telling the joke is that it be as offensive as possible.Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette spent two years documenting as many versions of this infamous joke as possible cornering comedians like Drew Carey Whoopi Goldberg Susie Essman and Paul Reiser whenever and wherever possible. The results are surprising and often take their humor to places that may make sensitive viewers uncomfortable. While comic legends such as Don Rickles The Smothers Brothers and Phyllis Diller admit their familiarity with the joke they shy away from telling their own versions. Some may be surprised however to see performers who are normally associated with family-friendly material including Bob Saget and Jason Alexander describing scatological and incestuous acts with deadpan glee. Ultimately though THE ARISTOCRATS is more than just many versions of the same dirty joke--it is an exploration of the workings of the unrestricted comic mind.System Requirements:Running Time 86 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: UNRATED UPC: 821575540759 Manufacturer No: TF-54075

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6191 in DVD
• Brand: Image Entertainment
• Released on: 2006-01-24
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, NTSC, Closed-captioned
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 130 minutes

Amazon.com
Released without a rating and billed as "the most vile, disgusting, and vulgar" film of all time, The Aristocrats is also funny enough to qualify as a minor comedy classic. We say "minor" only because hearing the same foul joke told by 100 celebrated comedians is inevitably exhausting, even though the shaggy-dog gag (a vintage in-joke among comedians, allowing outrageously obscene improvisation, and always ending with the same titular punchline) is also a fascinating litmus test for each comedian's irreverent style. As codirectors and show-biz insiders, veteran comedians Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette (from the comedy duo Penn & Teller) corralled an unprecedented parade of stand-up celebrities (George Carlin, Robin Williams, Drew Carey, Whoopi Goldberg, Sarah Silverman, the South Park kids and many, many more), each telling "the dirtiest joke of all time" in their own inimitable fashion. The sheer volume of vaudevillian vulgarity takes on a life of its own, more fascinating than funny, until Gilbert Gottfried (at a celebrity roast for Hugh Hefner, shortly after the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01) tells what is unanimously hailed as the definitive version of the joke. It's a matter of context, style, and bawdy bravado, and for better or worse, The Aristocrats will endure as a testament to a joke so bad--so uproariously bad--that no comedian worthy of the profession can resist the temptation to tell it. --Jeff Shannon

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
"You’ll laugh till it hurts."

The New York Times
"An uproarious dissection of a notorious dirty joke told by a retinue of famous comedians."

Customer Reviews

See it for Sarah Silverman's portion
I found that I quickly tired of the comedians trying to out-do each other by being dirtier and dirtier with each retelling of the joke. After laughing hysterically for the the first few minutes, by 25 minutes into the movie I was bored.

SARAH SILVERMAN RULES. Instead of retelling the joke, she sweetly and innocently describes her LIFE in the family of the Aristocrats. That is all I will tell you. It is worth the price of the DVD just to see the few minutes that Sarah Silverman offers. No kidding.

With apologies to Joe Franklin :-o

Art

Blah.
The Aristocrats (Paul Provenza, 2005)

The big secret behind the dirtiest joke ever told is this: it's not funny. Which may well be why documentarian Paul Provenza decided to spend so much of this documentary of the world's supposedly dirtiest joke on meta-- comedians talking about the joke, rather than telling it. Some of that is funny, depending on the comedian (there are some people who make a living as comics-- a very good living, probably-- and I've never been able to understand why. Quite a few of them are found here). But the joke itself and its endless variations? Nah. It makes for an interesting dissection of the world of comedians, but other than that, it's not all that hot. * ½

Just not that Funny......
I really love demaning crude socially inapropriate humor..... but this was just noy funny to me..... other than Sarah Silverman( REally funny) but its already on youtube and Lisa Lampanelli, and Giulbert Gotfreid the DVD was pretty much a waste.....