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Aristocrats, The
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MPAA RATING: Not Rated
Starring Jason Alexander, Robin Williams, Gilbert Gottfried, Jon Stewart, Emo Philips, Chris Rock, Penn Jillette, and Teller
Comedy veterans and co-creators Penn Jillette and Paul Provenza capitalize on their insider status and invite over 100 of their closet friends (who happen to be some of the biggest names in entertainment, from George Carlin, Whoopi Goldberg, Drew Carey to Gilbert Gottfried, Bob Saget, Paul Reiser and Sarah Silverman) to reminisce, analyze, deconstruct and deliver their own versions of the world's dirtiest joke, an old burlesque routine, too extreme to be performed in public, called "The Aristocrats." (ThinkFilm)
| GENRE(S): | Comedy | Documentary |
| DIRECTED BY: | Paul Provenza |
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: January 24, 2006 Video: January 24, 2006 Theatrical: July 29, 2005 |
| RUNNING TIME: | 92 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: | USA |
Nominated, Grand Jury Prize (Documentary), 2005 Sundance Film Festival
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The average user rating for this movie is 6.5 (out of 10) based on 79 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Jake gave it a4:
There's really not enough substance to keep it interesting for an hour and a half......and for some reason I didn't find it all that shocking...nothing I hadn't heard before. There are a few funny bits, but really, it was quite disappointing....just more self-indulgent nonsense from Hollywood
Ron N. gave it a6:
First off - anyone that gave this a rating of 2 or lower should be banned from EVER giving another review again. Anyone that thinks this movie was suppose to be funny (for the actual joke) needs to check into rehab ASAP. Also, anyone who's review went down the road of complaining how "The Joke had to be explained" - PLEASE do society a favor - DO NOT HAVE KIDS! Come on folks - it was a documentary – a documentary unlike one that was never put together before. It's not a masterpiece - but it deserves to be treated & graded for what it IS/WAS - instead of some pre-conceived (inaccurate) notion that you had prior to seeing it. It's not something I'd personally see multiple times - but there are pieces of the soundtrack that people have listended to OVER & OVER again.
Glenn C. gave it a9:
Cartman's telling of the joke brought me to where I was afraid I was going to die from laughing. After banging my fist, stomping my foot and squirming into unprecedented convulsions, a sort of transcendent bliss took over and I knew I's survive. But the whole rest of the movie isn't far behind. This is a masterclass in comedy. If you love the craft of comedy and it's greatest practitioners then see this immedietely.
Ethan P. gave it a6:
I can break this movie into three tones: extraordinarily hilarious (when the comedians are trying to be funny and are actually telling the joke)...probably accounts for 30 minutes at most. Insightful (a few really perceptive remarks about the jokes from the comedians)...about 3 minutes. Banal (the same lame thought repeated over and over...the bulk of the movie. Now let's get Drew Carey to say it this way. Now it's time for us to get George Carlin to spin it this way. For us, it's now time to hear Robin Williams say it in a way like this. Mind you, it's not the repetition of the joke that's bad. It's the repetition of the stupid thoughts about the joke that are bad. Let me repeat that in slightly different words. Apparently, the editor was wasted and/or needed 90 mintues of footage. Oh, and the buildup to Gilbert Gottfried's alledgedly best-ever telling of the joke is so asinine. It was probably very funny in the context of 3-weeks-after-9/11. It is not at all funny in the context of this film, wherein his telling of the joke has already been said almost verbatim all throughout the movie. Let me repeat that...
Blisterfish Cafe gave it a1:
This movie sucked. The "Joke" is stupid. It is neither shocking nor insightful. Dull, billious and a waste of time. Nothing to see here...I gave it a "1" because Gilbert made me smile for 63 seconds. Thank you.
C. S. gave it a3:
This movie was painfully average. I didn’t love it and I wasn’t terribly offended - I simply found that while there were some genuinely funny moments, that's all they were - moments. The rest of the film was repetitive and fairly boring - I kept waiting for it to get funnier, but unfortunately I'm still waiting... It’s worth checking out, but there are far better and far funnier picks.
Julie L. gave it a10:
You're going to love this film if you're interested in the craft of comedy, and in the relationships comedians have to other comedians, their intelligence about the craft and their delight in comdey's particular voices and styles. And you'll hate it if you have some kind of agenda about keeping things clean and making comedy serve a social good. Don't bother to see it if you're only interested in the dirty joke, because that's not what this documentary is about. What it's really about the delivery, the voice of the comedian, the style, the beautiful riffs of particular tellers of the joke, the sense of a pattern and the breaking of patters, almost like great improvisational jazz.The stand-up comedians are very honest about the joke's old-fashioned appeal, its roots in vaudeville, the appeal of it, nostagically. Some of their talk wanders over intosweet melancholy, like that of Paul Resie, whose take on the joke is my own favorite. Granted, some of the talk gets mind-bogglingly gross. But the movie is fascinating and funny. Listening to some of the comedians laughing and enjoying each other while telling it - I loved it, and laughed along with them, and learned quite a bit about the sense of voice among comedians.
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