Wanted to like it more, but I agree with those who said it seemed slipshod in its construction. Humor requires economy.

I laughed during most of the film,. Being short and quick comments prevented me from getting bored at anytime despite it being an hour n half interview as a film. I did get uncomfortable at some interpretations on the joke, especially as I work with kids. uncomfortable cos I was laughing at the the joke. I would have been rolling on the floor at Gilbert Godfrey telling it in the manner in which he did, excellent!… Expand

Lacking in artistic direction, The Aristocrats subjects the viewer to 92 monotonous minutes of hearing a simplistic joke. Of mild interest is the culture of comedy that underpins the joke -- which could be covered thoroughly in 20 minutes. Overall, an inefficiently produced piece of boredom.

Benjamin P. is right.

The hype led me to believe that this movie wouldn't just be funny, it would be thought-provoking and even life-changing. Well, it fell a little short. There were some funny moments: George Carlin's matter-of-fact delivery was the best, and Howie Mandel's absurdist circus version was good too. It didn't change my life, though. I just don't find showbiz navelgazing that interesting. This is a great documentary on a blah subject.… Expand

It's amazing how excruciating an experience watching this film was-considering all of the amazing comedians it features. But that doesn't save it from being the most monotonous, poorly shot, and all together painful-to-watch film i've seen in ages.

Laugh out loud funny. The entire theater was roaring. It is not only humorous, but alos very interesting in hearing comedians disect the joke and analyze its humor.

Extremely raunchy, disgusting, nauseating, taboo-busting...and insanely wet-your-pants hilarious. Bob Saget's version of the joke alone is worth the price of admission.

The version by George Carlin that starts the movie is absolutely hilarious, but the joke quickly becomes old. That said, watching the various comics riff on a theme is fascinating and revealing. The South Park version is hilarious, maybe because they are potty mouthed already, but the card trick version and Sarah Silverman's rendition were also great. I recommend it with the usual proviso that people who are easily offended should definitely stay away.… Expand

A very adult movie. If you love comedians and can take some shocking language this movie delivers. It is different from all of the other movies out there. Fun.

This movie was extremely offensive and disgusting and not even in a Chris Rock stand-up kind of way. It was offense In a let-me-say-the-most-unimaginably foul, abusive and degrading things I've thought about doing to women since I realized that the size of my - ahem - ego and bad smell forced me into no other profession than comedy. The amount of misogyny in this film shocked me into crawling over about 5 people to get out of the theater. On top of that, it was not funny. It's about as funny as going to a comedy club and watching one hundred different comedians parade onto the stage in line, stop one by one, tell the exact same, extremely un-witty, joke, then rinse, repeat. Not funny. Extremely disturbing. Every comedian in that movie is suspect, in my opinion. Maybe I would thinking raping and killing your wife was funnier if I did not see it in the newspaper every day.… Expand

It's pretty funny, but more often it's repetitive and a bit boring. Frankly I'm surprised there isn't any violent murder anywhere - they have rape, incest, beastiality, and scat... so you'd think somewhere in some telling there'd be the buying of slave children and decapitation or gunshot wounds to the head. But no, it's too clean for that.

I don't understand the comedy behind such vulgarity. People with such humor should re-assess their bad characters. Unedcated degenerates with no sense of civility will have more class. The joke is not even funny has no class and one who watched it or responds in kind to it is degrading humanity and bringing us closer to our animal ancestors.

People like "WK" are the reason that this movie works--basically, being offended is in this way is the same way as being scared by a slasher flick; fun as long as you know it's not serious. This was a really funny movie, and news flash; they're just words. Nobody REALLY had intercourse with a gorilla.

When was the last time you laughed at a documentary? This movie is little different. The movie has the look and feel of a documentary, but it just so happens that the subject matter is (literally) a joke. I was hoping for a raucous roller-coaster ride of comedy riffs from our nation's greatest comedians. Instead, what I got was extreme over-analyzing of a bawdy joke. This movie thus ruins a joke the way an art critic ruins a painting--by trying to dissect it every which-a-way to get into every nook and cranny of the creator's mind. This movie could have been funny. It certainly has the star power and subject matter. But it fails (let me put it this way: in the theater I was in, there was maybe 10-15 minutes of audible laughter during the entire show).… Expand

It should be marketed for 9th grade dropouts How brave does a criric have to be before advising anyone with a college or even a highschool education that this film is literately s..t and that he would be wasting his time and money if he went to see it.

Crazy funny, different from anything else out there with really, really nasty language. Kind of a guilty pleasure.

This flick is really vulgar, certainly not family fare. But having said that, it sure is a hoot. Try watching it with your eyes open and enjoy it for what it is. It is not high comedy, but it is also not scripted. It is an impromptu romp through most of today's zaniest funny folks. Had this been made twenty or thirty years ago, it might have been both funnier, and filthier.

I was expecting this to be shocking, but it was a bit tame. Still some amusing moments though!

Avoid this movie if you are offended by obscenity. I'm not and this very off-color film blue my socks off--more by the facinating look at comedy and comediens, rather than by the riffs on The Joke. George Carlin did it best; Sarah Silverman's take was fabulous.

Rather than respond directly to Benjamin P's criticism, which is certainly a salient one, allow me to quote Dave Hickey's book "Air Guitar" on his childhood experiences watching Jerry Mouse run over Tom Cat with a lawnmower, certainly as much of a crime in real life as anything mentioned in this movie: "We kids knew whereof we spoke. We held symposia on 'issues of representation' at recess, and it turned out that _everyone_ knew that if you ran over a cat with a lawn mower, the cat would be one bloody mess and probably die. Thus, when the much-beleaguered cartoon, Tom, was run over by a lawn mower and got only a shaved path up his back, we laughed. It was funny _because_ it wasn't real! Which is simply to say that the children at Santa Monica Elementary, at the dawn of the nineteen fifties, without benefit of Lacan or Lukacs, managed to stumble upon an axiom of representation that continues to elude graduate students in Cultural Studies; to wit, that there is a vast and usually dialectical difference between that which we wish to _see_ and that which we wish to see _represented_--that the responses elicited by representations are absolutely contingent upon their status as representations--and upon knowledge of the difference between actuality and representation." What this quote has to do with this movie is an exercise left to the reader. Personally, I would have given this movie a 10 based on its intellectual cogency, but I strongly dislike gross-out humor, which limits the appeal of repeated viewing.… Expand

Awesome.

"Comedy is not pretty," said Steve Martin famously, and even though Martin himself doesn't appear in this 89-minute encyclopedic analysis of all you'd ever want to know plus much that you don't about the world's dirtiest joke, The Aristocrats certainly proves his point. Suffice it to say that, if you were one of those folks that were offended or disturbed by Me and You and Everyone We Know's delicately handled subplot involving the 6-year-old and the cybersex website, then you have no business being within a 6-block radius of any multiplex showing this! The joke itself, involving a family introducing a unique new act to a talent agent, isn't much, and isn't supposed to be: it's simply the Oreo cookie that each individual comedian fills with his or her own brand of--well, given how many different types of bodily fluids and semi-fluids are spewed, swirled and sloshed around in most versions, I don't suppose that "cream filling" is the most apt of metaphors, is it? Incest, bestiality, necrophilia and various other sorts of less than sterling human behavior are all in a day's work here; The Aristocrats is proudly trumpeted as a film with something to offend everyone, and personally I was doing just fine until Andy Dick described a "strawberry sundae". (Congratulations, Andy, both for tipping my personal scale and for living up to half your name!) To call this movie "uneven" is to either miss or belabor the point; it's a given that some comics tell the joke funnier than others, but how funny you find individual renditions will probably depend on your liking of the comedians involved. (For me: George Carlin, Paul Reiser and Michael McKean si, Rip Taylor and Carrot Top no way, Jose!) It also goes without saying that the best variations on the story are the most unique, original or imaginative: particularly the card trick, the mime act and the Amish version (which was completely clean, but drew one of the biggest laughs from my audience). Paradoxically, I laughed harder at some of the good stuff than I did maybe at any movie since South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, and yet must stop short of a full recommendation because the very concept of the movie is problematic: it kills the joke by explaining it to death. Far too many jump cuts, overdubs and other editing tricks get in the way of the enjoyment (what's the point of intercutting between two top-ranked comedians telling the joke the exact same way, anyway?); this is one of the only movies ever made where I desperately wanted the filmmakers to nail the freaking camera to the ground already! Nowhere is this more evident than in Gilbert Gottfried's post-9/11 Friars Club performance, which is repeatedly described as brilliant, hilarious and cleansing...but the problem is, directors Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette keep interrupting Gottfried's footage to cut back to people telling us how great his version was. Consequently, and obviously through no fault of his own, Gottfried loses all momentum and I honestly didn't see what made it so special. Sadly, if I were to retell this movie as an Aristocrats joke, it would go something like this: "A family walks into a talent agent's office. They tell him, 'Wait 'til you see our act!' The agent asks 'What is it?' Halfway through, the agent falls asleep."… Expand

ABSOLUTE RUBBISH (and here are some good reasons): Maybe i'm becoming sanely insane and I just am not 'with it' anymore.. Maybe my expectation of great comedians is not to be cheap, nasty and 'safe' - but to be witty and observant, make cutting edge, honest and relevant social and political commentary.. The Aristocrats joke has its place within comedy but this doco/film killed any mystery or joy about what it is.. and should be. One of the worst editing jobs i've seen, you have cut and splice bits and pieces - snippets of different comedians lines put together in an attempt to cheapen laughs - the result was chaotic and absurd. Terrible camera work distracted any attention to detail in the subtle gestres of the various comedians.. BUT the worst part in this doco single handedly must be the fact that THE JOKE HAD TO BE EXPLAINED - with emphasis given on why the punch line is so funny 'given the context'. Insulting given the fact that there was only one joke, told in variation by some big name comedians.. I felt sick not because of the content (which can be brilliantly told - particularly South Parks version comes to mind) but because yet again the few of us who are still insanely sane know that WE DESERVE FAR FAR BETTER THAN THIS CHEAP TRASH - The original joke has earned a new meaning in today's society - it has been violated and exploited perhaps beyond repair and the masses will lap it up because they lap up everything and anything. I gave it a 1 because they managed to persuade so many comedians to take part in a doco that serves to degrade their reputation. Well Done!… Expand

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

Gilbert Godfrey's rendition of the joke was single handedly worth the price of admission.

This is just funny and clever. It's not about vulgarity, it's not about the joke. The joke is just a way to get inside the world, process and craft of comedy. The challenges and questions about where lines get crossed are compelling. And it's funnier by far than any typical hollywood comedy. It's full of people having fun and we can enjoy it along with them as they have a blast. The movie's structure is brilliant - it takes us along escalating levels of transgression, and gives us variations of process along the way. And it is cathartic to roll around in the filth when no one gets hurt by doing so. This movie is a great documentary about a rarified subject that entertains the whole way through. And the fact that so many people disagree is part of the point of the whole movie. Everyone's lines are crossed at different places, everyone's sense of humor is different, and everyone's interpretation of what this movie is about is different. Hmmm.. that's what the doc is saying about the joke. Interesting... miss that obvious fact and of course you won't undertsand how brilliant this little gem of a movie is. It's so much smarter than it pretends to be, and that some people here understand. I have watched the dvd a few times already and it gets better each time.… Expand

One review says that you'll either love it and laugh the whole time or be terribly offended. I disagree. I wasn't offended one bit (on the contrary, I think I could come up with a better aristocrats joke than half these guys), but I was hardly laughing the whole time. Although there are a few funny moments (Bob Saget's is overrated, Cartman is hilarious), it wears really thin by the end, and the last third at least is just really tedious. One of the weakest documentaries in a year full of great ones including Murderball, Grizzly Man, Enron, and New York Doll.… Expand

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.

Hilarious, smart, daring and even endearing. It's one of a kind and the funniest movie I've ever seen. It's artists creating before your very eyes, and taking you across lines of language and taboo, all the while laughing the whole way.

A rare and surprisingly insightful look at the art of telling a story (joke in this case). Without being heavy handed or pretentious, the movie explores the ideas of the value of style over substance. In other words, content is dependent on the measenger.

Shocking and original. We all discussed the movie afterwards and everyone liked it. BUT it is not for the easily offended! It was fun.

Hilarious. One of the best films of the year. One damn good documentary. Although... it does loose a little steam at the end.

Very funny. The South Park bit is worth the price of admission alone. While Howie Mandel did slow things down, a particular tip of the hat goes to Eddie Izzard, who is spectacularly unfunny and uninteresting. Bob Saget may never get a family gig again. If you have the least bit of curiosity or interest, go see it - but it is apparent that some footage was shot with no intention to make this into a feature length move.… Expand

I enjoyed the movie and was not suprised by the language. I really think that no one could have gone to this movie and not known it was for adults only. Like they say...it was only a joke. We all went to see the movie because we like comedians and wanted to see something that was different. My group had a fun time.

Putting aside the content...it's seeing real comic masters at wotk that makes this a great film to savor every moment, word and expression! A rare study in human conciousness at it's best!

No comment: I am not a commmenting kind of person. But normally I don't even like those like of jokes.

Even more fun to watch all the comics laughing at the end.

Because the CONTENT of this film is such strong stuff what is lost on almost every reviewer is how brilliantly the film has been constructed and edited. Far from its being a ramshackle pasting-together of tiresome retelling of one joke, there is a dramatic arc that gives the film a feeling of movement toward an important event--in this case, Gilbert Gottfried's hilarious and poignant use of the joke at the Friars Roast that took place awfully soon after "nine-eleven", right in New York. If you enjoyed Dick Van Dyke ( in his role of head-writer for a comedian) when he would explain a joke as he was telling it and physically acting it--if you still laughed at the joke that he had dismantled--then you'll love this wonderful Master Class on humor. This is a film to be seen first as an entertainment and then studied.… Expand

I was prepared to love this film, instead I found it annoying. Some of the comics were hilarious; they were funny without being cruel. It's revealing that some of the others thought violent abuse was amusing. Also revealing is that some great living comics WEREN'T in the film. And the editors made a mess of the Eddie Izzard clips.

I enjoyed the movie and highly recommend it to adults who enjoy their comedy uncensored

There's an old saw that goes something like this: You can joke about anything, as long as it's funny. I subscribe to this school of comedic thought. Jokes about 9/11, the Holocaust, racist jokes, sexist jokes, jokes about rape, etc, all have the potential for humor if presented in a certain way, to a certain audience. That said, I can't imagine anyone seeing this movie who didn't know what it was about, and if they did, that would be their fault for being a poor consumer. In any event, I did find the movie hilarious, and it had only a few slow spots, surprisingly led by Howie Mandell. This is an adult movie, for adult minds, and if someone has to explain to you that the comedians are not reciting their fantasies or actually encouraging people to carry out what is described in their version of the joke, then you have issues.… Expand

Fantastic. Gilbert Gottfried, Sarah Silverman & the South PArk boys steal the show.

Masterfully reveals the artistry that goes into comedy - in the framework of a joke so foul, you'll either vomit, or feel ashamed that you're too amused to find the time.

My husband and I laughed so hard we missed half the movie. You have to remember it is all just a joke. Funniest movie I have ever seen. Can't wait for DVD.

I was prepared to appreciate this movie on the basis of the reviews and viewer comments but I must admit that it turned my stomach. How much funnier it would have been to turn this sad tale on its head with a more than wholesome storyline and a disgusting and surprising punch line.

Once you understand what the joke is all about, it gets a lot more funny.

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...… Expand

Absolutely hilarious. You'd have to be utterly humorless not to revel in this brilliant exercise in inspired scatology. The entire audience was in hysterics... I loved it.

If you like comedy and comedy clubs go see this movie. This was completely original and outlandish. I laughed and laughed and will see it again.

Who knew that such a vulgar movie could be so cowardly? Given the perfect opportunity to examine why vulgarity is considered funny, why so many jokes revolve around a profound hatred of women, the movie takes a pass. The most interesting thing for me was that the joke was never ever funny - what was funny were the incidentals around the joke . . . the vulgarity itself was never funny. Needless to say, the movie didn't look into this. A huge disappointment.… Expand

It was vulgar and funny. A bit schocking but as good as advertised

So damn funny I couldnt breath.

Utterly unique documentary - the brainchild of comedian Paul Provenza and magician Penn Jillette - could be subtitled "Anatomy of a Dirty Joke," as dozens of comics - famous and obscure, young and old, male and female, brilliant and awful - take turns telling and retelling the same joke. The joke itself (usually known in comedy circles as "The Aristocrat") is simple and not very funny; the payoff comes in watching each comedian telling the joke in his or her own style, adding layers of filth, grossness, and perverse detail to their particular version. It's not enough for me to warn you to stay away if you're easily offended; if you think that there's ANY possibility that mere words will truly upset you, find another movie. But if you have a genuine interest in the inner workings of the comic mind and a high tolerance for outrageous descriptions of every act of sex and scatology imaginable, this is a must-see. While a few of the performances fall flat (and an out-of-it Eddie Izzard appears to be plastered during his bit), many soar, in their own, sick ways. Sitcom stars Bob Saget and Paul Reiser are uproarious in ways that fans could never even imagine from Full House or Mad About You. Kevin Pollak tells the whole thing while impersonating Christopher Walken (!) Tom Smothers, who knows the joke, tells it to brother Dick, who doesn't. Carrie Fisher brings her famous parents (Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher) into the story, while a very pregnant Judy Gold incorporates her unborn baby. Novelty acts include a juggling team (impressive), a mime (surprisingly funny), a card-trick artist (remarkable), and a ventriloquist (awful.) Arguably the funniest, and certainly of the most historic interest, is Gilbert Gottfried's rare public telling of the joke at a Friars Club roast (of Hugh Hefner) just weeks after September 11, 2001. Gottfried's fearlessly outrageous, take-no-prisoners rendition draws huge, cathartic laughs not only from the audience, but from his fellow comics, who gasp in helpless disbelief as he tells the joke that has become their "little secret." Some may grow weary of the repetition of the material, but I found this to be a fascinating, original, and often explosively funny cinematic experiment.… Expand

Like nothing you've ever seen before.

Aristocrats is a great a movie as reviews suggest. It consists of telling the same joke or parts of it about 1,019 times and the joke is not even funny after the second time. It's only worth your time because of all of the great comedians that somehow got paid off to do the movie. Not Recommended.

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.… Expand

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.

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.… Expand

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.… Expand

Its a shame that they did not just have the entire footage for each comedian from start to finish rather than merely showing exerps from each comedian. Not for the faint hearted. Possibly the most foul things to hear. Hilarious to see some comedians such as Gilbert Gottfried but others don't make me laugh as much. It's easier to type it into youtube to find your favourite comedian telling the joke.… Expand