Aristocrats, The

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

In the wake of everything we've seen on TV and in movies in recent decades, it's amazing that something as harmless as language can still stupefy us. As The Aristocrats demonstrates, there is real humor in the confrontation of taboos.

The Hollywood Reporter James Greenberg

Obscene, disgusting, vulgar and vile, The Aristocrats might be the funniest movie you'll ever see.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

At the very least, The Aristocrats provides a survey of some of the best comic minds in the business.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

What keeps the film from becoming obnoxiously redundant is the conviviality of the comedians. These are funny people even when they're not telling the joke.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

You'll either be screaming with laughter - or be incredibly offended.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Sure, this movie is proudly profane, but it's also funny.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

The Aristocrats -- the movie, not the joke -- is a working demonstration of the pleasures of the profane.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The Aristocrats has a lot of laughs, but as it giggles and blasphemes its way into areas not so far removed from the scandalous landscape of the Marquis de Sade, the movie, funny as it is, becomes exhausting and a bit depressing.

Variety Todd McCarthy

A raucous insider documentary that invites the viewer to share a secret held exclusively by comics for untold generations.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

The picture itself is so ebullient and celebratory that it practically beams with perverted innocence.

Film Threat Bob Westal

An essential for all serious humor fans who don't mind verbal grossness of the most extreme sort.

New York Magazine Ken Tucker

Gloriously filthy, ramshackle, endearing documentary.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

It works on the mind as well as the funny bone and the gag reflex.

The New Yorker David Denby

After we’ve heard three or four versions of the joke, the words no longer shock. They describe not acts but fantasies, and the movie becomes a celebration of the infinite varieties of comic style.

Slate David Edelstein

There is a special kind of pleasure in hearing jokes that have no redeeming social value. I'd like to think that this IS their social value-an invitation to free the mind.

Newsweek David Ansen

It's hands down the funniest of the year, both pushing the boundaries of bad taste and exploring how those boundaries keep shifting.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

A celebration of the naughty joke and the courage it takes to tell one.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Under normal circumstances, nothing kills a joke faster than trying to explain it. Yet here, such examination is the film's strong suit and provides much-needed respite, quite frankly, from the exhaustion of constant laughter.

Empire Chris Hewitt

Guaranteed to offend, but also guaranteed to leave you in spasms of laughter.

USA Today Claudia Puig

A documentary that dissects the essence of comedy as well as showcases outrageous improvisational humor.

Chicago Tribune Allison Benedikt

But though you'll laugh your head off, the whole film kind of morphs into a blur, with one poop/sex/abuse joke after another. It's exhausting, really. And save for the very best tellings, you do start to wonder: What's so funny?

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

A one-joke documentary stretched, with surprising success, to full length.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

For anyone interested in the art of comedy, it's a veritable primer on the vagaries of humor.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

The structure of the film mirrors the changes in the joke which in turn reflect the moral of the story -- hey, it's all a matter of perspective.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Killer-funny documentary.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

A surprisingly fresh and funny feature-length look at an unrelentingly filthy vaudeville gag that's been passed down from comic to comic like an urban legend, often changing with every telling.

LA Weekly Dave Shulman

Delicious fun, indeed, but it doesn't really require a large screen. Please send me a copy of the DVD.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

What fascinates is, first, that these comics treat the joke the way jazz musicians might treat a theme that each of them plays differently; and, second, that the passage of this joke from one comic to another is like the bonding of a profession.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Though a fine specimen of cultural anthropology, The Aristocrats is too shapeless to be satisfying as a film.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The Aristocrats might have made a nice short subject. At 87 minutes, it's like the boozy salesman who corners you with the Pinocchio torture.

Premiere Aaron Hillis

The Aristocrats lies halfway between two potentially great films: it's neither a smartly austere succession of jokesmiths with all the critique left to the audience, nor a deconstructionist essay on "crossing the line" and the language of comedy itself.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

There's something about professional comedians breaking down what's funny for civilians that gets annoying after a while.

Village Voice Ben Kenigsberg

The Aristocrats is a veritable talent show itself, albeit one that feels inescapably slight. To rejigger another ancient joke: The food at this place isn't terrible. But the portions are really small.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

You won't be too bored.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Your reaction to the film will depend on your tolerance for scatology -- some of this stuff is very funny, although most of it is grindingly, numbingly awful -- and your interest in standup comics.

TV Guide Ken Fox

But if you stick around for those final credits, you'll also have the opportunity to hear Robin Williams deliver a clean but nonetheless hilarious joke, a reminder of how funny Williams can be when he's not trying so hard.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Gianni Truzzi

It wears thin, but also provides some insight into how comics interact and view their craft. At the very least, it confirms all suspicions that they have way more fun than you.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Mighty monotonous after a while.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

As long as it stayed mainstream dirty it was okay, but when it got into perversions the American Psychiatric Society hasn't even named yet, it left me behind.