As soon as I heard about The Aristocrats, I knew I had to see it. Not because I am such a comedy fan, but because I'm not.
Comedy terrifies me. I like funny movies and books and plays and jokes, but I have never been to a comedy show of any kind. The idea of someone trying to be funny and failing is just too painful, so painful that I'd rather not take the risk, even if that means I sacrifice the possibility of gut-splitting laughter.
A film full of comedians telling different versions of the same joke sounded positively catastrophic, way too much for me to handle, which of course meant I had to see it. I mean, this was supposedly the funniest joke ever told, this was my chance, if this wasn't funny, I would know I was right, and comedy was just a colossal cultural mistake.
Of course we didn't manage to see it in the theater, and now we have a membership at the video store which means we can see lots of movies for free (sort of, I mean, once you've paid the money, the movies feel free) but can't see new movies when they first come out. And then I wanted to wait for S. But this weekend the stars finally aligned, and Saturday night, post-margaritas at the excellent cheap Mexican restaurant, post-E reading Hop on Pop, post kids to bed, we sat down to watch The Aristocrats.
I was dreading it. There was no way, I thought, that this movie could possibly be as funny as everyone said.
Well, it was.
Not every moment. Not every version (Sarah Silverman just didn't do it for me, sorry). But I would have to say we pretty much fell off the couch clutching our stomachs more times than I can count. Lots of the comedians try to explain why the joke is so funny, some more convincingly than others, but the bottom line is that the joke is funny because the comedians are funny. Especially George Carlin, Whoopi Goldberg, and Bob Saget (I'll never be able to watch Full House with a straight face again), but a bunch of others too, including the mime.
So maybe I'm wrong about comedy.
Or maybe not.
Maybe sick twisted scatological perversion is just funny.
[And why did the religious right not go insane over this movie? Did it just slip under the radar, or did they go insane and I missed it? I mean, that is one sick twisted scatologically perverse joke, or rather, lots of sick twisted scatologically perverse jokes.]
3 comments:
I was wondering about this movie. When I read about it I went and looked up the joke and you know, it ain't funny when you read it.
I always knew poor Bob Saget was funny. He lamented all the way to the bank about going out on stage for a stand-up gig and having to dump his act because there were all these starry-eyed little girls in the audience.
Ack! I watched the movie with my in-laws. My husband wasn't even there! What a crisis. Though I did love Sarah Silverman the best, the whole movie was a strange combination of rolling of the couch laughing and trying not to laugh for fear your MIL has new insight. I liked Andy Richter telling the joke to his baby too. That was classic.
Thank you for posting about this! I had been on the fence about whether to ppv this. Now I think I most certainly will.
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