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Enigmatic likes to go see movies. Since he moved back into town, we started going to movies together on a relatively regular basis. Sometimes we take KrabbyPatty along. On rare occasion, Poseable Nurse joins us. Neither of them came tonight. This is a good thing.
I have just seen the most foul, disgusting, revolting piece of trash ever. The Aristocrats is a documentary about a joke that comedians tell each other. They don't tell it on stage, they tell it after the show, or at parties. There is a set up, and there is a punchline, and the middle is improvised. The goal is to find the boundries and push them, to make the joke longer than anyone else, and more offensive. And then a little more offensive, in case the next guy could top you otherwise. And then a little more offensive for good measure.
They had something like 75 comedians and writers talking about and telling this joke. The humor includes rape, incest, bodily fuctions, violence, racial slams, sexual orientation slams, and undoubtedly stuff I am forgetting because at a certain point your brain overloads and you just can't take it in any more. And then it gets a little worse. I was hiding behind my hands for at least a third of the movie.
A large percentage of people on this board should not go see this movie. Most LDS people, for instance, probably shouldn't even think about seeing this movie. If you've ever been offended by anything anyone has ever posted on Hatrack, you shouldn't go see this movie. If you blush when your dad's uncle tells a dirty joke at the family reunion, don't go see this movie.
Everyone else. . . it was hilarious.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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That's what she says. I thought it was morally reprehesible waste of film with no redeeming value whatsoever, and the reprobates who made it ought to be drug out into the street and shot so they can get a head start on their eternal damnation.
I thought that we were going to see a charming little disney movie about a family of high-class felines.
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I heard Bob Sagat had one of the more vile jokes in the movie...I'm still finding it hard to believe Danny Tanner has a sick sense of humor...
Posts: 796 | Registered: Mar 2005
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In the middle of his bit he asked if he could have a copy of the tape so he could send it to the Full House kids.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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You know, I have absolutely no interest in this film. I've heard a variety of takes on the original joke, which is funny only in the sense that it's so woefully unfunny that it's become legendary meta-funny. But a movie about a joke which is essentially about the joke itself is at least one level too self-referential for me.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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I disagree. My roommate was really excited about this movie and wanted to go and see it the day it came out. I didn't know much about it except that it was a bunch of people telling dirty jokes. I can handle dirty jokes. But these weren't really jokes- they were just dirty. Other than a select few that were mostly variations on the actual joke, they weren't funny at all. They just tried to be as gross as possible, and then there was no comedic relief. I walked out.
Posts: 1947 | Registered: Aug 2002
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I will not be seeing this movie. But check out some of Penn's articles about the making of it over at the movie's website if you want some sense of what's going on in it, what they were trying to do. The articles are great, whatever the movie ended up being.
But hey, I like Penn.
Posts: 1894 | Registered: Aug 2000
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It is pretty self-referential in a way. A lot of them talk about the joke being what comedians tell other comedians. On some levels its one-upsmanship or an outlet for the vulgarity that they couldn't do in most venues or on tv. Later in the movie some comedians talk about how the standards have changed and the sex and obscenity of the joke isn't that shocking anymore: There's worse than that on South Park (which is a segue into the South Park animated version of the joke).
I really don't recommend this movie for most people. Apart from Penn's "Don't go if you've ever been offended by ANY word, ever" there's also the fact that it's comedians talking about a joke, and how to tell it. If you'd rather just laugh then think about the craft aspects of performing comedy, this might not be the movie for you. Also, since the title of the movie is the punchline, there's little to no "surprise" at the end of the jokes - it really is about how dirty it can be.
Some bits that are just brilliant, though: The guy telling the joke as a card trick. Sarah Silverman's "I was an Aristocrat" story. The mime telling the joke. The talent agent's office packed with scripts and books and records and who knows what. George Carlin's very technical description of the act, with the guy explaining the details of his diet beforehand. The Onion editorial staff discussing how to make the joke still offensive to a modern, jaded audience. Gilbert Gottfried's unplanned telling of the joke at the Friars' Club Roast after his 9/11 joke is booed as being tasteless.
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