Review: The Aristocrats

Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller) set out to prove that, like life, the heart of laughter lies in the journey and not in the punchline.  Featuring a veritable who's who of the comic world, the documentary explores the origins, interpretations, and evolution of one very tawdry, despicable, lurid, juvenile, sadistic and brilliant joke: the Aristocrats.  Passed along within the inner sanctum of comedians since vaudeville times, the joke has some rough parameters regarding the set up and punchline, but the genius is revealed in the blank slate of the set up. Like jazz, the hook is in the improvisation.

It was Johnny Carson's favorite joke.  Bob Saget certainly redeems himself as the do-gooder from Full House. Watch out for the hilarious Sarah Silverman, who steals every scene that she is in (a few).  But the star of the show certainly is the potty mouth, Iago himself, Gilbert Gottfried -- who in one memorable sequence, unleashes an invective that threatens to bowl over the entire comic community while an amused Hugh Hefner looks on.

The shock value that the jokesters bring unfortunately has less bite than bark, especially in this Fear Factored, middle school BJs, Hilton videos, and Neverland sleepover-ed times.  But while the joke itself isn't all that funny, it mirrors wonderfully all the individual geniuses of today's top comics -- allowing them to celebrate humor without censored political correctness, showing us all the ways in which we can find something funny and laughing at each other in the process.

3/5 stars.