The Aristocrats

Stand-up comedians share their take on a classic dirty joke in director Paul Provenza’s hilarious documentary. Hearing the same joke over and over again for 90 minutes doesn’t sound like the best of times. The first few minutes of The Aristocrats provide a sense of dread in making the film’s intent clear. It is, after all, a documentary about an all-time classic filthy joke, one that stands as a dirty little secret among stand-up comedians. The beauty of this joke, whose punch line is the film’s title, is that only the setup and finale are similar with repeated telling. The movie gets funnier and funnier. Comedians, who come off as a secret society not unlike the Masons, often use the middle of this gag as a platform for some of the crudest, vilest, most unbelievably foul material they can muster. No doubt Bob Saget has the most deranged comic mind on the planet. Gilbert Gotfried is pretty darn disgusting, too.