'Aristocrats' filmmakers shrug off fuss over joke

nickel · 07-26-2005, 10:54 AM

Quote:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - It is not "Fahrenheit 9/11" or "The Passion of the Christ," but low-budget film "The Aristocrats" is fast becoming this summer's controversial movie because of only one thing -- a joke.

"Passion" kicked up a fuss over religious issues and violence, and anti-Bush documentary "Fahrenheit" became an election year call-to-arms for critics of the U.S. president.

In "The Aristocrats," which debuts in U.S. theaters on Friday, comedians Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette, who is part of the team Penn & Teller, chose 100 comics from Robin Williams to Eddie Izzard to tell the same, dirty joke.

There is only one punchline but as many ways to tell the joke as there are comics. The filmmakers' goal is two-fold: making audiences laugh and showing how comic minds work.

But the way the joke is told is so filthy -- filled with scatological and sexual references -- that AMC theaters, the U.S. No. 2 movie chain, has chosen to exclude "Aristocrats" from its theaters. While some movie marketers might try to work avoid controversial topics when promoting films, Provenza and Jillette are trumpeting them.

"We have no desire to sucker-punch people ... We're letting people know what they are going to see," Jillette told Reuters. "We have a movie that has no nudity, no violence and unspeakable obscenity."

The filmmakers did not seek a rating from the Motion Picture Association of America because they believed the film would be slapped with an NC-17 rating, which would have restricted it to adults only and caused some theaters to refuse to show it.

BAD JOKE, FUNNY PEOPLE

"There is a joy and love in this movie that belies the notion that it's filthy and vulgar," Provenza said.

The joke begins when a performer walks into a talent office seeking work. An agent asks him about his act, so the performer explains it in the most vulgar terms including descriptions of body functions and sex acts. The punchline comes when the agent asks what the act is called. The performer answers: "The Aristocrats."

As punchlines go, it's not that funny. But the way some comics describe the act makes audiences howl. Others, however, won't repeat the joke, and still more startle audiences with a retelling that seems to be pulled from real life. What emerges is a sort of portrait of comedians at work and at play.

"It's like giving 100 canvasses to 100 painters and saying paint this nude person," said Bob Saget, the former star of wholesome TV comedy "Full House."

"Some people won't paint it because it's a nude person. Some people will paint it incredibly sexually; some people will paint it covered up. Some will paint it deviantly," he said.

Saget said that he has seen many documentaries that try to explain comedy and tell how jokes are dreamed up, but none that show the jokesters improvising on one tall tale.

JOKES TO JAZZ

"The process of creating comedy is no different than the process Picasso went through or Mozart went through," said Provenza. "That was the sort of undercurrent for me in making this movie. I said, 'You know what, maybe I can get people to understand and respect what artists people in comedy are."'

Provenza said they used "The Aristocrats" joke not because it is dirty, but because its structure allows each comedian to take the story in a new direction.

Jillette likens the improvising done by the comedians to improvising jazz music. "There's really not much of a difference between Gilbert Gottfried and (John) Coltrane in terms of what goes on in their heads," he said.

To catch the comedians at their most relaxed, Provenza and Jillette shot the documentary using small digital cameras and a limited crew. They arranged for interviews in performers' homes or offices or backstage before a show.

Some comedians such as Wendy Liebman and Paul Reiser surprised the filmmakers with their renditions of the joke, which Jillette liked. "The idea was to be surprised," he said.

What the pair did not expect was that the film would become a lightning rod for controversy.

"People in comedy, most of us, we were the ones that got in trouble in high school," Provenza said. "We have the same defense we had when we were getting thrown out. It's just a joke."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/leisure_a...9mBHNlYwMxNjk3

sounds like an interesting movie to me.

Jenny · 07-26-2005, 11:06 AM

Me too!

faither · 07-26-2005, 11:16 AM

Now that's a movie I'd go see...

If ony we could find a babysitter! Big fan of obscenity here.

bachviet · 07-26-2005, 11:19 AM

I love dirty jokes.

DaFunkyUnit · 07-26-2005, 01:07 PM

http://www.spschat.com/RareMedia/vid...ristocrats.wmv

WARNING!!! NOT SAFE FOR WORK!!!! OR AT LEAST TURN DOWN THE VOLUME, YOU INSENSITIVE CLOD!!!

Airencracken · 07-26-2005, 01:12 PM

Now I have to see this. Penn & Teller rule. Bullsh*t is a great show.

Nija · 07-26-2005, 02:14 PM

I love Penn (& Teller, though he's a bit quiet for my likes

)

I've been watching my friends copies of BS, and that is really eye opening.

I also heard Penn promoting this on KROQ recently, and he was saying the only theatre system that won't be playing this movie is AMC. Then he went into a tirade about it (I don't remember it all, but it was excessively funny).

I told the girl we are going to see this. She didn't sound too happy about it, but whatever

Kevster · 07-26-2005, 03:44 PM

The last movie I paid to see was 'March of the Penguins' and I really enjoyed that.

This will definitely be the next movie I pay to see!

ialsohaveadream · 07-26-2005, 03:56 PM

I remember seeing the joke before I knew the premise of the movie, and wondering what the hell I just watched. It makes way more sense when you know what the movie is.

Yossarian · 07-26-2005, 06:55 PM

BS has to be THE best show i've seen in a long time

Bires · 07-26-2005, 10:12 PM

I'll wait for it on FOX TV in a couple of years.

eSDee · 07-27-2005, 12:57 AM

714kb! http://packy.dardan.com/walky/albums/album11/acm.gif

Butch · 07-29-2005, 09:38 AM

Ahem . . . posted a long time ago . . . but still figured I'd give myself some credit

http://www.gotapex.com/forums/showth...ht=aristocrats (The Aristocrats)

Anywho, the movie got a rave review from the NY Times . . . I doubt I'll get to see it while I'm out in Germany, so I'll have to wait until I'm back in the States and it's out on DVD . . . bah

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/29/mo...aris.html?8dpc

July 29, 2005
A Filthy Theme and Variations
By A. O. SCOTT
"The Aristocrats" is - how shall I put it? - an essay film, a work of painstaking and penetrating scholarship, and, as such, one of the most original and rigorous pieces of criticism in any medium I have encountered in quite some time.

For those of you who have not already put down your newspaper and rushed off to buy tickets (and I hereby authorize the advertising department at ThinkFilm to plaster the previous sentence wherever it likes), perhaps I should add that "The Aristocrats" is also possibly the filthiest, vilest, most extravagantly obscene documentary ever made. Visually, it is as tame as anything on PBS or VH1's "Behind the Music," but there is scarcely a minute of screen time that does not contain a reference to scatology, incest, bestiality and practices for which no euphemisms or Latinate names have been invented.

The film, made by Penn Jillette (the louder half of the Penn and Teller magic and comedy act) and Paul Provenza, who directs, is being released unrated, and one theater chain has already declined to book it, on the grounds that its appeal is too "narrow." That's one way of looking at it, but surely there are few forms of expression more universal than the dirty joke. Those curious about why this should be so - why from a very early age we are prone to laugh at references to sex, excrement and other bodily activities - can of course consult sages like Henri Bergson, Sigmund Freud or the evocatively named Gershon Legman, author of the two-volume "Rationale of the Dirty Joke." But none of these learned men are as funny as "The Aristocrats," or as revealing, through example and analysis, of the craft and tradition involved in what professional comedians call "working blue."

Mr. Jillette and Mr. Provenza start with a simple premise and a single joke, one that has a long and esoteric history going back to vaudeville days. The punch line is the title of the film, and the setup, which takes place in a talent booker's office, has a whiff of stale "Broadway Danny Rose" cigar smoke about it.

I won't say anything more, because I can't work blue in this room, and also because I don't want to spoil it. The point of the "aristocrats" joke, though, and of the movie, is that it can't really be spoiled, partly because it's so bad ("the opposite of a joke, really," one comedian muses) and partly because the humor resides in the delivery. While professional comedians rarely use it onstage - as George Carlin points out, most comedians don't really tell jokes onstage - they like to try out their own versions on one another, competing to see who can tell the dirtiest, most extreme, most shocking and longest version.

Through a series of interviews with an all-star cast of dozens of performers, television writers and other intellectuals - among the best known are Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams, Jon Stewart, Drew Carey and the animated boys of "South Park" - the filmmakers overturn two bits of received wisdom about humor. The first is that what is funny cannot be explained, the second that it dies by repetition. Indeed, the more you hear the joke - and you hear it, in bits and pieces and all the way through, at least 60 or 70 times - the deeper you appreciate its peculiar fascination. And as various comedians reflect on its meaning and history - Mr. Carlin is particularly thoughtful in this regard - you come to understand the codes and customs of that peculiar guild that makes a living by trying to make the rest of us laugh.

Along the way you learn something about the history of American comedy. Chris Rock explains that in the old days, raunchiness was not as much of a taboo for black comedians because they were excluded from television and mainstream theaters and clubs. Phyllis Diller, for her part, maintains that the first time she heard the joke she fainted, and that it was generally not the kind of humor a woman would indulge in. This notion is challenged by Lisa Lampanelli and brilliantly subverted by Sarah Silverman, who gives the joke its creepiest, funniest inflection by pretending that it isn't a joke at all.

And while "The Aristocrats" is full of howlingly funny moments - Kevin Pollak blending the joke with a Christopher Walken impression; Paul Reiser, Gilbert Gottfried and Bob Saget (yes, him) turning in notably disgusting renditions - it works on the mind as well as the funny bone and the gag reflex. It makes you reflect on the mysteries of timing, context and delivery, those aspects of discipline that make comedy an art and separate the pros from the cocktail-party bores. It also takes you deep into the land of the id, not just of individual comedians (some of whom have pretty scary ids), but also into that murky collective terrain of desire, regression and fear where we all started out and where a few brave souls remain to make a living.

The Aristocrats

Opens in New York and Los Angeles today.

A film by Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette; directed by Mr. Provenza; edited by Emery Emery and Mr. Provenza; music by Gary Stockdale; produced by Peter Adam Golden; released by ThinkFilm. Running time: 86 minutes. This film is not rated.

WITH: Jason Alexander, Drew Carey, George Carlin, Phyllis Diller, Whoopi Goldberg, Gilbert Gottfried, Eric Idle, Eddie Izzard, Lisa Lampanelli, Kevin Pollak, Paul Reiser, Don Rickles, Chris Rock, Bob Saget, Sarah Silverman, Jon Stewart, Robin Williams and others.

Kevster · 08-21-2005, 06:31 PM

I saw this today. It was by far the most oscar-worthy film I have seen March of the Penguins. It was better than Cats. Quite simply, 'The Aristocrats' is the feel-good movie OF THE YEAR.

I think this will be nominated for best documentary, but the academy will piss on it and give it to March of the Penguins instead. Now, if they merged 'The Aristocrats' with 'March of the Penguins' for some sort of Oscar-tribute/display, that would be pure comedy gold - platinum, even!

attgig · 08-22-2005, 12:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaFunkyUnit

http://www.spschat.com/RareMedia/vid...ristocrats.wmv

i'm with kyle.... i don't get it.

Kevster · 08-22-2005, 02:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by attgig

i'm with kyle.... i don't get it.

See the movie. You'll understand afterward that it really isn't about the ironic punchline, but about what each comic says in the middle that makes the joke. It's actually a very interesting documentary on comedic style, timing, ad-lib creativity and delivery that just happens to have about 100 different comics in it telling the same joke. I couldn't stop laughing at one segment where you watch a Mime 'perform' the joke, on a public promenade with people walking by with 'WTF?' looks on their faces. It's hilarious because even though he doesn;t say anything, you know pretty much what part of the joke he's doing (and always with this HUGE smile on his face) and the looks from other people is priceless.

07-26-2005, 11:06 AM	#2
Jenny Chief of Naval Operations Join Date: Mar 2000 Location: Kansas City area Posts: 10,947	Me too! __________________ Check out my spoilers for over 20 shows @ SpoilerFix.com Check out my TV blog, where I post weekly & daily TV schedules, TV news, interviews with TV stars & more! All new TV forums as well @ TV Is My Pacifier

07-26-2005, 11:19 AM	#4
bachviet What's Da Pho*? Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: SoCal (714) Posts: 13,296	I love dirty jokes. __________________ Dell Dimension 9200 \| Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.4GHz) \| 4x1GB DDR2 \| 256MB nVidia GeForce 8800GT Dell Studio 17 \| Intel Core i7-720QM (1.6GHz) \| 2x2GB DDR3 1066MHz \| 1GHz ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 Intel P4-C 3.0GHz \| ECS 865PE-A \| 3x512MB PC3200 \| 128MB PNY GeForce 6600GT

07-26-2005, 01:07 PM	#5
DaFunkyUnit Rear Admiral Upper Half Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: the peanut gallery Posts: 3,909	as done by South Park http://www.spschat.com/RareMedia/vid...ristocrats.wmv WARNING!!! NOT SAFE FOR WORK!!!! OR AT LEAST TURN DOWN THE VOLUME, YOU INSENSITIVE CLOD!!! __________________

07-26-2005, 01:12 PM	#6
Airencracken Admiral Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: California Posts: 6,681	Now I have to see this. Penn & Teller rule. Bullsht is a great show. __________________ "I remember my first orgasm, I just wish someone was there to share it with me..."11-05-2003 05:33 AM - Topane* They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. - Benjamin Franklin Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, & the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opiate of the masses. - Karl Marx Hell is other people - Jean-Paul Sartre

07-26-2005, 02:14 PM	#7
Nija Chief of Naval Operations Join Date: May 2001 Location: City of The Dead Posts: 13,552	I love Penn (& Teller, though he's a bit quiet for my likes ) I've been watching my friends copies of BS, and that is really eye opening. I also heard Penn promoting this on KROQ recently, and he was saying the only theatre system that won't be playing this movie is AMC. Then he went into a tirade about it (I don't remember it all, but it was excessively funny). I told the girl we are going to see this. She didn't sound too happy about it, but whatever __________________ "Nija is the dark soul of gotapex. We don't like to talk about him." - LPMiller

07-26-2005, 11:16 AM	#3
faither Rear Admiral Upper Half Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: FL Posts: 3,240	Now that's a movie I'd go see... If ony we could find a babysitter! Big fan of obscenity here.

07-26-2005, 03:44 PM	#8
Kevster Admiral Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: NorCal Posts: 6,124	The last movie I paid to see was 'March of the Penguins' and I really enjoyed that. This will definitely be the next movie I pay to see! __________________ I think over again My small adventures, my fears. The small ones that seemed so big, For all the vital things I had to get and to reach. And yet there is only one great thing, the only thing: To live to see the great day that dawns, And the light that fills the world. -old Inuit song

07-26-2005, 03:56 PM	#9
ialsohaveadream Fleet Admiral Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: FL Posts: 8,077	I remember seeing the joke before I knew the premise of the movie, and wondering what the hell I just watched. It makes way more sense when you know what the movie is. __________________ Web log

07-26-2005, 06:55 PM	#10
Yossarian Chief of Navel Inspections Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Somewhere over the rainbow Posts: 12,187	BS has to be THE best show i've seen in a long time __________________ "So cheers all and remember, don't mistake my old age for maturity. Just because I grow old does not mean I grow up. " -Merlin "Now that your limelight has been sufficently trashed I will leave"- Nija Each religion has got their own way of making you feel like a victim. The Christians say 'you are a sinner', and you better just zip up your trousers and give the money to the pope and we'll give you a room up in the hotel in the sky. ~Timothy Leary

07-26-2005, 10:12 PM	#11
Bires Admiral Join Date: May 2000 Posts: 5,064	I'll wait for it on FOX TV in a couple of years. __________________ Five years...

07-27-2005, 12:57 AM	#12
eSDee Old Skooler Numba 1 Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Diego Posts: 10,063	714kb! http://packy.dardan.com/walky/albums/album11/acm.gif __________________ ~~~~~~~~~~~~ 3 days ~ Willie Nelson 3 days I dread to see arrive 3 days I hate to be alive 3 days filled with tears and sorrow yesterday today and tomorrow Last edited by Got Apex Moderator : 07-27-2005 at 01:12 AM.

07-29-2005, 09:38 AM	#13
Butch Rear Admiral Lower Half Join Date: Jun 2000 Location: New York, NY Posts: 2,915	Ahem . . . posted a long time ago . . . but still figured I'd give myself some credit http://www.gotapex.com/forums/showth...ht=aristocrats (The Aristocrats) Anywho, the movie got a rave review from the NY Times . . . I doubt I'll get to see it while I'm out in Germany, so I'll have to wait until I'm back in the States and it's out on DVD . . . bah http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/29/mo...aris.html?8dpc July 29, 2005 A Filthy Theme and Variations By A. O. SCOTT "The Aristocrats" is - how shall I put it? - an essay film, a work of painstaking and penetrating scholarship, and, as such, one of the most original and rigorous pieces of criticism in any medium I have encountered in quite some time. For those of you who have not already put down your newspaper and rushed off to buy tickets (and I hereby authorize the advertising department at ThinkFilm to plaster the previous sentence wherever it likes), perhaps I should add that "The Aristocrats" is also possibly the filthiest, vilest, most extravagantly obscene documentary ever made. Visually, it is as tame as anything on PBS or VH1's "Behind the Music," but there is scarcely a minute of screen time that does not contain a reference to scatology, incest, bestiality and practices for which no euphemisms or Latinate names have been invented. The film, made by Penn Jillette (the louder half of the Penn and Teller magic and comedy act) and Paul Provenza, who directs, is being released unrated, and one theater chain has already declined to book it, on the grounds that its appeal is too "narrow." That's one way of looking at it, but surely there are few forms of expression more universal than the dirty joke. Those curious about why this should be so - why from a very early age we are prone to laugh at references to sex, excrement and other bodily activities - can of course consult sages like Henri Bergson, Sigmund Freud or the evocatively named Gershon Legman, author of the two-volume "Rationale of the Dirty Joke." But none of these learned men are as funny as "The Aristocrats," or as revealing, through example and analysis, of the craft and tradition involved in what professional comedians call "working blue." Mr. Jillette and Mr. Provenza start with a simple premise and a single joke, one that has a long and esoteric history going back to vaudeville days. The punch line is the title of the film, and the setup, which takes place in a talent booker's office, has a whiff of stale "Broadway Danny Rose" cigar smoke about it. I won't say anything more, because I can't work blue in this room, and also because I don't want to spoil it. The point of the "aristocrats" joke, though, and of the movie, is that it can't really be spoiled, partly because it's so bad ("the opposite of a joke, really," one comedian muses) and partly because the humor resides in the delivery. While professional comedians rarely use it onstage - as George Carlin points out, most comedians don't really tell jokes onstage - they like to try out their own versions on one another, competing to see who can tell the dirtiest, most extreme, most shocking and longest version. Through a series of interviews with an all-star cast of dozens of performers, television writers and other intellectuals - among the best known are Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams, Jon Stewart, Drew Carey and the animated boys of "South Park" - the filmmakers overturn two bits of received wisdom about humor. The first is that what is funny cannot be explained, the second that it dies by repetition. Indeed, the more you hear the joke - and you hear it, in bits and pieces and all the way through, at least 60 or 70 times - the deeper you appreciate its peculiar fascination. And as various comedians reflect on its meaning and history - Mr. Carlin is particularly thoughtful in this regard - you come to understand the codes and customs of that peculiar guild that makes a living by trying to make the rest of us laugh. Along the way you learn something about the history of American comedy. Chris Rock explains that in the old days, raunchiness was not as much of a taboo for black comedians because they were excluded from television and mainstream theaters and clubs. Phyllis Diller, for her part, maintains that the first time she heard the joke she fainted, and that it was generally not the kind of humor a woman would indulge in. This notion is challenged by Lisa Lampanelli and brilliantly subverted by Sarah Silverman, who gives the joke its creepiest, funniest inflection by pretending that it isn't a joke at all. And while "The Aristocrats" is full of howlingly funny moments - Kevin Pollak blending the joke with a Christopher Walken impression; Paul Reiser, Gilbert Gottfried and Bob Saget (yes, him) turning in notably disgusting renditions - it works on the mind as well as the funny bone and the gag reflex. It makes you reflect on the mysteries of timing, context and delivery, those aspects of discipline that make comedy an art and separate the pros from the cocktail-party bores. It also takes you deep into the land of the id, not just of individual comedians (some of whom have pretty scary ids), but also into that murky collective terrain of desire, regression and fear where we all started out and where a few brave souls remain to make a living. The Aristocrats Opens in New York and Los Angeles today. A film by Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette; directed by Mr. Provenza; edited by Emery Emery and Mr. Provenza; music by Gary Stockdale; produced by Peter Adam Golden; released by ThinkFilm. Running time: 86 minutes. This film is not rated. WITH: Jason Alexander, Drew Carey, George Carlin, Phyllis Diller, Whoopi Goldberg, Gilbert Gottfried, Eric Idle, Eddie Izzard, Lisa Lampanelli, Kevin Pollak, Paul Reiser, Don Rickles, Chris Rock, Bob Saget, Sarah Silverman, Jon Stewart, Robin Williams and others. __________________ I used to be into sadism, necrophilia and beastiality, but then I realized I was just beating a dead horse

08-21-2005, 06:31 PM	#14
Kevster Admiral Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: NorCal Posts: 6,124	I saw this today. It was by far the most oscar-worthy film I have seen March of the Penguins. It was better than Cats. Quite simply, 'The Aristocrats' is the feel-good movie OF THE YEAR. I think this will be nominated for best documentary, but the academy will piss on it and give it to March of the Penguins instead. Now, if they merged 'The Aristocrats' with 'March of the Penguins' for some sort of Oscar-tribute/display, that would be pure comedy gold - platinum, even!

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