You simply won’t believe your ears!
It mutates, it changes form and yet it still has that arousing, take-a-peek at a car wreck and keeps you watching attribute that has stood the test of time. Farm animals, rabbis, grandmothers and even toddlers are unsafe in this politically incorrect joke that topped Johnny Carson’s list of personal favorites. Notions of free speech, what constitutes funny and the codes of conduct for laughter are served cold and piping hot in The Artisocrats. Indie distributor THINKFilm shows that they have more than big balls – they have enough insight to know a good joke when they see one – and a strategic DVD-release date could make for the ideal stocking stuffer.
Populated by big names, some recognizable faces and some no-names, comedians Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette basically hit up every single comedian in the yellow pages in search of the genesis of a joke. For the joke that is book-ended by “a guy goes into a talent agent’s office…†and “The Aristocratsâ€, the duo show how it was passed onto down from one generation of funny men and women to the next. F$%! the punchline – and basically f#&! everything inside the joke – the doc shows how comedians use wildly imaginative thinking, verbal foreplay and an arsenal of four-letter words starting with the letters C and S and F to change the form of a joke.
While a film like Comedian gave us behind-the-scenes pressures of making people laugh, this is a more stimulating doc because it reveals the tall story that makes even the comedians laugh and brings the viewer into the members-only club. The set up of the film matches the form of the joke – Provenza eases the viewer gradually into a cesspool world of filth. What are interesting is how this joke gets passed along and how each comedian makes it their own – Bob Saget easily sheds his television family-man persona into a person you’d actually want to get drunk with and Kevin Pollack does a mean Christopher Walken version of the joke. The most interesting historical anecdote of the film is how the famous one-liner with so much content was regarded in a post 9/11 world shin-ding, as a sort of game 7 of the World Series type of moment – it shows that a politically incorrect joke has an even more important place during a politically incorrect moment in time.
The Artisocrats will provide you with big laughs throughout, but also hit you when you least expect it and will do more than tickle the funny bone – it will make you hurt. The editing is key to the successful formula of the doc and it’s especially sharp considering that there are a 100 or so comedians that fit into the collection of handheld videocam images. This is also the rare film that you’ll want to stay until the end credits and perhaps make you uncontrollably scream out “The Aristocrats!†at any given moment.
Viewed at the Montreal Comedia film festival.