Review of The Aristocrats (2005) by Burtonp. — 18 Feb 2006

This is just funny and clever. It's not about vulgarity, it's not about the joke. The joke is just a way to get inside the world, process and craft of comedy. The challenges and questions about where lines get crossed are compelling.

And it's funnier by far than any typical hollywood comedy. It's full of people having fun and we can enjoy it along with them as they have a blast. The movie's structure is brilliant - it takes us along escalating levels of transgression, and gives us variations of process along the way.

And it is cathartic to roll around in the filth when no one gets hurt by doing so. This movie is a great documentary about a rarified subject that entertains the whole way through. And the fact that so many people disagree is part of the point of the whole movie.

Everyone's lines are crossed at different places, everyone's sense of humor is different, and everyone's interpretation of what this movie is about is different. Hmmm.. that's what the doc is saying about the joke.

Interesting... miss that obvious fact and of course you won't undertsand how brilliant this little gem of a movie is. It's so much smarter than it pretends to be, and that some people here understand.

I have watched the dvd a few times already and it gets better each time.