The Aristocrats

The Aristocrats (2005) can be watched online on iFILM — a comedy documentary by Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette built around one very dirty private joke that American comics have been trading backstage since the vaudeville era. The tagline is accurate: no nudity, no violence, unspeakable obscenity.

The setup never changes: a family walks into a talent agency and describes their act. What the act involves is left entirely to the teller. One hundred and five comedians — George Carlin, Billy Connolly, Drew Carey, Jimmy Kimmel, Shelley Berman among them — each take a turn. The result is less a film about the joke and more a documentary about craft: what separates someone who can actually make a room laugh from someone who just says words.

It works the way a jam session works. Same changes, different improvisation every time. Stream The Aristocrats online on iFILM.