AMC theatres has decided to not show this movie in any of their theatres.
So, if they are the only game in your town, you probably will have to wait.
I just read an article in Rolling Stone on this today. It was mostly about Gilbert Gottfried, who is also in it. I think it can be funny the way certain ones tell it. I have no doubt Carlin could make it or any joke funny simply with his delivery.
I think it’s a given that the joke itself is kind of lame; what’s (supposedly) funny is the spin that each comedian puts on the telling.
Me, too! I added it to my Netflix queue afterwards. 
I doubt Cosby will be in it then?
Yuh see, there’s this family, right, and they all go into the talent office, and they’ve got themselves these Jell-O puddin’ pops, and they say to the agent, “Hey hey hey! Have we got an act for you today!”…
I got nothin’.
God: Noah. This is God. Call your act “The Aristocrats”.
Noah: Riiiiiight.
Considering what the act conisists of, I think it would be more fitting to have Lot and his daughters do it.
I read an article about this, I think a couple of months ago, and my understanding was that being funny was not the point. The point was to mess with a newbie’s head. These old comedians would tell the joke, and all the old heads would start laughing hillariously. Then either the victim stares dumbly, which becomes the joke, or is caught up in the infectiousness of laughter, in which case the old timers stop laughing and say, “Why did you laugh? There was no joke there.”
And then, he whittles the pillar of salt into a giant CHECK PLEASE.
I’d love to have heard Eddie Cantor, Fannie Brice and Burns & Allen tell it.
George: “So, Gracie, you and your brother walked into an agent’s office?”
I bet Gracie could swear like a longshoreman.
I would’ve loved to hear W.C. Fields tell it…
…or the Marx Brothers.
A lot of those people probably did tell the joke. The Marx Brothers came right out of Vaudville. I’d love to hear Groucho telling the joke. I’d bet he was both filthy and hilarious.
“…and two hard boiled eggs.”
Carlin is in the Aristocrats movie, but mostly for philosophy and history. This being a largely improvisational joke, it doesn’t really fit in his style, which (IIRC) he himself admits. For his act, he works out every word, pause, and tonal shift beforehand, while this joke, in contrast, works best (insofar as it “works” at all) when it’s totally off the cuff, as it’s designed to show the comic riffing in the humor equivalent of jazz. As an example, I don’t find Robin Williams particularly funny, but his take on the joke in the movie is pretty amusing.
The joke sounds a lot like the script for an A&E Biography of Paris Hilton.
Having read a few versions of the joke, it really can be funny, if it’s told correctly.
It’s not just being super dirty. It has to be amazingly filthy, but clever flithy, not just going nuts. For instance, some versions have the family actually killing each other - but that takes away from the funny, because you need to imagine all of them, at the end of the act, grinning at the talent agent, having performed their vile act and knowing that they practiced it beforehand. As Bob Saget points out, the family’s desperation is an important part of making the joke really work well.
I can see a talented comedian really killing with this joke. I can tell a pretty good joke and if I think about it, my best deliveries had people laughing harder before the punch line than after. Jokes are about timing and punchline but also about delivery. (The joke about the French Foreign Legion lieutenant who doesn’t understand how to use the camel is always good in this regard.)
In the hands of a true master - Groucho, say, or Richard Pryor - they could make you laugh your ass off with “The Aristocrats.” It works on so many levels; it’s a joke about people getting into showbiz, it’s a simple joke on the word “Aristocrats,” it’s a way for a true master comedian to display his skill, it’s a joke on the audience, it’s a way to tittilate the audience with hilarious and digusting sex descriptions.
Yes, I agree. I read one version where the daughter is killed and they roast and eat her.
Stuff like that isn’t funny, and not just because it’s too sick. Primarily, IMHO, it’s not funny because it’s not the “opposite” of being aristocratic. That’s the key to the joke.