Why “The Aristocrats” joke?
Penn Jillette: Provenza and I had been talking for 20 years about this weird little piece of minutia in comedy-that there was a joke, “The Aristocrats,” that had been around 100 years and comedians like to tell backstage but virtually nobody told onstage. There was no doubt for us that it had to be “The Aristocrats.” If you picked a joke that people have done onstage, then you’ve got a joke that’s like, “Oh, that’s great for the Smothers Brothers, but it’s not right for Steven Wright.” You needed a joke that was, in a certain sense, wrong and right for everybody. Now that you’ve outed “The Aristocrats,” all these punk kids are probably going to be telling it and fucking it up-like I did the other day. Tweet Share –> –> –> –> tweetmeme_url = ‘http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-4736-how_to_talk_dirty_and_influence_people.html’; –> SHARE PRINT COMMENT FONT SIZE RATE –> It’s no longer just for comics. Does this ruin the joke? Not at all. If we cared about the joke, we would have n
