The Aristocrats

Herald rating: * * *

Here's the point of The Aristocrats: there is no point. I refer to the joke, and not the movie it's named after. The name is given to a gag that involves (this spoils nothing, I promise) a cabaret act pitching to a theatrical agent.

"What do you do?" the agent asks, whereupon the hopefuls describe a routine involving acts ranging from the outre through the illegal and unspeakable to the physically impossible. "Uh, huh," says the agent, unfazed. "And what do you call yourselves?" "The Aristocrats," the talent replies.

It's a classically - even conservatively - constructed joke, whose middle part varies with the teller. It seldom makes it into stand-up routines, but it has attained a legendary status as the joke with which comics backstage let off steam and demonstrate the lengths to which they are capable of going.

Here famous and lesser-known comedians tell their version of or favourite anecdote about the joke of the title.

It's a film whose censor's warning should be taken literally - there is practically no human depravity off-limits here - but a high threshold of offendability is not the only audience qualification. I like a filthy joke as much as the next bloke, but the remorseless, repetitive and extreme nature of the material will exhaust all but the strongest stomachs.

It's billed as obscene, disgusting, vulgar, vile and funny. Whether the last of those epithets applies, particularly after the first 10 minutes, may be a matter of taste.

CAST: Famous comedians
DIRECTOR: Paul Provenza
RUNNING TIME: 89 mins
RATING: R18, offensive language and content that may disturb
SCREENING: Rialto Auckland, from Thursday