Patrik_Lemberg

"The Aristocrats" may not be a very well known joke to any ol' regular Joe, but among entertainers--especially comedians--it is. Here we get to hear many versions of the joke, as almost all of the joke can (and should) be improvised (within certain frames.) I am not going to give a personal--or any other person's--version of this joke, as IMDb would have every other word bleeped, and probably send my personal information to the white house for a brief investigation which probably would follow a quick trip to the chair-of-human-fellow-death. The list of entertainers involved in the documentary is very very long, and the manner of presenting the different presenters of their takes, versions and opinions of the joke are edited and cut in an almost hysterical manner (presumably to make it look "hip"), although I doubt any participator was misrepresented. This film is a lot of fun, and is entertaining throughout, even though--10 or 15 minutes into watching--I was almost certain that It'd turn sour after half an hour. Two things I missed, and which I thought the film should have featured, was a) a viewpoint of the joke and why people find it funny, from a professional psychologist's (or someone in a related field of work), and b) from where it originated, i.e. for how long has this joke been around / where did the joke come from / does anyone know, or could they guess who first thought of it and told it...? THAT I'd still like to know...so...while this entertained the hell out of me (and had me laughing at the top of my breath) I wouldn't vote for it to receive first price at the "2005 Documentary Oscars."

The ANNOYING, hysterical, OVER-THE-TOP, incredibly Hollywood and unnaturally excited narrator is the main reason why this "documentary" ruins it for me (among others.) Another reason why it simply is NOT GOOD is that it's cut together in a way which results in a hysterical and hyper presentation; 10 to 20 people are interviewed in one minute. The result of cutting together one sentence from a few words each by three or four people makes you kind of go "huh!?" Among many other clips, the footage of Britney Spears' moving boobs is shown over and over and over again as is comedian Rachel Quaintance's suggestion that "B-bye should almost go in Webster's dictionary." "...and remember: E! is the only place to catch all these episodes every weeknight at 5 and midnight!" The constant background music, moving of camera angles, zooming, spinning and blinking images will have you rolling on the floor drooling saliva within seconds, so I would ESPECIALLY not recommend this program to epileptics - you could DIE! Out of the 101 "most unforgettable SNL moments" (according to whom I don't know,) not ONE sketch is performed from beginning to end. Actually, I don't think more than 10 seconds of a sketch is presented (at least not without interruption in order to be repeated or proceeded.) In order to understand what the fudge all the 100 million+ people who are interviewed for about 5 seconds each are talking about, you'll have to recall all these "moments" from TV, or you'll have to catch them from reruns, because way way way too little material from the actually aired SNL shows, which everyone are reminiscing about, is shown here in order for you to appreciate all the endless praise people are giving these supposedly hilarious moments. Commercial breaks appear about every 2 to 3 minutes, BTW. There is good material in here, but it's presented in such a hyper way that it cannot be properly enjoyed. It's hysterical, but far from hysterically funny or entertaining. I'd expected to actually SEE 101 SNL moments. Incidentally, and the worst fact of all: Steve Martin's legendary 'King Tut' sketch is NOT included (!!!) ...and I don't think having included 'Massive Head Wound Harry' and 'The McLaughlin Group' somewhere in the swamp would've been a mistake either, as both these sketches are celebrated pieces shown on both the 'Best of Dana Carvey' and the '25th Anniversary' tapes.

I leave you now with the narrators' sing-out from the first of the five installments of this show (imagine the following spoken in a VERY "fake excitement kind of you're on candid camera manner"): "Alas! We've run out of time in this hour, but TRUST US, there are plenty more Will Ferrell moments left in our countdown. Check out what's in store in the NEXT installment of our 101 most unforgettable SNL moments. From the CHEERful...to the MILItant...from guys in DRAA-AAG...to Lord and Lady Douchebag. We have more hilarious moments from the show you can't stop quoting as we work our way down to number one. You can catch every single ONE of these moments plus many more of your favorites every weeknight at four and midnight, right here on E! But for now..." (ending with a two seconds long clip of David Spade saying "b-bye.")