(no subject)
Aug. 17th, 2005 09:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatBeen reading about the movie the Aristocrats...had a long post in mind for it, but I keep getting distracted by other things. Today it was a muscel spasm in my back and a lousey lunch that made me sort of ill. Note to self - greek yogurt, berries, mangos - while great in theory, looking tasty enough - are not filling enough and leave stomach sour, also vegan ginger snaps - incredibly gross. How do people stand the cookies and treats from these health food stores? They taste like sugar cardboard or...I'll leave it to your imagination. I desperately need a vacation from worrying over, thinking about, cooking, or dealing with in any shape or form - food. To help - P just sent me a lovely album of baby pictures. Oh, adorable. ( Babies are very adorable when you know you don't have to take care of them or worry over them, just saying.)
Okay back to the Aristocrats. What interests me the most about all the reviews of the Aristocrats is what the reviewers seem to be oblivious of. They keep saying how sick and twisted these comedians really are and how it must be something about comedians, and I just start to giggle. People, everyone has a sick and twisted side to them. We all know what the joke is about and we can all come up with our own version of it. The human imagination is at times sick and twisted. Don't believe me? Go read some of the NC-17 fanfic out there, search for the Harry Potter or Teletubbies. We have it in us, goes hand in hand with the other side. The thing about comedians, why we laugh at them, why we balk, is that they are honest about it - they show us this part of themselves but in a context and manner in which no one is hurt, no one is injured. They basically peel away the politically correct, plasticine coverlet and show us what is underneath and poke fun at it. Poking fun at something horrible is how you deal. You make light.
When I first read a sample of the Aristocrat joke, I smiled. Why? Because the name, aristocrat made me think of European royalty or Old Wealth - a caste or class you can only enter if you were born in it. The joke may have had it's origins in pointing out that no matter how hotity-toity, snooty, or pristine you look, under the right circumstances, you are willing to crawl in the muck to get what you want. ie. You aren't any better than me, so stop looking down your nose! I honestly think that's the root of it. And the fact that each comic tries to one-up the other one on how crude or depraved the joke is or can be - shows that competitive spirit and desire to say - you aren't any worse or better than I am, so get over yourself.
So much of comedy, I think, is rooted in anger, frustration, insecurity, and stress. It's a release. The pratfall. Mel Brooks loves to make fun of Hitler and the Nazis - it's his way of coping with something too frightening to think about. There's also the desire to gross one another out, to shock, to disarm - test someone. Comedy I think in some ways really is about those things. It's why I often find myself laughing and being offended by something at the same time. Or I'll watch a movie or a tv show and think it is hilarous at one point and at another won't be able to watch it at all. I think that's what the Aristocrats is all about.
Haven't seen the flick yet, don't really plan to, even though it is showing at the theater in my neighborhood. This looks like one for rental - something I can fast-forward through.
The concept does interest me though as does how we view humor or what we find funny. It seems to be in the eye of the beholder.
The trick is, I guess, not being ashamed of it or I suppose, restraining oneself, from judging someone else for laughing?
Okay back to the Aristocrats. What interests me the most about all the reviews of the Aristocrats is what the reviewers seem to be oblivious of. They keep saying how sick and twisted these comedians really are and how it must be something about comedians, and I just start to giggle. People, everyone has a sick and twisted side to them. We all know what the joke is about and we can all come up with our own version of it. The human imagination is at times sick and twisted. Don't believe me? Go read some of the NC-17 fanfic out there, search for the Harry Potter or Teletubbies. We have it in us, goes hand in hand with the other side. The thing about comedians, why we laugh at them, why we balk, is that they are honest about it - they show us this part of themselves but in a context and manner in which no one is hurt, no one is injured. They basically peel away the politically correct, plasticine coverlet and show us what is underneath and poke fun at it. Poking fun at something horrible is how you deal. You make light.
When I first read a sample of the Aristocrat joke, I smiled. Why? Because the name, aristocrat made me think of European royalty or Old Wealth - a caste or class you can only enter if you were born in it. The joke may have had it's origins in pointing out that no matter how hotity-toity, snooty, or pristine you look, under the right circumstances, you are willing to crawl in the muck to get what you want. ie. You aren't any better than me, so stop looking down your nose! I honestly think that's the root of it. And the fact that each comic tries to one-up the other one on how crude or depraved the joke is or can be - shows that competitive spirit and desire to say - you aren't any worse or better than I am, so get over yourself.
So much of comedy, I think, is rooted in anger, frustration, insecurity, and stress. It's a release. The pratfall. Mel Brooks loves to make fun of Hitler and the Nazis - it's his way of coping with something too frightening to think about. There's also the desire to gross one another out, to shock, to disarm - test someone. Comedy I think in some ways really is about those things. It's why I often find myself laughing and being offended by something at the same time. Or I'll watch a movie or a tv show and think it is hilarous at one point and at another won't be able to watch it at all. I think that's what the Aristocrats is all about.
Haven't seen the flick yet, don't really plan to, even though it is showing at the theater in my neighborhood. This looks like one for rental - something I can fast-forward through.
The concept does interest me though as does how we view humor or what we find funny. It seems to be in the eye of the beholder.
The trick is, I guess, not being ashamed of it or I suppose, restraining oneself, from judging someone else for laughing?