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As a film, The Aristocrats is quite straightforward. At its heart is what’s renowned as the dirtiest, filthiest joke in the room, one so unpleasant that it can never be performed on stage or on screen. As the numerous talking heads testify, it’s a comedian’s joke to tell to other comedians, rather than to be shared with audiences. And the joke at heart, as they all know, isn’t all that funny. Fortunately, the telling frequently is.

The film thus rounds up a who’s who of comedy, and gets them to both discuss the infamous joke, and to commit their rendition of it to film. What the viewer then gets from it all is an at-times fascinating comparison of how different comedians can tackle pretty much the same material in wildly different ways. And with contributions from the likes of Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams, Eric Idle and Paul Reiser, this isn’t a tired scrape around the C-list circuit by any means, and it’s all the better for it.

With 100 comedians ultimately repeating their own version of the gag throughout the film’s running time, it’s perhaps unsurprising that The Aristocrats does slightly outstay its welcome. And the warning that the joke in question is offensive really shouldn’t be taken lightly at all--taboos aren’t just broken here, they’re shattered into umpteen pieces. If you can stomach all that though, the end result is still worth your time.--Simon Brew