I have betrayed Deuce.
He doesn't know it yet. I am informing him of my betrayal right here, via this post on this blog.
See, Deuce and I have both expressed considerable interest in seeing a little movie called The Aristocrats. It's a movie co-produced by Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller fame) wherein 100 famous comedians (George Carlin, Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Hank Azaria, Phyllis Diller, Martin Mull, Fred Willard, Drew Carey, etc) all dish on a single joke. Many of them tell their own version of the joke.
The joke basically goes like this: A man walks into a talent agent's office and says, "I'd like you to represent my family's act." The agent says, "Well, what do you do?" The man replies: "My whole family gets on stage and passes gas for twenty minutes." The manager is taken aback. "What do you call this act?" The man's reply: "The Aristocrats!"
It's not a great joke. The punchline's supposed to play up the crassness of the act.
But the punchline isn't the funny part of the joke, my friends. See how I italicized part of the joke up there? That's because when the man describes his act, that's where comedians get to improvise, coloring in the description of the act with the most filthy, vile, and vulgar activities you can imagine. I'm talking pure, unadulterated filth.
All in good fun, of course.
The movie's unrated, not that it contains images of gratuitous sex or violence -- it's all the language. Comedians use language to shock us, often to shock us into laughing. The taboos that they're breaking, the "naughtiness" of the words surprises us, and we can't help but laugh. Presuming, that is, that we're not offended.
I don't get offended by much of anything. Words are words.
I know what you're thinking now. You're thinking: "You started this post by saying that you had betrayed Deuce! How does a description of this intriguing film indicate said betrayal?"
Well, dear reader, if you'd stop interrupting and just listen for a second, I'd tell ya! See, Deuce and I had both wanted to see the film and had even spoken tentatively of having a joint outing to see it.
But I couldn't wait any longer, and saw it ALL BY MYSELF on Saturday.
Sorry, Deuce! But it was so worth it!