And so somehow, someway this intruded upon my consciousness.
The vilest, most obscene joke ever. A joke so obscene that comedians dared only to tell it to fellow comedians. Until Gilbert Gottfried told it at the Hugh Hefner Roast, and somehow it leaked it's way onto the web.
The joke always follows the same formula (or thereabouts): A family walks into a talent agency to audition....
After which follow any and all manner of obscenity and filth. There are no taboos here, incest, bestiality, however offensive you can imagine, it will/can/has been included.
The end of the joke falls with the talent agent noting what an "unusual" act the family has, and inquiring as to what they call themselves. The answer is (of course) - "The Aristocrats".
Now the joke has followed a progression, it's target being to offend as many people as possible. In Gilbert Gottfried's version, it was to save a reference to 911 that many in the audience felt was too soon. Somehow "The Aristocrats" was less offensive than referencing the disaster so lately visited upon NYC.
But there's more here. Somewhere, in it's history, there was once validity (or so I imagine), somewhere the events described were much less offensive, yet when the punch line came made apparent sense, perhaps in light of current events. But that, the intelligent interpretation, has been lost, and comedians have developed solely on the line of it's offensiveness.
I watched a documentary of the same name. Not particularly praiseworthy.
But such is the brief (for my sake) history of "The Aristocrats". Research it at your peril. And watch an abbreviated version of the joke via Southpark here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyKGHVA6rb0. Note this was never aired, it was for the documentary. It sums it up well enough.