Out of the blue, a film about a taboo-testing joke

“The Aristocrats,” Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette’s documentary about what has been described as the world’s dirtiest joke, is a kind of glimpse into the locker rooms of comedians, and a locker room may be entertaining, but it is not a place for small children or the genteel.

Hint: Gilbert Gottfried’s version of the burlesque-era joke initially stunned a post-Sept. 11 gathering of the Friars Club, a group you would think would be hard to shock -- although as he continued, more people seemed to “get it” and join the laughter.

The fairly straightforward approach of Provenza and Jillette was to ask 100 or so comedians to tell the joke or discuss it on camera. It’s an impressive 100 that includes Jason Alexander, Drew Carey, George Carlin, Billy Connolly, Phyllis Diller, Whoopi Goldberg, Eddie Izzard, Chris Rock, Bob Saget, Adam Sandler, Harry Shearer, Sarah Silverman, Jon Stewart, Robin Williams -- you get the idea. Trey Parker and Matt Parker provided a clip using the kids of “South Park” that has been circulating on the Internet.

The joke involves essentially the same beginning (“a guy walks into an agent’s office”), followed by a riff limited only by the teller’s imagination or inhibitions about what is taboo, and then the punch line, which is the film’s title.

As was the case with the humor of Lenny Bruce and, later, Carlin, the film will not be everyone’s cup of tea. Based on what a company spokeswoman described as a feeling that the unrated movie had “limited commercial appeal,” AMC Theatres decided not to play it, but other circuits have booked it in art houses or upscale locations. Loews Cineplex, which is in the process of merging with AMC, has booked it in New York City. The film, which debuted to acclaim at Sundance in January, opens Friday at the ArcLight in Hollywood and Criterion in Santa Monica, with ThinkFilm adding theaters in coming weeks, including the Playhouse 7 in Pasadena and University 6 in Irvine on Aug. 12.

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-- R. Kinsey Lowe