Lindsay at Majikthise manages a twofer: saying something interesting and insightful about humor and jazz at the same time.
As you may have heard, The Aristocrats is a documentary featuring 100 retellings of the same joke. Here are the bare bones: Family asks agent to consider their act, agent says he doesn't do family acts but agrees to let them demonstrate, [act of unspeakable obscenity, incest is non-negotiable, may also feature scatology, beastiality, emetophilia, etc.], agent says "That's a hell of an act, what do you call it? Family member answers "The Aristocrats." Honestly, the joke isn't funny. In fact, that's probably why it's a perennial favorite with professional comedians. If you can make this joke funny, you could probably get laughs by reading a tax return. The joke is like a lot of jazz standards. Tunes like Autumn Leaves aren't that interesting until you've heard at least 20 different versions. Once you know that a work is a standard, you can step back from the material itself and concentrate on the artist's interpretation. The movie features The Aristocrats as told by a mime, a magician, a tumbling act, the editorial staff of The Onion, the animated cast of South Park, and a huge variety of standup comics.
That's a good way of understanding the enduring popularity of a joke that isn't inherently very good. The jazz equivalent would be John Coltrane showing off with My Favorite Things -- you can hear him thinking, "Hell, I can make even this shlock sound good." Although I am also partial to Patricia Barber's cover of Light My Fire.
