Chris Wage, this weekend's guest blogger at Nashville is Talking, posted an item last night on that new film The Aristocrats, and how several people walked out of the showing that he and Amanda, his "significant other," attended. Although the movie was released on the wide screens nationwide on July 29, I had never heard of it until I read Chris' blog post this morning.
The reason why I think this item is pertinent to Mother Tongue Annoyances is that it underscores, yet again, the power of language. (Candidly, as you'll discover as you continue to read on, I feel the film underscores other important issues as well.)
Why do people pay "premium" **cough**outrageous**cough** box office prices to purchase tickets to see The Aristocrats and then huffily walk out of the film in droves, "mortally offended" by what they have heard? Why are parents bringing their adolescent children to see this film when the ad copy (see Fandango.com) describes the movie this way:
Synopsis: One hundred comics tell the same very dirty joke in various ways. The joke, which has been told by comics since Vaudeville, starts the same way and ends the same way. It's what the person telling the joke says to get from point A to B that makes this the dirtiest joke ever told.
Hello! Here is my nutshell summary of the Aristocrats movie walk-out situation:
1. Because the film has been in the theatres for over one month, it seems to me that it requires little to no effort to research how ribald and "controversial" the movie's content is. One can check out Metacritic, IMDB, Google, or simply check with a friend to get an opinion.
2. Once you have made a determination as to whether the movie's content trips your personal morality meter, you can then make an informed decision whether to attend a screening. It is just as simple as that.
As for me, I have no desire to see The Aristocrats. Not because I'm morally offended by low humor, but simply because neither the film's roster of comedians nor the film's premise is particularly interesting to me. Would I bring my child to the film? No way. Having said that, I have very fond childhood memories of sneak-watching Eddie Murphy Raw on HBO during the small hours when my parents were asleep; my friend Kevin and I used to roll on the floor watching that one. 
Adolescents will be adolescents. And I'll bet you dollars to donuts that when The Aristocrats hits DVD the adolescents of America will be poppin' those discs into their computers and portable DVD players and yukkin' it up like I did back in the '80s. I'm not sure if that is something to smile about wistfully or frown about, actually.
