At a 2001 Hugh Hefner roast held by the New York Friars Club, Gilbert Gottfried followed a flight joke about stopping at the Empire State Building with a dirty comedy routine that culminated in “The Aristocrats.” The roast took place shortly after the September 11 attacks, when, Gottfried recalled, the room felt unsure whether comedy could go on. His telling later became an anchor for the 2005 documentary The Aristocrats.
Why was the roast’s atmosphere so unusual?
In a 2005 interview with The A.V. Club, Gottfried recalled that the roast came shortly after September 11. The atmosphere was “peculiar,” he said: people did not know whether show business, or comedy, could continue. The interview places the event in that immediate aftermath but does not establish an exact date.
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Aristocats, The | $9.00 | Buy on Amazon |
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The Aristocrats | $10.28 | Buy on Amazon |
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The Aristocats (Special Edition) | $14.88 | Buy on Amazon |
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Aristocrats | $40.00 | Buy on Amazon |
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What happened before “The Aristocrats”?
Gottfried said he opened with a flight joke that invoked the recent attacks:
“I have to leave early tonight. I have to catch a plane to L.A. Unfortunately, they couldn’t get me a direct flight. We have to make a stop at the Empire State Building.”
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Aristocats, The
- When a wealthy woman dies, she leaves all of her money to her cat Duchess and her kittens, Berlioz, Toulouse, and Marie. The woman?s jealous butler Edgar dumps the cats in the French countryside in order to take the fortune himself. But the four cats meet country felines Thomas O'Malley and Scat Cat who help them get back home.
He recalled that the line drew groans and boos. Rather than leave the stage, he continued with dirty jokes and then told “The Aristocrats,” according to the same interview.
What was “The Aristocrats” joke?
“The Aristocrats” is a deliberately obscene joke built around a family describing a shocking act for a talent agent, who asks what the act is called. Gottfried’s roast telling is remembered for the contrast between the room’s rejection of the flight joke and its response to the much filthier routine. The available interviews establish the sequence, but do not provide a verified, complete transcript of his performance; a precise reconstruction would go beyond what they document.
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In a later interview with Seven Days, Gottfried explained how he understood that contrast: “And that showed terrorism: bad taste, incest and bestiality: good taste. And it showed that if there is a horrible situation, people want a release. They want to have a laugh.” That was his retrospective interpretation, not evidence that every person in the audience reacted alike.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How did the roast connect to the documentary?
The A.V. Club reported in 2005 that Gottfried’s roast telling inspired Penn Jillette and Paul Provenza’s documentary The Aristocrats and served as an anchor for the film. The connection does not mean the roast performance alone caused the documentary to be made. In a later podcast conversation with Jeff Ross, Gottfried and Ross recalled that the filmmakers did not initially know about the roast telling until Gottfried raised it, and that he helped them locate footage. Those details are later recollections, rather than a contemporaneous record of the event.
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- Disney's irresistibleic THE ARISTOCATS is all jazzed up in a spectacular Special Edition, complete with a new digital transfer. In the heart of Paris, a kind and eccentric millionairess wills her entire estate to Duchess, her high-society cat, and her three little kittens. Laughs and adventure ensue as the greedy, bumbling butler pulls off the ultimate catnap caper. Now it's up to the roug
The podcast participants also recalled the roast as taking place roughly two to two and a half weeks after September 11, and said the footage was not used in its uncut form in the Comedy Central broadcast. These are approximate recollections, so the safer dating is simply “shortly after September 11.”
The documentary is a separate way to encounter the joke’s history; the A.V. Club also noted that an extended version of Gottfried’s joke was planned for his then-forthcoming DVD Gilbert Gottfried Dirty Jokes. That 2005 mention does not establish the present availability of a particular edition.
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- The Aristocrats - DVD Brand New
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