What do you call the act? The Aristocrats

Anyone familiar with the "pushing the envelope of inappropriateness and shock value", ever-changing, can-you-top-this, longest-running joke knows the deepest, darkest level of human humor. We, as humans, are trained to find some things completely despicable and unacceptable. This joke takes this natural human reaction and uses it to play off of and manipulate in a way that somehow makes us laugh. And we do.

The joke is huge among comedians and even sometimes journalists. As a journalist I have seen the film version of the joke many times in different contexts and I have to say - while a part of me wants to cry for the loss of my innocence, the rest of me, wide-eyed and caught completely unprepared, fights the urge to laugh. But the only thing you can do is laugh. Well, one of the things you can do is laugh. The other is simply cringe. And the average, well-raised, ethical human being will turn off the TV or walk away from the offending joke-teller. But people who have been in offending situations or been treated offensively or been through circumstances that denigrate their human emotions or happiness somehow find that they cannot turn a deaf ear to this joke.

It is somehow a form of therapy in what seems to be an offensive and inappropriate world. Its says to us "Yes you are forced to show up to a job you hate every morning of your life. Yes priests have raped young boys and Muslims have blown themselves up and Jews continue to commit war crimes in the Middle East. Yes we are paying millions for homes that once costed somewhere in the lower thousands. Life pretty much sucks and we are all going to die anyway. But hey, here's something even more disturbing."

A good telling of this joke is considered an art. What have we become, as humans, when we have gone from great word-artists like Kahlil Gibran to Gilbert Gotffried? Words are such tools of emotions. They can support and build us, they can rip us down and limit us, they can disgust us, make us cry, make us ache and make us laugh - sometimes all at the same time. There are so many ways that we use words and "The Aristocrats" joke is just one example of the extreme.

Writers of the joke have said many times that the joke must be revised to meet the level of depravity of the society. What was found vile and taboo in the 90's isn't even cringed at today in some circles. So the joke is taken to higher and higher levels.

Will there come a point, in the 21st century, when someone yells "inappropriate" and we can walk away completely happy knowing we've reached the highest level of 'offensiveness' nirvana?