The recent passing of the comedian Gilbert Gottfried brings to mind his memorable appearance in The Aristocrats. In case you don't know, The Aristocrats is a documentary film. But the subject of the documentary is unlike any other documentary I've ever seen. It's a documentary about a joke . The joke was apparently well-known in the community of professional comedians and widely known as "The Aristocrats," but I believe it was relatively unknown outside of that community at least until that film came out. Released in 2005, the main creator of the film was Penn Jillette (yes, THAT Penn -- the magician). I enjoyed the film so much when I watched it at the now-departed Tivoli Theater in Kansas City that I bought the DVD. My wife, on the other hand, was sick to her stomach and disgusted when she watched it with me. You see, the joke is probably the most disgusting dirty joke ever told. And Gilbert Gottfried's telling is the dirtiest one of all. And it's what I thought about when I learned that he had died.