It is not “Fahrenheit 9/11″ or “The Passion of the Christ,” but low-budget film “The Aristocrats” is fast becoming this summer’s controversial movie because of only one thing — a joke… In “The Aristocrats,” which debuts in U.S. theaters on Friday, comedians Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette, who is part of the team Penn & Teller, chose 100 comics from
Robin Williams to Eddie Izzard to tell the same, dirty joke.

There is only one punchline but as many ways to tell the joke as there are comics. The filmmakers’ goal is two-fold: making audiences laugh and showing how comic minds work.

But the way the joke is told is so filthy — filled with scatological and sexual references — that AMC theaters, the U.S. No. 2 movie chain, has chosen to exclude “Aristocrats” from its theaters. While some movie marketers might try to work avoid controversial topics when promoting films, Provenza and Jillette are trumpeting them… The joke begins when a performer walks into a talent office seeking work. An agent asks him about his act, so the performer explains it in the most vulgar terms including descriptions of body functions and sex acts. The punchline comes when the agent asks what the act is called. The performer answers: “The Aristocrats.”

As punchlines go, it’s not that funny. But the way some comics describe the act makes audiences howl. Others, however, won’t repeat the joke, and still more startle audiences with a retelling that seems to be pulled from real life. What emerges is a sort of portrait of comedians at work and at play. source

I’m still not sure what the whole stink is about. I did find a site that features some “Aristrocrats” jokes.