>Is the joke inherently about "the aristocrats"? Is it about what the privileged do and get away with doing? Would some other group--say, "the amish", or better yet, "the shakers"--still be funny? Would it still be the same joke?
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I think the humor has two sources:
1. Class. Aristocrats really do get away with this kind of stuff. When I heard the joke, the first thing that popped into my mind was De Sade's Justine and 120 Days of Sodom....books that describe aristos getting together and doing this kind of stuff. (This was especially obvious in the cannibals/aristo version of the joke.)
2. Performer/comedian self-abasement/self-reference. This was described in the movie as "performers will do ANYTHING, no matter how abasing, to get on stage, but at the same time they want to be admired stars, and the joke emphasizes this paradox.
And then there's the literal truth (jokes often depend upon a kind of buried literalness) that to maintain purity of blood, aristos are often required to be incestuous.
Joanna
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