A JOKINGLY DIRTY TRIBUTE TO THE LATE JOHNNY CARSON.

Byline: David Kronke Staff Writer

PARK CITY, Utah - Among the many tributes pouring in for Johnny Carson this week, perhaps the one he would best appreciate is the dedication to his memory of a documentary about the world's filthiest joke.

On the night before Carson died, the Sundance Film Festival premiered ``The Aristocrats,'' a ribald (putting it very mildly) movie by comedian Paul Provenza and comic/magician Penn Jillette about a joke so dirty that comics generally only tell it among themselves - mainly to see who can one-up themselves in terms of sheer, offensive extravagance. The film will be dedicated to Carson when released (negotiations for a distributor are under way). The joke, about a show-biz family whose act involves a laundry list of shocking behavior that grows more jaw-dropping depending on the comedian relating the anecdote (the film's title is the joke's admittedly wan punch line), was reputed to be Carson's favorite gag.

``There's a story about ('The Tonight Show') coming back from a commercial break one night when either Don Rickles or Bob Newhart - one of his good friends - was telling the 'Aristocrats' joke to the audience during a commercial break and the cameras came back just as the audience heard the punch line,'' says Provenza, whose own career was launched after a performance on Carson's ``Tonight Show.'' ``The audience was falling all over themselves - and this was a moment that was legendary.

``Johnny changed my life,'' Provenza continues, his star having been made half a lifetime ago, in 1983, when he was 23 years old. ``He was effusive about his support. It was still back in those days when a great 'Tonight Show' appearance could change your life. He was one of those guys who would always make a platform to present people he appreciated.

``What's really interesting about Johnny, more than that, is how he taught you how to appreciate someone,'' Provenza adds. ``The way Johnny interacted and dealt with different comics told the entire country exactly what they needed to know about their different sensibilities.''

Comics from Jon Stewart to Don Rickles to Robin Williams and back to Gary Owens, then back over to Bob Saget and then way sideways to Sarah Silverman deconstruct and retell and reinvent the joke in the film. It's also related in a graphic mime version, via playing cards by Eric Mead, and in an animated sequence featuring the kids from ``South Park.''

Though Jillette, of the Penn & Teller magic/comedy team, never appeared on ``The Tonight Show'' when Carson hosted it, the two began an e-mail relationship, Jillette says, when Carson phoned to compliment him on the Showtime series ``Bullsh-t,'' which comically debunks conspiracy theories and all manner of pseudo-spiritual cant.

Jillette had planned to screen the film for Carson within the next couple of months, but he and Provenza were too tremulous to approach the king of comedy to appear in their film.

``I respected the fact that he was retired,'' says Jillette. ``I wasn't going to make him turn down our stupid movie after he had turned down everything else.''

David Kronke, [phone]

david.kronke(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2) Penn Jillette, left, whose Sundance-premiering ``The Aristocrats'' is about what some call the world's dirtiest joke, recalls how much Johnny Carson loved the bit.

Steve Granitz/WireImage.com

Douglas C. Pizac/Associated Press