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Poster for The Last Laugh

The Last Laugh

Director: Ferne Pearlstein Run Time: 88 min. Format: DCP Rating: NR Release Year: 2014

Starring:  Gilbert Gottfried, Carl Reiner, David Cross, Harry Shearer, Mel Brooks, Rob Reiner, Sarah Silverman

Are we allowed to make jokes about the Holocaust? In this outrageously funny and thought-provoking film, The Last Laugh, filmmaker Ferne Pearlstein puts the question about comedy’s ultimate taboo to legends including Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Sarah Silverman, Gilbert Gottfried, Harry Shearer, Alan Zweibel, Jeffrey Ross, Judy Gold, Susie Essman, Larry Charles, and many other critical thinkers, as well as Holocaust survivors themselves. Through these interviews and clips from our favorite standup comedy, TV shows, and movies, The Last Laugh offers fresh insights into the Holocaust, our own psyches, and what else9/11, AIDS, racism— is or isn’t off-limits in a society that prizes freedom of speechIn the process, The Last Laugh also disproves the idea that there is nothing left to say about the Holocaust, and opens a fresh avenue for approaching this epochal tragedy. Star-studded, provocative and thoroughly entertaining, The Last Laugh dares to ask uncomfortable questions about just how free speech can really be, with unexpected and hilarious results that will leave you both laughing and appreciating the importance of humor even in the face of events that make you want to cry.