Dabi Almost Certainly Just Used The Joke As An Excuse To Describe His Own Family Situation - Tumblr Posts
Mr. Compress & “The Aristocrats”
It’s the magic man’s birthday today, and to celebrate here is an obligatory headcanon:
Mr. Compress has previously admitted to having a career as an entertainer before committing to villainy full-time, so he likely made his rounds at various entertainer hot spots and engaged in some backstage shenanigans with other performers before the curtains went up. With this in mind, a young Atsuhiro Sako could’ve easily been exposed to a certain age old joke called “The Aristocrats”.
This joke has quite the history, as it started out during the age of vaudeville and became a tradition among entertainers to share with each other. It’s also unique because, while the setup and punchline of the joke remain the same across most iterations, the middle part always differs depending on who’s telling it.
The setup is that a family is performing an admittedly awful act to a talent agent hoping to get booked, with the punchline being that they call this act “The Aristocrats” so it’s a parody of the filthy-stinking upper class. But the punchline isn’t what makes the joke funny... it’s the fact that the teller is expected to describe the most off-color, shocking, taboo, offensive, tasteless, and downright disgusting “act” they can conceive of. For reference, here’s the Wikipedia article listing examples of what’s usually included.
(If you want to find some examples of the joke, there are many variations done by different comedians over the years, but please look at your own risk because some of them can be pretty triggering if you don’t have the stomach for off-color comedy.)
Anyway, a joke that lets the most revolting parts of your imagination run wild while simultaneously encouraging you to trash the rich? Of course little Atsuhiro Sako would love this joke and would have created several of his own iterations to share during his time in the entertainment circuit! Which brings us to the fun part of this headcanon:
Right after everyone in the Vanguard Action Squad got recruited but before they attacked the Training Camp, Mr. Compress waited for Kurogiri to leave for a bit then told his current iteration of “The Aristocrats” TO THE ENTIRE LEAGUE!!! You bet your ass every single one of those degenerates came up with their own versions within the next 24 hours and shared them while a horrified Kurogiri watched!!!
And that’s how Mr. Compress used what some would consider the worst joke of all time to endear himself to the League of Villains and won the award for “most effective bonding activity”.