LA Stories: Has Sacha Baron Cohen gone too far this time?
It looks like Sacha Baron Cohen's next film will take a pop at two of America's most powerful lobbies: Israel, and the red-neck right.
This week came two revelations to that effect. First, on Monday, the Israeli blogger Yossi Alpher revealed that he'd recently been interviewed in Jerusalem by the satirist's latest alter ego: a gay fashion journalist called Bruno, who succeeded in confusing Hamas with houmus.
Then yesterday, police in Little Rock, Arkansas, complained of a near-riot at a local fairground after a large crowd turned-up to a cage-fighting event and were instead treated to a gay cabaret.
Having been promised $1 beer, bikinis, and no-holds-barred fisticuffs, the audience watched aghast as two men (one apparently Baron Cohen) ran into the ring, ripped each other's clothes off, and started passionately kissing.
After a period of stunned silence, they began booing. When the men responded by simulating gay sex, the crowd started throwing drinks, chairs, and later punches around the auditorium. It took 45 minutes for police to quell the violence.
Both stunts will only add to the fevered anticipation with which America awaits Baron Cohen's currently-untitled follow-up to Borat, which is due out in the New Year.
I do hope the whole thing doesn't end up being a dreadful disappointment, though. Because a glance through Baron Cohen's CV makes his track record look decidedly mixed.
Ali G was funny when the joke was new. But by the time he'd transferred to the big screen (with the dreadful Ali G Indahouse), and stopped sending-up highbrow members of Britain's political elite, the whole thing had become a borderline-racist embarrassment.
The film of Borat, for its part, got boring about half way through - when it finished satirising metropolitan New York and began focusing on the relatively easy targets of evangelical Christians, and rodeo-riding cowboys.
Bruno also looks to have a shelf-life. That joke about houmus is actually old, since it appeared in Adam Sandler's new comedy You Don't Mess With the Zohan.
There's a fine line between satire and abuse. And while Baron Cohen and other liberal Hollywood types might like to chortle about America's white working class – or poke fun at the shouty Zionist lobby – they may soon discover to their cost that the rest of the world doesn't always see eye-to-eye.
There is no such thing as "too far" with comedy and especially when concerning the American right.
The prominent lobbyists, businessmen and politicians, who have created and backed over 50 years of oppressive and destabilising foreign policy in the Middle East, South America, Africa and Asia, should be put on trial for war crimes. And as for the citizens that support said businessmen and politicians, giving them a mandate to commit genocide abroad with their demand for cheap products...f**k 'em. The very least they deserve is mockery.
I'm sorry you don't find Sacha Baron Cohen as funny these days but please, the same old "liberal elite attacks working class" spiel? Give me a break.
Since when were ignorance and bigotry specific to the working class? Those characteristics exist in every class, race, religion etc.
Oh, and f**k Adam Sandler
Posted by: Bill | Wednesday, 09 July 2008 at 01:00 PM
anything that 'pokes fun' at the "shouty" zionist lobby is to be commended and appaluded!
http://www.eupeople.net/forum
Posted by: bollos | Wednesday, 09 July 2008 at 02:24 PM
What has sacha baron cohen really got to loose? he's a Jew himself,so any racist repercussions are covered..and as for the american "red-neck"..well,they are for the most part thoroughly deserving of a good sending up.
Posted by: paul | Wednesday, 09 July 2008 at 10:36 PM
"I'm sorry you don't find Sacha Baron Cohen as funny these days but please, the same old "liberal elite attacks working class" spiel? Give me a break.
Since when were ignorance and bigotry specific to the working class? Those characteristics exist in every class, race, religion etc."
Yes, exactly--that's the issue. Certainly, various classes, races, and religions are capable of ignorance and bigotry. When Sacha Baron Cohen lampoons one class or religion over others he does himself a great disservice. I think this highlights his own bigotries. Why doesn't Baron Cohen satirise or ridicule bigotry that exists where some are convinced it does not exist? Larger metropolitan areas. Again, to reiterate Guy Adams' perspective; Baron Cohen chooses easy targets and in doing so only superficially deals with the true nature of bigotry and ignorance.
Posted by: Campbell | Thursday, 10 July 2008 at 03:36 PM
When I want to expand my knowledge about the nature of bigotry and ignorance, I will go to more sociology and psychology lectures.
When I want to laugh, I will go and see the next Sacha Baron Cohen film.
Decent comedy can be political but it doesn't have to be.
There will always be mugs like Campbell and Adams who run about shouting "see! see! they're not perfect!" (like we weren't aware) as they hold a mirror up to good people, in a vain attempt to appear to be individuals. In fact, all they do is support the status quo as the demons in this world continue to run amok.
Posted by: Bill | Tuesday, 15 July 2008 at 12:31 PM
"It looks like Sacha Baron Cohen's next film will take a pop at two of America's most powerful lobbies: Israel, and the red-neck right."
Hardly an easy target, just an obvious one due to the sort of murderous domestic and foreign policies lobbied for by these two groups.
Send them up and take them down
Posted by: Bill | Tuesday, 15 July 2008 at 12:51 PM
Looks like someone fancies himself a Baron Cohen apologist. Right Bill? Such self-important zealotry.
Without supporting the status quo and the ability of demons to run amok--I'll simply state that I find some of Sacha Baron Cohen's characters hilarious. Yes, they do emphasise SOME obvious and historically persistent bigotry. Which is why, typically, some of Baron Cohen's satirised targets are easy ones. These targets are so easy that Bill comprehends their ignorant and/or bigoted nature. So, to spell it out; because a group or individual is readily understood as bigoted it might not be too difficult to...send them up.
This is not an ad hominem attack on Baron Cohen or Bill (well, maybe Bill--he does seem a bit thick) just an observation. I think Baron Cohen just skims the surface.
Posted by: Campbell | Wednesday, 16 July 2008 at 04:09 PM
I am certainly not an apologist for anyone but I am, however, a bit thick. Kindly explain to me why this bulls**t article, on how a comedian barely scratches the surface of ignorance and bigotry (as if somehow he is a bad comedian by not doing so), floats your boat so much you feel you have to defend it?
Posted by: Bill | Wednesday, 16 July 2008 at 07:30 PM