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Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Bruno”: “Wildly Transgressive!”
By Kyle | March 16, 2009
Oh dear, is it time for the followup to “Borat” already? It sounds like the signature scene of “Bruno” is going to be more a less a repeat of the signature scene of “Borat”: two ugly guys wrestling naked, only this time in front of an allegedly outraged crowd. Question: Are we laughing at two nude men, or at the “wildly transgressive” (i.e. wildly repetitive) idea of once again offending hicks? Here is what great comedy is: Bringing down the smart, the crafty, the powerful. Here is what great comedy is not: Mocking the poor jerks and dopes who aren’t in on your little joke.
The scene in “Borat” in which a nice southern family tries its best to deal with the swine they have inadvertently invited into their midst actually proved the opposite of what it thought it was saying. It was the nice southerners who came off looking almost superhumanly gracious. I don’t laugh at such amazing good manners; I admire them. If anyone looked like a butthead, it was Cohen.
March 16th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
But the “nice southerners” were never at any point ridiculed and Cohen made himself the butt of that gag: that, in fact, was the gag. He only ever ridicules racists, homophobes and hicks, which is why, of course, most Republicans can’t stand him.
As for me, I can’t wait for Bruno, or, to give it its full and glorious title, “Bruno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-Shirt.”
March 16th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Nay. The point of the gag was that the southerners were being mocked and embarrassed because they didn’t know they were being made fools of by these cool comedians in their midst. The audience was laughing at the southerners, with Cohen.
March 16th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Kyle– You may be right about Cohen’s intentions, but I and everyone I know who saw the film (mostly people who would be more than happy to laugh at the polite Southerners), felt that the Southerners came out looking much better in those scenes and not the least bit ridiculous.
March 17th, 2009 at 2:36 am
There is absolutely no reason to laugh at the southerners and I’m pretty sure no one did. The point of the particular scene was that borat is an idiot.
The point of the gag where he was at the rodeo was him making fools of the people cheering.
March 17th, 2009 at 4:19 am
Kyle, when I saw the picture everyone was laughing at Cohen, not the Southerners. Maybe you saw it north of the Mason-Dixon line,
March 17th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Can’t wait for “Bruno.” Not sure if we’re all dissecting the humor in “Borat” too much … and also can’t say that we all know precisely who, or what, people laugh at when they watch a movie like “Borat.”
March 17th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
I’m sorry if the southerners were being laughed at but they also laugh at the tyre track squirrel …before they eat him.
March 17th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
This is the problem with political correctness. If allowed to spread, it eventually infects everyone. And then out come the rules, regulations, and guidelines for what’s funny and what isn’t. Or what is and isn’t comedy.
Soon, we won’t be able to laugh at anyone or anything. Now we have to add nice southerners to the list of people we can’t mock.
Sharpton sees the return of slavery and segregation when we mock blacks. Bill Donohue thinks Christ is crucified all over again any time we mock Catholics. Abe Foxman tells us it’s a shande to mock The Chosen. And so on.
Et tu, Kyle?
March 17th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Oh, please.
March 18th, 2009 at 12:05 am
I’d rather watch Smokey and the Bandit. That’s funny.