Bruno/Borat

[Trekker4747]

Maybe this type of "comedy" is beyond me, after "my time" but I don't get it.

Is it supposed to be funny? And I don't understand the premise. The way it's presented it looks like a hidden-camera situation where they just have this guy there doing absurd things and taping peoples' reactions. But some of the situations seem contrived and reactions from people seems... Ingenuine.

So what's the deal with these movies?

 

[Hermiod]

No idea. The number of lawsuits they've had suggests that maybe they were genuine, at least in part, however.

I'm sure there's something funny in showing up how overtly racist (Borat) or homophobic (Bruno) some people are but it's not for me.

 

[Luckyflux]

No clue. My girlfriend really liked Da Ali G show, so she is all about going to see this trash. I think she wants to drag me along too. Not looking forward to this at all! This just isn't a movie that I would like.

 

[Garak]

Maybe this type of "comedy" is beyond me, after "my time" but I don't get it.

Little from column A, little from column B.

Is it supposed to be funny? And I don't understand the premise.
The way it's presented it looks like a hidden-camera situation where they just have this guy there doing absurd things and taping peoples' reactions. But some of the situations seem contrived and reactions from people seems... Ingenuine.

So what's the deal with these movies?

Have you ever seen any of them? Or his Ali G tv show? Or are you just going off of the trailers you've seen, which we all know are heavily edited and all look contrived and ingenuine.

 

[Ethros]

It's about sending up. Whether it be the fashion idustry. Racists. Homophobes. Politicians. etc

By having these hick redneck Americans opening up to Borat about how they hate the Jews, or telling Bruno how disgusting "fags" are, it's about sending these jokers up and showing them for the fuckwits they truely are.

Classic Bruno on the ridicliousness of fashion designers

Bruno in Alabama
Why are all the guys so uncomfortable around him. Especially the guy at the end. "you try to recruit my kids then you'll have a problem with me." What a prick

Bruno and some stupid fucking Yank teenagers

Borat's infamous "Throw the Jew down the well" song
It's the hick audience singing along and loving it that makes it funny

 

[Trekker4747]

Guess I've never heard of or seen his show.

I think I'm better off for it.

 

[ManOnTheWave]

His kind of comedy really depends on the politeness of people. He's admitted it in interviews. He likes going to the south because people are more likely to let him say and do anything and not stop him. While sometimes funny, it's a bit exploitive. And even cruel.

 

[Garak]

Cohen brings to light uncomfortable truths about attitudes toward everything from foreigners to gays to the desire to be a celebrity by angering people with out of this world, in your face stereotypes. Granted, he does it by preying on the unsuspecting who probably have good intentions going in, but it's a particular brand of humor that I highly enjoy.

At the very least, he's a pretty brave guy for putting himself in to situations that could go very sideways and wind up with him getting shitkicked.

 

[Ethros]

This piece probably best sums up Bruno
"Osama Bin Laden is like the best dressed guy"


Getting the guy to say he thinks a fashion designer is more important than a doctor. That Bin Laden is cool. Getting that horrible woman saying she thinks people without fashion sense should be put on trains to camps. The woman laughing at the trailer trash not being able to afford the clothes.

 

[Rincewiend]

Ushi is funnier

Wendy Van Dijk pretends to be a Japanese journalist named Ushi...

 

[Yoda]

Exploitative, and cruel perhaps.

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BUT FUCKING HILARIOUS!!!

 

[Garak]

The Ali G interview with the Beckhams is classic I think:

Link

 

[DiSiLLUSiON]

Cohen brings to light uncomfortable truths about attitudes toward everything from foreigners to gays to the desire to be a celebrity by angering people with out of this world, in your face stereotypes. Granted, he does it by preying on the unsuspecting who probably have good intentions going in, but it's a particular brand of humor that I highly enjoy.

At the very least, he's a pretty brave guy for putting himself in to situations that could go very sideways and wind up with him getting shitkicked.

Perhaps Garak said it best.

There's a lot of bigots, racists, gay-haters and the like out there who don't realize their views are so damaging, because they're in their little close-knit community who all share the same wrong ideas. Cohen thrusts himself in sometimes dangerous situations by making fun of them; in essence, he's holding a mirror in front of them. And not everybody likes what they see.

I can strongly recommend his movie "Borat".

 

[SiorX]

I liked Cohen's brand of comedy on Da Ali G show, because he basically just sat there and gave guests enough rope with which to hang themselves. At it's best, it was both incisive and fucking hilarious.

With Borat and Bruno (especially Bruno, I think), the formula is soured by how much overt racism and homophobia he uses to create the character and scenarios.

I get part of what his comedy's trying to do. His characters aren't actually an innocent foreigner, or a gay man - they're straw-man reflections of all the things that bigots attribute to "those people". I don't think it's particularly effective though.

It's not satire to just repeat harmful stereotypes. Because Bruno honestly doesn't make me believe for one second that Cohen actually grasps the nuances of why the stereotypes he's playing up have such power, and how damaging they are.

 

[Garak]

It's not satire to just repeat harmful stereotypes. Because Bruno honestly doesn't make me believe for one second that Cohen actually grasps the nuances of why the stereotypes he's playing up have such power, and how damaging they are.

Damaging to whom?

 

[CorporalClegg]

I hate everything to do with this guy ... Well, except his wife.

I just don't "get" him at all.

 

[SiorX]

It's not satire to just repeat harmful stereotypes. Because Bruno honestly doesn't make me believe for one second that Cohen actually grasps the nuances of why the stereotypes he's playing up have such power, and how damaging they are.

Damaging to whom?

Damaging in the sense that the predatory/recruiting gay played for laughs is less funny in a world where 'gay panic' is still a viable legal defense for beating a man to death.

We all know bigots who believe that Bruno is in any way an accurate depiction of a gay man attack and persecute people. They deny people equal rites. They go out of their way to hurt people. They murder people. So to my mind, satirising that demands significantly more depth and sophistication than Cohen's 'fake gay strawman sexually harrassing other men to show up their homophobia' shtick. *Shrug*. YMMV.

ETA: Holy crap. Sacha Baron Cohen scored Shannon from Home and Away. I did not know that.

 

[The Evil Dead]

I am a member of a different species than some of you people. I have to be. I want to be.

 

[Trekker4747]

He scores Isla Fisher?!?!??!

Holy cow!

 

[Kelso]

I think that he is hilarious.