[jessduntno]

There really couldn’t possibly be ANYTHING I could give a GD less about...

[Behind Liberal Lines]

I'm not a fan of Cohen's movies but I don't understand the author's point. Is he claiming that Cohen stays in character while home with his (incredibly hot) wife?

[lentulusgracchus]

A few minutes into Bruno, I remembered why I'd boycotted Borat (after reading a review that explained Cohen's M.O.).

Some candid-camera TV shows have been lighthearted and all in fun, but Cohen isn't. He has an axe to grind, and he grinds it at people's direct expense (like Leno's "Jaywalking" sketches and interviews). Cohen ambushes people (Harrison Ford -- who gives him the rough brushoff) and he demeans people and tries to make them look insensitive, silly, or lacking in integrity.

Pretty rough play for comedy.

[buffyt]

A lot of people walked out of YEAR ONE and are walking out of BRUNO.

[buffyt]

I HEAR THAT YEAR ONE AND BRUNO ARE PRETTY BAD

Why I Walked Out of ‘Year One’ Crying
by Victoria Jackson

I had a date with Judd Apatow. It was around 1991 and I was between husbands: the out-of-work-Jewish-Gypsy-fire-eater-musician, and the high-school-sweetheart-Baptist-helicopter-police-pilot. I needed a date to a premiere. I knew the rules of engagement for a Hollywood career, and I tried to follow them. It’s difficult to do this when you carry the burden of ethics around with you, but I tried to do it and stay within the bounds of morality.

1) Go to the right places. I went to the Playboy Mansion to find an agent, and I did. I was 21 and a Baptist virgin, and I found Betty from the William Morris commercial department there. Check.

2) Wear something provocative to a Hollywood premiere so you can get free publicity. I did that. When I was an SNL castmember trying to increase my movie roles, I attended some Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan premiere (go figure - it was a flop!) in a see-through black shirt with a flowered bra underneath. I felt ashamed, but I did get my picture in a few magazines. All press is good press, and press leads to opportunity.

3) Date famous men or up-and-coming smart Jewish comedy writers. I went on a date with Arthur Godfrey right before he died, and ten years later, when I was 30, I asked Judd Apatow to escort me to some Century City event. I was pretty much invisible to him the whole night, but we did get our picture in People Magazine.

That is about it in my list of cliché things I have done to help my career move along.

Well, today I walked out of a Judd Apatow movie crying. It was the scene where the obese homosexual is fortune-telling by looking at the bowels of a sheep that has been sodomized by a person. The movie was “Year One.” I tried to be open-minded as I watched the first 20 minutes of masturbation, fornication, circumcision jokes, continual penis references, bestiality, violence, and Biblical blasphemy. I told myself this was a PG-13 movie and the writers were “lost” so they didn’t know how vulgar they were being. I looked at the ten-year-old and his father sitting next to me. I must be old-fashioned or something. But, then I noticed no one was laughing. No one was walking out either.

I was hoping that the crude jokes were flying over the heads of the poor children who were sitting there wide-eyed and innocent. My daughter is 15 and she loves Jack Black and the guy from “Juno,” so I thought we could have a Mom/teenager date. I asked myself, “Vicki, is this movie making you feel good?” Myself replied, “This movie is making me angry, very sad, hopeless, and dirty-feeling.” As the onscreen obese gay man poked at the bloody intestines and told the fifth anal sex joke, I looked at my daughter, and we got up and walked out. I started crying in the parking lot as we walked to our car. I am not from this world. I am an alien. No wonder me and Apatow never hit it off.

[freedumb2003]

I hated the second half of “Borat.”

I refuse to see Bruno or anything else Cohen does.

Performance Art (pretty much popularized by Andy Kaufman) is funny and interesting for maybe 5 or 10 minutes. Then it just gets old since it has to be over the top.

[buffyt]

Personal life
Baron Cohen is engaged to the Australian actress Isla Fisher. After three years of study, Isla converted to Judaism in early 2007, and has received the approval of Baron Cohen’s observant Jewish parents. On 19 October 2007 Isla gave birth to a baby girl named Olive Baron Cohen in Los Angeles, California, USA.

[Blind Eye Jones]

Bruno is the polar opposite of Jackie Mason in many ways. Both Jewish comedians make harsh social commentary but for Sasha's Bruno, similar to his ali G's two tongue-in-cheek admonitions: “keep it real” and “respect”, there is no reality and absolutely no respect. Like the ali G character, what Bruno relies upon is the approval of the liberal masses — they approve of gayness because it is Hollywood “cool,” shows tolerance and open mindedness, and if they didn't approve, they'd fear to be labeled a bigoted, uptight, right-wing homophobe. So Bruno has an easy audience and does pretty much what he wants, ridicule pretty much who he wants. The audience doesn't see Bruno or ali G as a satire of the dumb tastes of the masses. They see it as elevating. This is where the comedy falls down. Jackie Mason is more effective and straightforwardly honest. Nobody is confused about Jackie Mason whereas there is too many opportunities to be confused with Bruno.

[fso301]

How will he be killed off? AIDS?