Letters to the Editor
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writers are righter about the pseudo-interview schtick...
the thing i liked about ali-g (and too few of the daily show 'interviews') was when they skewered high-profile, media-slick, soundbite-spewing politicians, 'leaders', and other top-of-the-food-chain muckamucks, and turned the tables on the over-serious, pretentious, superficial interview process...
*that* type of (deserved) skewering using interview techniques against them is hysterical...
but picking on average schmucks, over-the-top devotees of some unusual hobby, or other easy marks, and using a pseudo-interview to make fun of them is cheap, too easy, and misses the point of using that schtick to setup and deflate the deserving...
*those* types of cheap shots are pointless and generally more cringeworthy than funny...
art guerrilla
aka ann archy
eof
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Humor with a victim
This discussion of 'uncomfortable' humor is an important one. We grow up laughing when kids make fun of each other, family members point out each others quirks as some sort of intimacy through hazing, and we love comedies where someone is the butt of a joke.
All of this is humor with a victim. It is part of the overal culture of 'independence' rather than 'interdependence' and 'competition' rather than 'cooperation'.
I am very sensitive about humor with a victim and am most upset when I find myself partaking. It's a subject I have given a lot of consideration. In reading about "Borat", I find myself wondering whether a conscious use of humor with a victim can be helpful. But it's rather like a pacifist struggling with whether violence is ever justified.
What's the intention of "Borat"? Viewers who were not his victims will laugh at the victims, but will they self-reflect? And the victims will only be put on the defensive. I'm not sure that this accomplishes any movement in a peaceful direction. I do hope that his intentions were, at least, pure.
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Wahhhh!
"Maybe my sensitivity comes from the 12-16 years of school-yard ridicule and bullying that I had to endure. The bullies were always sure that it was just fine to gull me into just about any embarassment, and they always had a good laugh at my expense. Sometimes I'd be fooled into thinking that one of them was my friend, only to have him set me up for a big joke that everyone else seemed to already know was coming. Sometimes I'd just be taunted until I acted out in some way that they had known that they could provoke. In any case, I can still feel the sense of shame that enveloped me and the powerless, hopeless twist of betrayal in my chest..."
I especially liked -- "I can still feel the sense of shame that enveloped me and the powerless, hopeless twist of betrayal in my chest..."
I hope you're pulling a Borat now, loser!
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reminds me of a favorite line from an old film, "I'm not a hate mongerer, I'm a hate stylist ..."
said by Tom Hank's character in PUNCHLINE ... a movie I haven't seen in rotation for a long time but worth a look, imho, to see a much younger more ambitious Hanks (and Sally Fields) as fledgling standup comedian wannabes.
I doubt I have the stomach for Borat ... when we have the likes of Rush Limbaugh mimicking Michael J Fox's Parkinson's symptoms and saying -- out loud and insistantly -- variations on the "he's faking it" theme ... I can almost miss the integrity of Charleton (Chuckles) Heston's "cold dead hands"
Dead parrot, you say, well, that would be Iraq.
There's an awful lot of very real HATE out there ... maybe it's healthy to laugh, as long as you remain vigilant. I prefer the sweet silliness myself.
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"Selective editing"?
Are you kidding?
Do you realize that "editing" is "selective" by definition?
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"a jar of Gypsy tears, to protect me from AIDs."
Note to copy editor: It's not a plural of "AID" -- it's the acronym for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, and thus all four letters must be capitalized.
Thank you.
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Is this the normal line-up
of letter writers at Salon? Because, I must say, you folks are wrapped up way to tight!
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Why the pass on the talk shows?
Odd that neither SZ nor any correspondent so far has mentioned another issue with Borat/Cohen. In the past few days he has been a guest on Letterman, Leno, the Daily Show and other shows, and in each case there has been absolutely no hint that 'Borat' is not actually BORAT, but is a known comedian, Sacha Baron Cohen. Why in hell would Dave and Jay and the sainted John play along at the expense of their audience's understanding and their own credibility? That guy who for years played the character of Father Gucci or whoever, got away with the same thing--he was allowed to go on as his character and not as himself, with the hosts playing along. Man, I really hate that crap! Why can't Cohen come on as himself, just as every other guest does, and then plug his damned movie or even play around in character for awhile? It gives a pass in this case to a problematic mix of reality and fiction in the movie and in its duping of the hapless victims presented.
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People, grow up
To all the touchy-feely whiners out there: Grow up.
Elsewhere in the world, people aren't worried about political correctness, or the victims of humour, or exposing the bigotry, hypocrisy and egotism that afflicts pretty much everyone at one time or another, not simply public figures.
Sorry to generalize, but after living in the States for a couple of decades I've concluded that many Americans see the world of "Barney and Friends" as a utopia. Hence the American obsession re-creating the nursery, evident in everything from laws against naughty words on television, to a tendency to curb sharp words ("fat", "ugly") with painless euphemisms ("big", "beautiful on the inside").
Sasha Baron Cohen comes from Britain, and his humour is British--that is, humour for grown-ups. If you can't take it, go and watch Sesame Street.
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Attention editor
"Kazhak hometown"? Try "Kazakh" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazakh).
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Turn About
Now let's see a Russian performer go to Israel, or Jewish American communities, and catch the people there being stupid and racist.
Think everyone will find that as hilarious?
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Didn't Sacha Cohen die in 1984 ...
... or was that some other annoying comic-wannabe whose schtick was to blur the lines between pretend and reality?
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re: but might the other part be all the times we've heard a racist or anti-Semitic or homophobic joke and gone along with it just to avoid confrontation? Mightn't that sick feeling be a reflection of the sick smiles we don to get by?
Is it to avoid confrontation or is it because you find it funny? Racist humor can be funny - that's why Archie Bunker was such a hit - and anyone who is too offended might be just a little like the stereotypical gay basher who finds himself attracted to men.
In my world, you can't control your thoughts, just your actions. So it's okay to laugh at an off-color, sexist or racist joke. it's just not okay to be racist, sexist or inappropriate...