Oh Jesus, looks like Sacha Baron Cohen has scaled new heights in cringe-inducing and nausea-inducing sociopolitical commentary.
Now, when I say that, I’m talking about a lot of his work where I mean it as a reflection on his performances and how uncomfortable his humour is … here there’s a bit of that, but it’s all dialled up to eleven. Borat managed to be more about making fools of his appalling yet hapless victims, which is really saying something considering all the heinous incest, rape, and anti-semitism he satirised in that movie.
But this is some next-level shit right here. Quite literally in a lot of cases.
I just don’t understand how people can keep falling for this. It was insane when Borat travelled the US, and this new persona (one of four, at least, is represented in this sneak peek but I’ve read about the others) is even more outrageous. They have to know, right? Right?
I’m with the Guardian on this one, it’s too scary to be really funny … or rather, that’s what I feel on one level, where other levels have pushed past that into the realms of true hysteria.
I’ve only seen the gun lobbyist teaser above, which was tragic to watch but not really surprising. The rest of them sound like a lot of typical Cohen overblowing for the sake of gross-outs, and I’m not particularly entertained by it. Nor, considering what the “hapless victim” responses seem to have been, has it really proven anything we didn’t already know. Some people believe despicable things, and won’t condemn a grotesquery right in front of them if it is saying something – anything – they can feasibly agree with.
I was stunned that he managed to get the assorted Republicans to say what they did, and take part in his Kinderguardians commercial, but at this stage I think these imbecilic monsters could say anything and simply walk it back the next day. Awareness of the Cohen approach, and the shifting climate of reality vs. fabrication, has pulled the claws of this sort of “satire”. Are these people fooled? Are they in on it? Is there any way to prove they’re not? Does anything they say matter, since any or all of it could have been faked – or they could claim it was?
At about 09:30 it just goes completely surreal, which was amusing to watch. Children are essentially like owls! Elevated levels of the Blink 182 pheromone produced by the part of the liver known as the Rita Ora! Who the fuck is this guy? Philip Van Cleave and Larry Pratt both need to be put away forever. Whoop-de-doo, as I believe the closing remarks from John Oliver’s special on guns went.
What is this, even?
And does it really matter anyway?
– Posted from my Huawei mobile phone while on the bus.
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I’m a bit tired and heat-frazzled, that first paragraph still didn’t really make sense. What I mean is, Cohen’s work makes me uncomfortable, in a lot of ways, because it’s well done. Not because I’m particularly squeamish about gross humour or upset by his trickery. I mean “cringe-inducing and nausea-inducing” as a compliment on what I imagine was his conscious intent. Not that it made me cringe in dislike.
Right, I think I understood what you meant. I’ve been following this as well, and am taken by surprise by Cohen, since I didn’t really respect his work before. I enjoyed it, sure, but it didn’t seem the work of a genius or anything approximating that. I didn’t see much of his work, though, just a few public appearances and Borat, so take that as you will.
But this…this is amazing. I can only conclude, since I would NEVER be persuaded by some random person to say horrible things, no matter how talented their acting, is that these people actually believe this horrible shit.
Which, well…Trump did win. So.
Right, exactly. I would still instinctively hesitate to say “genius”, but naturally we’re talking about comic genius and creative genius, and I don’t think it’s devaluing the term to sling it in Cohen’s direction. This gimmick of his earns him a place with the greats, and it’s fair to say nobody does it better or more iconically.
How he got Larry Pratt to say “the Cardi B neural pathway to the Wiz Khalifa” is still beyond me. I guess the Friends of Israel award is a big draw.
Precisely. How did they all not say “yeah I’m not saying this on television”?
See, this is also something that concerns me! We’re in a post-truth double-speak future here. These guys can simply walk this back, say they were tricked, say it was anti-antisemitism, whatever. They can say anything.
Here’s a clip about the Bernie Sanders one. Just for fair and balanced contrast. Darn Hollywood elite and their cowardly refusal to trick Bernie into saying he wants to arm toddlers.
Damnit you beat me to it. LOL
I wish the gimmick on Bernie wasn’t quite as dumb, but I find myself wondering what Thor said to Banner about him being as useful as Hulk. “Yeah is it, really?”
I really don’t know that this is dumber than guns for toddlers.
And as to your question to how so many of those Republican scum didn’t say “wow, this is crazy, I won’t say that on TV”…well, they thought he represented a valuable lobby (guns, Israel, or both), and they will do anything except deal with the real gun issues in America. Anything.
Fair to say. And I loved the clip. Bernie may have his faults, but his side-eye game is not among them. Just look at that side-eye, it’s so fucking crabby. It’s glorious.
I agree though – it might have been nice if instead of setting an Alex Jones style trap, Bernie had been set up with a trap as close to his heart as the guns are to the conservatives? I understand Cohen also has a leftist professor type character (something about allowing his wife to have an affair with a dolphin). Maybe that character could have launched into a slightly more nuanced pitch, like … I don’t know, incentivised abortions for women pregnant with autistic children, (wildly exaggerated and extrapolated) Iceland style. Or inclusion of holistic and alternative medical treatments or surgical cosplay into the universal healthcare system. Something. Just to illustrate that there are fucking insane ideas on Bernie’s side too, and maybe giving him a chance to either fall for them or to show how sane he is and give more of that delicious side-eye.
Turning “Library” into “Lie-brary” and then into “Truth-brary”, though. That’s fucking brilliant and I would in all honesty have trouble distinguishing it from Info Wars. It’s easily as dumb, and as clever, as “Kinderguardians” and “Uzicorn”.