In Reply to: As the saying goes, "a guy who's nice to you but rude to the waiter is not a nice guy." posted by Bersani on November 3, 2006 at 12:38:17:
But "Borat" ambushes plenty of people who don't think the Holocaust was a good thing.This part of the L.A. Times review of the movie echoes and better expresses my sentiments on his brand of comedy.
"But because Cohen is intentionally provocative, willing to mock whoever crosses his path, he ends up baiting the harmless and playing ordinary people for fools just because they are gullible and had the bad luck to run into him, and it's here that the laughter especially sticks in your throat. The car dealer who doesn't object when Borat makes anti-Gypsy remarks may not be a secret racist but simply someone who decided it was a mug's game to get further involved with an obvious lunatic. And the Southern dining society that gets mercilessly humiliated seems to have committed no sin worse than earnestness, credulity and hospitality.
With his corrosive brand of take-no-prisoners humor that scalds on contact, Cohen is the most intentionally provocative comedian since Lenny Bruce and early Richard Pryor, with a difference. For unlike those predecessors, there is a mean-spiritedness, an every-man-for-himself coldness about his humor. The one kind of laughter you won't find in "Borat" is that which acknowledges shared humanity."
Don't piss on my shoe and tell me it's raining.
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Follow Ups
- Sure, for the guy you linked to, he deserves what he gets, and more. - sjb 20:14:33 11/03/06 (4)
- Oh that's good. My favorite Cohen episode was when, as Ali G, he conned... - clarkjohnsen 09:56:50 11/04/06 (0)
- Re: Sure, for the guy you linked to, he deserves what he gets, and more. - Bersani 21:54:26 11/03/06 (2)
- Yeah but where's the talent? - dwill123 06:08:44 11/04/06 (1)
- The ancient Trickster archetype is as invaluable as it is inescapable. No stooping required! (nt) - Bersani 08:02:35 11/04/06 (0)