Am I the only one who doesn't get Sacha Baron Cohen?

You guys are all old.

 

Thank you. That cuts straight to the heart of why I don't like Borat.

 

Beer us, noob.

 

Awesome.

 

No Corona. No American light beers, either. Serve real beer or nuke yourself.

 

I think Andy Kaufman was brilliant. I think Cohen is not.

At times it was hard to tell what Kaufman's point was.

Cohen's point is... you're a dumbshit.

 

Just got back from Bruno.

It's largely a big miss. The Bruno character was good in the TV version of the show when nobody knew who Cohen was. Now it's nearly all staged and the film is a lot weaker for it.

Certainly the film is WAY over the top, but in the Internet age it's not all as shocking as you might expect. The large rolling belly laughs of The Hangover were nowhere to be found in this one.

 

Count me in here. I tried watching Borat on my flight back from New Zealand last year. Got 15-20 minutes in and it became simply painful and -- yes -- cringeworthy.

I equate SBC a lot to Andy Kaufman in that I never got him either. Never saw the appeal and never thought he was funny outside of "Taxi."

Then again, with one notable exception (Beavis and Butt-head), I like my humor to require some brainpower.

 

I laughed when I watched Borat, but I felt unclean afterward. With the exception of the frat boys in the RV, his foils were sympathetic.

By reprising his shtick in Bruno, SBC is no longer a satirist.

He's a bully.

 

I don't think his comedy is about him at all, but in the reactions he produces and situations he sets up.

 

Based on this ... http://www.newsweek.com/id/205872 ... you have to think he makes sure to get the reaction he wants.

 

I've been to Fort Smith. I'd never describe it as "a Wild-West-meets-Old-South city." Was the "popular local bar" Papa's?