Bruno's Prank: Arkansas Cage Fights Turn Gay, Crowd Goes Crazy

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Crowds in Arkansas came for the lure of cage fighting and $1 beer, but police say what they got instead was men ripping each others' clothes off and kissing _ a stunt suspected of being orchestrated by Sacha Baron Cohen of "Borat" fame.

"We had a contract for cage fighting. We were deceived," said Dwight Duncan, president and CEO of Four States Fair Grounds in Texarkana, where the first of two Arkansas fights raised suspicions last month.

Matt Labov, a Los Angeles-based publicist for Baron Cohen, said he had no comment Monday about the faked fights. One of Baron Cohen's movies is due out next year.

The day after the June 5 Texarkana bout, Fort Smith's convention center hosted "Blue Collar Brawlin.'" Fort Smith police Sgt. Adam Holland said organizers told him a character named "Straight Dave" would goad a planted audience member into the ring for a fight.

The two men would then wrestle, rip away some of their clothes and share a brief kiss reminiscent of one between Baron Cohen and Will Ferrell in the film "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby."

Producers said "there would be a romantic embrace," Holland said. "They said it was kind of to essentially make fun, poke fun at wrestling _ two guys rolling around on the floor, all sweaty."

An elaborate array of mounted and handheld video cameras caught the crowd of 1,600's reaction as the two men "went right up to the line" of the city's morality laws, Holland said. The two men stripped down to their underwear, kissed and rubbed on each other, the sergeant said.

The audience, as well as local fighters drawn to take part in the show, became enraged. "It set the crowd off lobbing beers," Holland said. "They had beers in plastic cups. Those things can get some distance on them actually."

Holland said it took officers about 45 minutes to clear the convention center, as the two actors sprinted away through a specially set-aside tunnel.

Those in attendance were told by several signs on display that they'd be filmed, Holland said, and signed waivers before the event. Convention center sales director Karin Hobbs declined to name the event's sponsor Monday.

Baron Cohen became a national celebrity after his 2006 hit movie "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," in which he played a bumbling reporter from the Central Asia nation.

News of the faked cage fights comes as Baron Cohen is in production of a movie titled "Bruno," named after the gay Austrian fashion reporter he developed for "Da Ali G Show." Baron Cohen, in the guise of Bruno, often interviewed hapless subjects in the South.

If the cage match visits came from Baron Cohen, it wouldn't be the first time Arkansas fell for a practical joke. In 2000, then-Gov. Mike Huckabee fell for a prank and congratulated Canada for preserving its icebound Parliament, calling it a "national igloo."

Comments

[leftoflennon]

LOVE u Sasha!

[noamjunior]

uhhhm- isn't Cohen just pointing out the obvious homosexual context in pro- wrestling and mixed martial arts?

[SifSkade]

Yeah, but the actual fans of the sports either don't see it as obvious or have a convenient blind spot there; either way, you don't really want to be the one to poke that sleeping tiger awake.

[Bystander]

I guess the fans were real disappointed to see homo-mania instead of wrestle-mania.

[pizzmoe]

Is there a difference?

[knixphan]

exactly.

[blooddoc]

At the risk of overstating the obvious, stupidity at this level is not limited to Arkansas. The South in general catches a lot of flack over stuff like this, but people in New York and California can be easily deceived as well. What is so sad about all of this is that the people who go in for this kind of stuff CAN VOTE. Frightening, isn't it?

[racetoinfinity]

yes.

[Soundofthunder]

Face it, people. Wrestling, cage fighting, ultimate fighting, where two sweaty men grapple till they are locked in each others arms -- or legs! --, is entirely homoerotic. All Sacha did was take the obvious to its logical implied conclusion.

Originality: 3/10
Bravado: 9/10

SOT

[moda31]

bruno is my favorite of sasha's characters, i can't wait for the movie.

[squeezer]

What are all those wrestling fans afraid of ?? And what a waste of good beer!!
www.squeezingbucks.com

[monty]

I see Homophobia is alive and well in the US of A.

[nachtengel]

Sasha is running out of things to do I suppose. This was a skit from Peter Sellers / Ringo star movie The Magic Christian, except it was with boxers. Same setup, same joke, same result.

I hope the rest of the skits aren't "borrowed" as well.

[noamjunior]

and Borat is a carbon copy of Martin and Akroyd's "wild and crazy guys"
the difference is the context and verisimilitude of the "reality" style filming
very few ideas in comedy are 100% original

[lotusfalls]

Except that was a movie, and this was real. I'd say that's enough of a difference.

[SifSkade]

Huge diff b/w fully scripted movie with actor extras and a real-life, winging-it situation where a bunch of yokels expecting a cage fight get The Birdcage instead. That's why they had the tunnel there; they knew it could get super ugly, super quick. That's the genius of Baron Cohen -- real people (all real people, not just Southerners) are so much more absurd and hilarious in their natural state than anything anyone could write.

[Verite]

Sacha B. Cohen is doing the type of humor that Lenny Bruce wanted to do just about the time the Powers that Be started having him arrested for obscenity. Just listen to Lenny's Curran Theater concert right after his first busts, he goes on about wanting "to do a flick if I can just stop getting arrested"..."with funnies that you've never seen before"...alas, poor Lenny, a fellow of infinite jest...
Anyway, this is the tradition our Borat/Bruno/Ali G is following...and debating whether he's like Andy Kaufmann or "not in his league" is even more absurd then the humor these fellows engage in.
Laughing at the nonsensical behavior that we humans take so, so seriously is one of the cures to the dangerous pomposities and stupidities that plague our species.
Some of the comments here seem to come from folks who haven't yet discovered that they're as dumb and as dangerous as the rest of us. That is hard earned wisdom...learning to laugh at yourself and recognizing that all things considered, we are -- all of us -- pretty stupid, even the ones that seem brighter than the rest.
And that's the Universe having a bit of a laugh at its own expense, right? At least that's what my dog tells me.

[TheThoughtCriminal]

Well said.

[racetoinfinity]

Sorry - some people are smarter and more evolved and developed than others, not that the dumb ones don't have the potential to be more, but if they haven't realized it, they haven't. You can't flatten out holarchies.
(the integral word for hierarchies).

[Fudgefase]

I have seen Baron Cohen's 'Bruno' character on tv. It's a very amusing pastiche, but really only relevant to the fashion world where everyone he interviews is as superficial as Bruno is.
They all take his totally ridiculous questions so seriously - that's where the laughs lie.
But I can't see how a 'Borat' version of 'Bruno' will work. This fighting thing just doesn't sound funny. Would anyone think it amusing if a hetero couple started snogging in a ring? Then why should it be funny to watch guys? I suppose it was really the audience reactions that were the joke. But guess what. Borat already did that gag.

[noamjunior]

never saw the skit were Bruno consults a televangelists to help him out with what is appropriate or inappropriate behavior?

[hartkid]

One more point. Cage match fighting, for all its ignorant brutality, IMO, is extremely popular across the United States. Matches are held in every major city and in small towns across the country. The sport posts huge pay-per-view draws and some of the stars are practically household names. This is not a phenomenon found only in the southern U.S. Do any of you seriously contend that had the same set up happened anyplace else, that some of the crowd (think "people who attend cage fights") would not have reacted the same way. I'm sure many in the crowd in Arkansas were not reacting out of bigotry, but irritation for being played as dupes, wasting their time and money and not getting what they paid for (which admittedly was cage fighting, but even so. See my point regarding chess match, below). I agree with many of the posters below. While Cohen has consistently made me laugh and I admire his craft, I am also empathic enough to understand that many of the "dupes" of Borat, Ali G and Bruno are 1) trying to be gracious, 2) baited into making comments that belie their true feelings and beliefs, 3) are merely getting in on the spectacle and reacting to crowd dynamics, and 4) figure out the joke and play along for effect.

[definitelyNOTmisterRIGHT]

sorry hartkid, you are delusional!

[hartkid]

What part of my opinion is delusional? Surely not my contention that attendees of a cage fight turned gay, performance-art grope session would not have been met with jeers in say, Michigan or Pennsylvania, or New Jersey?

If it's the latter portion of my opinion regarding the psychology behind the reactions of Borat's or Bruno's victims, convince me. People behave strangely when they're made to feel uncomfortable. Cohen counts on it and he often plays to the victim's desire to fit in, get along, be accomodating, etc. It makes for good comedy but very slanted social commentary.

[ga4ry]

sure the crowd was mad and rightly so, but they were not able to stand up to show thier outrage, if you get my drift

[tucsonarizona1]

Were they mad because he pointed out to them just how gay cage fighting is? Would you deny there are ticket holders at these events for that very reason?

[BigBagel]

Sasha makes some more coin mocking those primitive Americans. Why doesn't he stick to his own island. Its full of drunken soccer thugs.

[YankeeCanuck]

He's already made fun of them. And the hooligans out here in the colonies come in more varieties.

[knixphan]

infinite varieties.

[vmonter]

Mocking Americans is what makes the world go 'round. We have a sense of humor, and everyone else loves to laugh at us. So, enjoy!

[yngcelt]

That's what differentiates us and the British from virtually every other country in the world. We have a sense of humor that we can poke fun at ourselves and not take offense at it while other countries like France and Germany have such huge sticks up their poopenschafs they only laugh at other countries' expenses and get offended whenever anyone mocks them.

[DocManhattan]

Cohen's schtick doesn't work in the UK any more because everyone knows who he is, what he does and what characters he plays. In the US, it's much easier to find places where he's still unknown and his humour is not fully understood, so he can still fool people into taking him seriously.

His kind of humour has been around in the UK since at least the early 90s, when I remember listening to Chris Morris on the radio 'interviewing' bewildered old men in the street and asking them what they thought about "the inflatability of the Pope" ... Everyone gets the joke now, so you can't play it on people any more.

[scouserinlondon]

Excuse me.Drunken soccer thugs?The NERVE!! I will have you know the folliowing

I do not go to soccer

I am not a thug

I am not..........errrmmm

Oh well 2 out of 3 ain't bad!!!!

[lilsky]

FOOTBALL. F-O-O-T-B-A-L-L.

[Tommygun264]

How dare they imply that professional wrestling is homo-erotic! There is nothing more manly than two or more ripped, steroid-enhanced muscle men with waxed chests, coiffed shoulder-length hair full of styling gel, wearing nothing but tight spandex shorts with matching lace-up leather boots, covered in body glitter and baby oil grunting and grinding as they each attempt to subdue and climb on top of their opponent.

Last year my ex-boyfriend got third row seats at one of those Ultimate Fighting championship matches. Almost everyone else around us in the more expensive first five rows were younger amateur fighters from the various gyms that sponsored fighters competing that evening. All of these guys had wives or girlfriends by their sides. But all these guys could talk about was how ripped their favorite fighters were, some of them actually taking off their own shirts and flexing as they hooted and cheered in some bizarre display of support for their fellow fighters in the ring. By the time of the main event, some of these men were visibly aroused, but they all seemed oblivious to the obvious implications of their behavior. Yet these same pumped up muscle boys would probably beat to death anyone who suggested there was anything homo-erotic about this display of primal worship of the male body.

[piper1233]

LUV IT LUV IT LUV IT, GOOD WELL WRITTEN COMMENT.

[BigBagel]

You know what? Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

[daveny]

And yet, I'm willing to bet they make up a fair proportion of the Craigslist "M4M" ads!

26, buff, straight white male... girlfriend is out of town, lookin for some no-strings... RIGHT!~

[LABC]

LOL!! My husband and I watched about 5 minutes of that on T.V. and we decided that after the 69 style pinning down of one opponent that a rerun of "Will & Grace" was more our speed.

And after LMAO seeing Cohen as Bruno at Spring Break trying to get unsuspecting drunk guys to pose for him (on his HBO show), I am looking forward to this movie

[TheExperience]

So instead of watching the fights, you're watching guys at ringside & checking out their packages? I think you're just seein' what you wanna see, TommyBoy...

[Tommygun264]

Yeah, what straight guy would take notice of a man jumping up on his seat with a pistol in his pocket, taking off his shirt and hooting like a wild animal as he flexes his arms or abs? Gay men aren't constantly slobbering over other guys as if they were Hooter's waitresses in an ultra-straight setting - as a matter of self preservation we will do everything possible to avoid temptation and drawing attention to ourselves because the last thing we need is to get caught checking out Jethro's package. It was a situation and anyone who would say otherwise would be in denial.