Sacha Baron Cohen of course made a scene before tonight's Oscars when he arrived on the red carpet in character as General Aladeen, the star of his upcoming movie "The Dictator." Carrying the fake ashes of the late North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, Baron Cohen dumped the ashes onto Ryan Seacrest. As he walked away, he told Seacrest that when asked, "Who are you wearing?" he should answer, "Kim Jong Il."
It was meant as a prank and a publicity stunt. And like most of Sacha Baron Cohen's publicity stunts, it worked. People will be talking about it on Monday morning and that will ultimately result in a larger box office take for "The Dictator."
Watching the footage of Baron Cohen comically spilling the fake ashes of a dead dictator onto Ryan Seacrest reminded me of a similar scene from the season premier of "Two and a Half Men" this season. The new season began with Jon Cryer's character Alan being surprised at seeing a soaking-wet Walden Schmidt (Ashton Kutcher) appearing at the Malibu house window and then tossing Charlie Sheen's character's ashes into the air. The ashes are later stepped on and then vacuumed. The spilling of a dead person's ashes in error is an old comedy routine (remember Robert DeNiro's mother's ashes falling off the mantle in "Meet the Parents"?), but I still found it troubling. Sacha Baron Cohen dumping Kim Jong Il's ashes on to Ryan Seacrest and Jon Cryer throwing Charlie Sheen's ashes into the air were both funny and I laughed. However, it also made me think of how we should respect the dead.
According to Jewish law, cremation is prohibited. We believe that dead bodies should return to the ground. Admittedly that could have had something to do with my discomfort at watching the scene from "Two and a Half Men." Interestingly, I wasn't as troubled watching the "Weekend at Bernie's" movie in which a dead corpse is paraded around the beach for a few days.
The comedic gags with spilled ashes and a dancing corpse are one thing. They are meant to be humorous. However, we should remember the ethic of respecting the dead. K'vod ha-met in the Hebrew refers to the Jewish law of treating the deceased with honor. I have never attended "Bodies: The Exhibition," in which preserved human corpses are dissected to showcase the way the body's systems work. I understand that it is for educational purposes, but purchasing a ticket to such a "show" has struck me as odd. It seems a disrespectful way to treat the dead.
What also comes to mind when I think about how we must honor and respect the dead is the recent published photograph by the National Enquire of a dead Whitney Houston lying in her coffin. I understand that the goal of this tabloid is to sell copies of their paper to make money, but this immediately struck me as crossing the line of decency and appropriateness. Journalistic integrity and responsibility is becoming harder to find these days, but the National Enquire should have refused to purchase this photograph. Publishing it on the front page of the tabloid was disrespectful to Whitney Houston's family and was certainly a violation of the edict to respect the dead.
While I am uncomfortable even seeing fake ashes being used as a joke, I certainly understand how Sacha Baron Cohen was attempting to get shock value out of his stunt at the Academy Awards and how "Two and a Half Men" was making a joke (and perhaps a statement about Charlie Sheen). Where I think our society needs to tread more cautiously is when actual dead bodies are used inappropriately. The Bodies exhibit has been very successful for many years despite some people's criticism of it. While I don't plan to ever buy a ticket and attend this exhibition, I do understand how it can be an educational endeavor. However, the case of Whitney Houston's dead corpse being published on the front page of a tabloid newspaper (and then all over the Internet), is a shame.
No matter how curious our society might be to see such a photograph, I hope more tact will be displayed in the future so that dead bodies (no matter what form they take) will be respected and honored. Sacha Baron Cohen was going for sensationalism at the Oscars, and he clearly understands how death gets our attention.
Rabbi Jason Miller blogs at Blog.RabbiJason.com and is on Facebook.
Follow Rabbi Jason Miller on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rabbijason
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My son, however, reacted differently, saying at one point that he thought it was wrong to be displaying the plasticized remains, even if the families had given full consent to the German physicians who created the project. I steered him towards displays of individual organs, vascular system, etc., thinking these might be less impactful than the full-body displays. Eventually, I obliged my sons sensitivity, and left the exhibit earlier than planned.
Years later, when I discovered that my son and his friends were experimenting with cigarettes, I marshalled all my rational arguments, smoking statistics and examples from family members who had lung cancer, and applied them in my efforts to discourage his poor choice. After that phase passed, I was surprised when he later told me that the thing that really made him think about the dangers of smoking, despite all my efforts, was his recollection of the emphysematic lung, shriveled and necrotic, laying next to a healthy one in the display case, all those years ago in Cleveland.
it
involves carrying the spirit of someone
who watches a show a year or so later
and
is mortified..
or carrying the spirit of someone who is already mortified...
in which case
they may not get it at all.
Jason, dude, it's comedy, it's make believe, the ashes aren't real. Don't be all Rabbi about it. Not everything is about religion. It's okay. It's funny. You can laugh.
About Bodies: The Exhibition, to be honest I would find it a high honor to have my body displayed in such a manner. Again, they are just dead bodies. But to have my body used in the future to educate the public, to have people mesmerized by my circulatory system or something, that would be very cool! I would find it infinitely preferable to have my deceased body be preserved in such a way that it contributes to human history or science, that it persists after my death as a small but important part of my culture. I hope I would be that fortunate. Short of that, it would be a honor to have my heart be a transplant for someone else. It's just a body, I would want mine to go to good use.
Now on Whitney Houston. A complete waste of talent. A waste of an incredible voice, thrown away for drugs. She deserves peace, but she doesn't deserve the level of respect that she is given in the media.
I don't really get why people feel they need to walk on eggshells just because someone died. Call me strange, but what someone did in life doesn't suddenly become much more acceptable just because they died.
The joke was disrespectful towards KJI (which 99% of the world is fine with), but was not disrespectful towards his body.
And if i'm not mistaken Kavod Hamet primarily concerns handling and respect for the physical bodies. Insulting or disrespecting a dead person would be Lashon Hara
Next time you attempt to post, have the decency to actually read the article.
Or are insults all you have to add to the discussion?
I can understand your point. I didn't see one minute of the Academy Awards so I missed the sketch, although I always watch "2.5 men". These things don't/wouldn't bother me since the ashes for a sketch are fake (I hope). I agree with you, though, that having a real dead body on TV would be a little creepy, if not over the line. I'm still a little spooked seeing an Egyptian mummy in my history book in high school and thinking that that was a real person.