Brüno: Satire, Humor and Stereotypes

In April, when the first trailer for Sacha Baron Cohen's new movie Bruno debuted online, many of us in the LGBT community were cautiously optimistic about what we saw - and I was among them.

I first became familiar with Sacha Baron Cohen through his Da Ali G Show on HBO, where he played different characters who conducted squirm-inducing interviews with political leaders, media personalities and everyday Americans. The characters' clueless questions - and the actor's impressive ability to never break character - allowed them to call attention to people's hang-ups, biases and intolerance.

One of those characters, Bruno, was a flamboyant gay correspondent for the fictional Austrian TV show Funkyzeit mit Bruno -- itself a satire of programs that feed people's obsession with fashion and pop culture. Bruno interviewed fashion designers, nightclub owners and models - but he also spoke to people with anti-gay attitudes, using the setting to send up the homophobia of some of his interview subjects.

Sacha Baron Cohen's 2006 blockbuster Borat made him a household name. Audiences and critics loved the movie. And based on what I had seen on Da Ali G Show, I had hoped that I might be able to say similar things about the forthcoming Brüno.

A little over a month ago, I attended a screening of an early cut of Bruno with a few other GLAAD staff members. Like Borat before it, Bruno is an episodic film that is broken up into a series of loosely connected scenes - many of which are very funny, satirically sharp and on target. Witness a series of interviews with disoriented celebrities early in the film. Or the way Bruno destroys a fashion show. Or the ways he exposes the lengths to which some parents will go to make stars of their toddlers. Or a lesson with a martial arts instructor who coaches Bruno on (among other things) how to detect a gay person. (Some choice advice: "Some of them don't even dress no different than myself or you.") It's scenes like these - and there are a lot of them in the film - where I got a clear sense that Bruno was firing on all cylinders, and the audience was in on the joke.

In one extended series of sequences, Bruno adopts a baby from Africa, giving Baron Cohen an opportunity to take aim at those celebrity parents who seem to treat their children like fashion accessories. What follows, though, shifts the film from smart social satire to something else entirely - a parade of over-the-top stereotypes that, whatever their intent, play to and could affirm troubling attitudes about gay people.

Bruno appears as a guest on a local TV talk show with the baby in tow. Then, following racially insensitive comments by Bruno in the presence of the largely African American audience, that audience is shown photos of what appears to be Bruno in a hot tub having sex with men inches away from the child. Horrified and outraged, the talk-show audience turns on Bruno.

What's disquieting about this scene - and others in the film - is that it doesn't call attention to or unmask cultural homophobia. Let's face it: there probably aren't many people in a real-world setting who wouldn't share that talk-show audience's reaction to a young child being treated this way. And in a country where gay and lesbian parents can still be denied the ability in some states to adopt the children they have raised since birth - and where those children can even be taken away from the only parents they've ever known - the idea of trivializing gay families, making them the butt of a series of crude jokes, and reinforcing pernicious stereotypes about gay men and children didn't feel funny. It felt dangerous.

[There's another fascinating aspect to this scene that emerged in an article that will appear in Sunday's New York Times. The studio appears concerned enough about this particular scene that someone who worked on the film is quoted in the Times as saying that, in fact, the photos were digitally altered and the baby was not actually present. This is going to be a relief to many who watch the film after having read the Times' story, but it raises questions about whether people who walk into this film are going to encounter translation problems with regard to its satirical intent.]

Is this to say that the entire movie, from beginning to end, was this alarming? Absolutely not. In fact, those of us who saw this film agreed that it's not really helpful to try to critique this as a single film. It's really a 90-minute series of sketches - some of which hit their mark, but some of which hit our community instead, and in ways that feel fundamentally antithetical to the intentions of the filmmakers.

We voiced our concerns about a number of Bruno's scenes to the filmmakers, and we have yet to see the final cut of the film. But it was clear that a few trims to a couple of scenes weren't going to be able to fully resolve those concerns.

Some audiences - including, I'm sure, allies and members of our community -- will simply not agree that these images are offensive. Others will find it frustrating to be confronted with demeaning, stereotypical images that feel like they're aimed not at increasing people's discomfort with homophobia, but rather at decreasing their comfort with gay people.

It's really a shame that Bruno ultimately misses the mark, in part because so much of it works. There was an opportunity here for Baron Cohen to move his often-brilliant satire on the reality of anti-gay prejudice beyond HBO viewers to a vast mainstream summer movie audience. I would have loved to have seen Bruno the movie take a few more of its cues from Bruno the character we got to know on HBO - where his skewering of stereotypes rarely, if ever, seemed to get tripped up by the stereotypes themselves. And I hope that our community's discussion of the movie creates opportunities for greater understanding and awareness of the difference.

Comments

[Changeling]

Cohen: Not funny. Never has been. Crass and just plain tasteless. Larry the Cable Guy for the Greenwich Village set.

[malibufire]

'zakly. The guy just isn't funny. It's not irony (see George Carlin), it's not slapstick (see Three Stooges), it's just "look at me" (see Paris Hilton). Boring as hell.

[Tallulah Morehead - Huffpost Blogger]

He IS funny. BORAT is the funniest film in terms of sheer laughter that has come out so far in the 21st Century. ANd he DOES use both slapstick and irony.

But then, anyone who would hold up The Three Stooges as examples of someone funny is obviously too unsophisticated and taste-free for Cohen's smart work.

[EducatedObserver]

Relax, Rashad.

By definition, satire is the exaggerated portrayal of the idiosyncracies of its subjects. It is the antithesis of political correctness. And in a society where people take themselves and their positions so seriously, I thank God for satire.

I am sure that you are not suggesting that the gay community is so uber-sensitive and lacking in sophistication that it cannot laugh at itself?

[Winning09]

Cohen makes hay with stereotypes, period.

[rainbowblue]

It will be interesting to see how the released picture does, and the reaction to it. I probably won't see it and will not voice an opinion one way or another, but give a warning. Just remember that the movie a year or so ago "I now Pronuce you Chuck and Larry" never really hit its mark of being a pro-gay film. The question isn't if we are going to be offened, but rather is that 16 year old in the crowd going to get the joke and realize that he shouldn't beat up "that gay kid" in his class. Of course if the reverse happens and the 16 year old doesn't get the joke and finds solace in the movie for hating queers than, I'm done with this idea of embracing the sterotype as satire.

We will see...

[Tallulah Morehead - Huffpost Blogger]

" a parade of over-the-top stereotypes that, whatever their intent, play to and could affirm troubling attitudes about gay people."

I just can't see how ANYTHING "Bruno" does could "play to and could affirm troubling attitudes about gay people," since everyone seeing the film will know that Sasha isn't gay, and is just playing a character. And I'm afraid I stopped trusting GLAAD on these matters about 15 years ago, as GLAAD, though with good intentions identical to my own, and often achieving necessary progress for us, is also VERY often oversensitive, and has often objected, sometimes loudly and vociferously, to material and presentations I not only found inoffensive, but actually postive, with the point missed by GLAAD, which quite often seems to lack a real sense of humor.

Now I haven't seen BRUNO yet, though I will on its opening day regardless of what ANYONE writes about it, as I must judge it for myself, so I do not know if your concerns are on the nose, too mild, or way off the mark yet. I will make my own final judgements when I see it. I do know that comedy is seldom judged well by people who do not create comedy themselves.

And I do know that BORAT made me laugh harder than any film I've seen in years. I will trust Cohen until he gives me cause not to.

[wonder6789]

"BORAT made me laugh harder than any film I've seen in year"

Borat made me laugh harder than any film I've EVER seen.

[BlackJAC]

I laughed so hard during the naked fight scene that I thought I was going to have an athsma attack.

[BlackJAC]

All of Sacha Baron Cohen's characters from DA ALI G SHOW are intended to get idiots to drop their shields and act like idiots, not to foster any sort of dialogue between subgroups.

[OtayPanky]

Blogger: What follows, though, shifts the film from smart social satire to something else entirely - a parade of over-the-top stereotypes that, whatever their intent, play to and could affirm troubling attitudes about gay people.

===

If you're going to criticize Bruno for this, how can you be silent at the "parade of over-the-top stereotypes" that prance around at the Gay Pride parades in NY, SF and elsewhere?

These outre functions get huge media coverage, and the carnivale-like images get beamed into all the tee-vee's in middle America - doing more than Cohen ever could to "affirm troubling attitudes about gay people".

Of course, the GL community can do whatever it wants. I'll still support their right to marriage and everything else straights have in our society. But it seems to me that your critique of Cohen smack of hypocrisy - or at least a certain sort of moral blindness.

[gaydm]

If you are going to be silent at the "parade of over-the-top stereotypes" that prance around at Mardi Gras, College Week, and not to forget that oh so horrid straight persons displays in Miami, Ft Lauderdale and elsewhere.

How can you expect that we will take you or your straight lifestyle seriously over here on the coasts of America? All this gets beamed into my tee-vee as well.

Of course the straight community can do whatever it wants. I'll still support their right to continue to have their marriages and all else they already have in society. But it seems to ME that you need to clean up your own back yard, before you point a finger at mine.

[Truye]

Durn skippy!

[Tallulah Morehead - Huffpost Blogger]

I gotta agree, gaydm. It's true a lot of straight people are awful, but I still think they should at least have domestic partnerships, as long as they don't flaunt their disgusting perversion in public. Some of my best friends are straight people, although I wouldn't want my sister to marry one.

But could we at least get them off of TV? Man, it seems like on every show I see, the heroes have to have a straight best friend, and the hetero characters are always such straight stereotypes: guys always liking sports, women who act like gay men, breeding, etc. I'm the one who has to explain to my pets why a man and a woman are kissing. My cats are still young. They don't need to be exposed to that sort of behavior.

[OtayPanky]

gaydm: But it seems to ME that you need to clean up your own back yard, before you point a finger at mine.

===

I'm not pointing a finger. I'm simply responding to the blogger's handwringing about Bruno somehow inflaming prejudice in middle America. My point is - nothing Bruno does has anywhere as much effect when it comes to concretizing stereotypes than what the gay community itself is doing.

And - for the record - I don't care about the parades, or about Bruno, one way or the other. But right now, the GL community has a very difficult job to do IF it wants to get to the point of having national acceptance of gay marriage.

That job (in case you haven't been paying attention) is persuading the persuadable middle third of the country by presenting a public face that is responsible, intelligent and non-threatening.

Otherwise, you're going to keep losing (like in CA), because the oppo will drag out (no pun intended) all the stereotypes that you insist on parading.

It's not a "Bruno" problem.. It's a public relations problem for the GL community, pure and simple.

Straights own this country, and they don't have to be wise in order to get their rights taken care of. They can be idiots. It's the perogative of being in the majority.

To get their full and deserved civil rights, the GL community needs to be wiser than that. Making Cohen/Bruno the pre-occupation is just a mistake.

[Social Construct]

In our world of political correctness, whatever definition one wants to attach to that phrase, I fully support any interested group's right to speak, protest, boycott, apply political pressure, etc., etc., ad infinitum against what they find offensive, distasteful, demeaning, oppressive, bigoted, hateful, etc., etc. ad infinitum. Yet humor, by its nature, carries seeds of embarrassment when it puts up a mirror for us to look into at one end, and seeds of disgust when it shows the absurdity of humanity's more extreme behaviors, and, of course, just about every other description of the human condition.

I am not a fan of Mr. Cohen's work but if it causes people to examine what defines us as social creatures, and it makes some of us laugh at times, then I'm inclined to think of it as mostly a positive experience.