Is Sacha Baron Cohen a racist ?

here's my response:

waaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh call the wambulance!

seriously people, stop with this PC rubbish. Just because someone pokes fun at someone else, it is NOT necessarily racist. Racism is treating people differently based on their race or skin colour, being malicious, genuinely trying to hurt people. There is no malice behind what Baron-Cohen does, what he does is expose prejudice and irrationality through his skits. This annoys people no end because they lose the ability to take the moral high ground as a result.

The entire PC movement is an attempt to give moralists the eternal high ground so that they may denounce others according to their self-proclaimed ideas of right and wrong. You can clearly see it in the way that cries of racism are selectively applied: there is no racism against whites (ie Chris Rock isnt derided as racist despite his constant white jokes, but Baron-Cohen is...why is there a difference?). Moralising is an age old method of taking and exercising power, and most people are too ignorant to understand it.

reply to post by satron


Cohen is from Great Britain. Ali G was first aired on British TV. Most people in the UK, can see the joke in Cohens work.



I think the film looks quite funny

So it's only humour?
Ok, I'll see about makiing a short film with me dressed as some crazy ringlet-haired and silly hat wearing wild-eyed ultra orthodox Jew. Let's see how that flies!

I found the following item I read a couple of days back rather interesting:

mauricepinay.blogspot.co.uk...

Sacha Baron Cohen's claim to fame is abusing deceiving and mocking individuals and ethnicities for laughs; videotaping interviews where the subject is made to look foolish. He refuses to say how these oftentimes high-profile interviews are arranged. In 2009, Sky News documented that Baron Cohen deceived a Palestinian Christian into an interview and deceived his viewers to believe that the subject was a hostile Muslim terrorist. The man filed a defamation lawsuit. The 'Anti-Defamation' League of B'nai B'rith was nowhere to be found, however. There's a reason for that.*

Sacha Baron Cohen's father, Gerald Baron Cohen was President of the B'nai B'rith first lodge of England. He also served as a director of the university subversion branch of B'nai B'rith, Hillel (note that one of his companies is listed as "Ali G Limited." "Ali G" is one of Sacha Baron Cohen's characters). This rather important piece of information is left out of Sacha Baron Cohen's biographies. Knowing it helps us to better understand his 'humor.'

See, it may be touted as humour but like most things on the dreaded mind numbing box these days, it can also be instrumental in opinion forming and stereotyping gullible and dumbed down viewers.

Funny how some of these more controversial characters have family in crazy Zionist organisations. Just like, for example, Adam Gadahn - the "American Al Qaida" - whose Grandfather (if I remember correctly) was a high level face in the ADL, and whose real name is Adam Pearlman. Anyone see a pattern emerging?

Perhaps Satire should be banned completely.
Or maybe, they should put warnings on it for dim witted people.

reply to post by rom12345


Satire is fine, and I will be the first to laugh at a lot of very un-PC material. However, it can also be used to disguise some quite nasty little agendas and can be targeted against specific ethnicities and religions, helping to form negative stereotyping in minds conditioned to accept such material as being typical traits.

You often have to look beyond what is presented and look at the people behind it and the underlying tone being used.

reply to post by Britguy


I think you may have completely missed the point of Cohen's genre.
I seems to me he is all about the absurdity of stereotyping.

If one feels offended by a stereotype, perhaps they should not re-inforce it.

"The lady doth protest too much" - Willie, wobble assagai.

reply to post by paganini


Spot on!

For those who don't know, Cohen is Jewish.

If anyone's ever seen Ali G, that in itself is a parody of hip hop culture. I'd like to say Eminem to be more specific.

reply to post by samsamm9


It doesn't matter how racist or bigoted he is, he's a comedian and that makes it ok. Some comedians definitely are and use their routine as an excuse to preach their vile beliefs. I can't say for sure if Sacha is one of these as I don't know the man personally, but I dont discount the possibilty.

reply to post by rom12345


I cetainly don't feel offended by a stereotype, but again, this can be pushed a bit too far at times, to the point where it is no longer funny and becomes offensive and nasty.

Hence my comment about dressing as a crazy ultra orthodox Jew in my first post. Seriously, does anyone think I'd get away with that for long before being arrested for anti-semitism and hate crimes?

See, it's fine to parody and piss-take when it is aimed at certain groups, but others are strictly off limits.

Originally posted by Britguy
reply to post by rom12345

 

Hence my comment about dressing as a crazy ultra orthodox Jew in my first post. Seriously, does anyone think I'd get away with that for long before being arrested for anti-semitism and hate crimes?

I hear you, however I think that being able to, do what Cohen does, and not get arrested, is ultimately the art of his craft, and also a mechanism for people to have a good laugh at them selves, this dissolving uptight boundaries.

Lol, seems you predicted your own demise there DaRage!! Oo

Ahh this is funnier than hungry jacks at 2am Saturday morning. If someone makes fun of everyone equally, HOW can they be considered to be hating one group over another.

Unreal.

Reminds me of a sketch from Noel Fieldings Luxury Comedy...



rofl if you cant laugh at yourself, you are a stone cold rock.

reply to post by samsamm9

He is,I would suggest,the complete opposite of a racist,his commentaries are brilliant lampoons on how white America sees the Arab/Third world,Irony does seem to be lost on a good number of Americans!

I agree that his work is designed to make fun of bigots, racists and all the other lowlifes in the world. One of his films, I think it was Borat, he went to an American redneck rodeo and totally took the mickey out of the arses there, comedy genius if you ask me. Ali-G on the other hand was incredibly annoying.

Originally posted by woogleuk
One of his films, I think it was Borat, he went to an American redneck rodeo and totally took the [snip] there, comedy genius if you ask me.

He certainly did!

Or to give the film its full name "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan"

Cohen is a difficult one to explain.

When I first saw him as "Ali G"; Ali G seemed to be an Asian/Indian/Pakistania youth who was embracing UK (sub)urban culture.
Anyone living near a city in the UK can tell you that alot of kids speak this fake Jamaican and at the time the media just interpreted it as a "white guy pretending to be black" -even though he had the name "Ali".

He's not a racist but he plays characters that look like him ( he has Middle Eastern ancestory) so his characters invariably turn out to look like they are from Near Asia/The Middle East.

Bruno was a white guy and he played all the stereotypes in exactly the same demaning manner so not a racist but someone who uses "race" in their comedy IMO.

It cracks me up so much seeing white-flake establishment talking heads deliberating about racism.

It's just so irooonic.

Im posting it again, sorry if I bored someone, but in my opinion it EXACTLY describes PC paranoia.



Just another element to control the mass and incite divisions between ethnics groups.
Ever thought they talk about racism so often just to make you feel guilty and uncertain about people with different skin tone?

No he's not a racist..... he just a pretty out-there satirist.

Man.... some people are so thick.

He pretty much makes fun of how American perceive foreigners, but some people are so dumb they just think hes just plays funny characters.

People should stop being so dense. If anyone thinks he does what he does just for the purpose of trying to be funny, you're completely missing out. SBC is a social commentator. He uses his characters to expose the pure ignorance that can be found in many people. It's multiple layers of comedy so-to-speak.

Layer 1 (for simpletons) - "LOL listen to his accent and how he talks, [those people] are dumb just like that LOL"
Layer 2 (for slightly more intelligent simpletons) - "This is offensive, and not funny at all"
Layer 3 (for people with a grasp on sociological matters) - "I see how he uses his characters by acting like the perfect stereotype for the said character. What makes it humorous is the way people react to said stereotype and in the process inadvertently expose their own personal prejudice, thus serving as a social commentary on how prejudice is still alive and well. I understand that his characters alone, are not what is funny, rather the humor can be found in how easily he is able to pull prejudice out of everyone else by using his characters as the catalyst."

It's bittersweet comedy if anything. It exposes a rather harsh truth, so harsh in some cases, where it almost overshadows the comedy completely. For example: In the National Anthem scene in Borat, the reaction by the people in the stands is rather disgusting when he talks about the "War of Terror" and "drink the blood of every man woman and child of Iraq". It's even worse in Bruno when you witness the audience reaction at the wrestling match and hear the ignorance they're spouting. www.youtube.com...

I liked all his movies, he has a interesting way of expressing. Altho like someone mentioned, a satire can be used to incite vile things and cover it up as jokes, altho i think Sacha is not really doing that even thought he is Jewish and targets Muslim/middle eastern stereotypes.

I think the major fault here is the audience, some of them are so stupid that they assume his jokes represent the actual race, and they try to use that on certain race that belongs to, that's when things break out.