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Reading the website Towleroad is strange sometimes. All the coverage Bruno is getting is receiving quite a bit of flak from the comments section over there. A lot think it's homophobic and basically "gay blackface" (but, then again, isn't any straight actor portaying someone gay technically?)

Obviously I haven't seen it yet either so I don't know if it is or isn't, but as a gay person I think it looks funny as anything I've seen in all year (and I've seen Obsessed!) Is it the film's fault if there are so many homophobic people out there who are stupid enough to go see Bruno? "they're not going to be able to get that subtext", says Marc Shaiman and he's probably right, but are the people who are dumb enough to not get the joke the sort of people who will go see a movie about an incredibly flamboyant gay person in the first place?

I actually want a big anti-gay marriage proponent to see the movie and use it in his defense of christian values argument because he would be laughed off stage and the whole argument would be see as the lie it is.

Sorry, but "gay blackface" is this year's stupid contribution to the cultural conversation so far. Spare me. Next person who says that surrenders all place in the discussion. Saying that no straight actor can play gay for any reason is ridiculous. If that's true, then I hereby demand that all closeted actors reveal themselves and only play gay. Forever. Because obviously no one can play something they aren't. If they could, they'd be... well... ACTORS.

This is just preposterous.

For the record...I have not seen Bruno yadda yadda yadda.

But I am very familiar with Cohen, the character etc. etc. etc.

It does seem like Cohen is a performer who wants to have his cake and eat it too. Probalem with Bruno as "exposing" homophobia as Cohen's defenders would have it is that the Bruno character himself is such an extreme character that one does not have to be anti-gay to be repelled by him. That many gay people are already saying this is a testament to this fact. Saying that "homophobes" will not get the fact that they are the butt of the joke really does not make sense. Seems to me, people that think Bruno is a complex commentary on gay culture and homophobia are really the butt of the joke.

One does not have to be homophobic to be repelled by Cohen's antics. As one observer on another blog put it...one only needs be an idiotophobe.

But all of this is really confusing...I thought the epitome of the new gay was what we previously thought was hetero-maculine (John Wayne, 300 Batman) and the new masculine was what we previously thought was gay (Bruno, Robin Williams drag queen impressions).

This post-modern stuff is all so confusing.

Actually, are any of the kids on "South Park" homophobic? I always thought that was part of the joke - they don't seem to question Mr. Slave in their classroom, or "Mrs." Garrison, or Big Gay Al as their scoutmaster.

Cartman is far too concerned about Jews to worry about gays.

"Actually, are any of the kids on "South Park" homophobic?"

They call each other "fags". They must hate gay people.

Ali G is brilliant, Borat and Bruno not so much. This is just extreme Candid Camera.

What SBC does is a dangerous form of humor. Yes. He walks that line, brazenly.

If you choose to see it as "gayface" or if you choose to see Borat as abusive to a euro-culture, obviously, you can. And you can then spin it out into being hyper-sensitive to the people who are caught in the web. Did he expose people's truths or take advantage of them? Both.

Last summer, a number of us got almost daily e-mails about how horribly offensive The Love Guru was... not because it sucked... but because it was an offensive Hindu stereotype.

I am amazed that someone didn't scream about Wolverine being abusive to people who like to wear mutton chops.

But I can understand why Bruno could scare some people. But that fear is misguided, just as the idea that Borat would create Antisemitism was misguided.

That said, there is a doc out there about how upset the people in the town where Borat shot his opening still are. I think they are sincere. But then again, it is also apparent that they are more upset about not getting paid more for being mocked than for being mocked.

What anyone in the gay community who is worried about this film needs to keep in mind is that being satirized is to be further synthesized into the culture (regardless of whether that synthesis should still be an issue in this culture). Can anyone really think that a baby being picked up at an airport luggage roundabout will be taken as documentary footage... by anyone who isn't hopelessly lost anyway?

Well, in anything people can view something and not take away the artist's intent. It can sometimes be solved by being more heavy handed about delivering the message. Some of Spike Lee's films and Crash come to mind. In a non-offensive example, a lot of women really loved Braveheart because of "Mel's character avenging his new bride's death." When a lot of guys would think "WTF?! That's a small portion of it. He was really acting out of the principals of liberty and sovereignty."

I would think a more likely concern would be not so much creating animosity towards gays as validating those feelings that may already be present. "Look, if those big Hllywd studios and movie stars can make millions off of it, what's wrong w/my little jokes?" kind of thing.

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