Friday, November 24, 2006

Borat

Just an Anti-Semitic Laugh?


With anti-Semitism reemerging in Europe and rampant in the Islamic world; with Iran acquiring the ultimate weapon of genocide and proclaiming its intention to wipe out the world's largest Jewish community (Israel); with America and, in particular, its Christian evangelicals the only remaining Gentile constituency anywhere willing to defend that besieged Jewish outpost -- is the American heartland really the locus of anti-Semitism? Is this the one place to go to find it? - Charles Krauthammer - Just an Anti-Semitic Laugh? Hardly. - washingtonpost.com

Krauthammer is here addressing Sacha Baron Cohen's (Borat), claim that he goes around America making anti-Semitic remarks in order to elicit a nodding anti-Semitic response. And with enough liquor and cajoling, he succeeds in showing just how anti-Semitic we yokels are. 

As I watched Hollywood's high profile Jewish entertainers recently embrace the likes of Cindy Sheehan, even while she was feted by the world's  leading Hitler idolizers, like Chavez and Ahmadinejad, I finally figured it out.  They are Jews the same way the National Organization for Women are women.  That is, only insofar as they can use their status to advance leftist causes.  It's a tool.  Which reminds me, what the hell happened to Curb Your Enthusiasm?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with Charles Krauthammer in his article,still it's uncomfortably embarrassing to watch those bar patrons joining in.I'd like to hope they were just joining in on the joke,even though I think it was poor humor.

Anonymous said...

yep...

Howard said...

Agreed. This guy got away with almost every anti-Semitic "joke" in the universe. This scene is an obvious set up; I didn't believe it for a second.r

Anonymous said...

Borat's humor is dry, very dry. He uses his dry wit to expose anti-semiticism in the form it is most commonly expressed. His humor has depth, meaning and exposure. We can laugh at our fellow Americans because we know they are generally playing along. This bit would not work in Europe because they he knows they would take him seriously - and that would not be funny.

Anonymous said...

Howard is correct most christian evangelicals see the Jews as Gods chosen people and revere the state of Israel. These poor people were duped and I would bet now they are aghast at what they see. This Borat is another of Rogers rat bastards.The best thing that has happened is the other day he got the shit knocked out of him by some guy he was trying to make look foolish.

LargeBill said...

Laughing at a silly song is not anti-Semitic. Agreeing with Jimmy Carter on any subject is.

Anonymous said...

What Borat shows is how much slack Americans cut foriegners; how tolerant we are of European anti-semitism.

- Dave

Anonymous said...

Tolerant my ass, We have become stooges for them and door mats.

Anonymous said...

The Muslims are anti Jew,anti Christian,anti American,anti West.....I have noticed that as Europe(including Britain)has become more populated with Muslims it has become the same...Anti Jew,Christian,American and I think they actually are starting to hate themselves..or at least they have no respect for Western values anymore...Of course I don't include them all in that,BUT it's a growing trend....Think we'll learn from their mistakes?

mikedevx said...

I don't know.

I laughed uproarously during the Borat 'Running of the Jews' sequence. It was hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing at a PERFECT and great satire of European anti-Semitism. Yet with careful editing, I could be portrayed as laughing in AGREEMENT with the outlandish stunt.

Were the well-inebriated patrons laughing and clapping along with a satire, in on the joke, or were they enthusiastically participating in anti-Semitism? What the heck was the woman thinking making the horns on the forehead sign? I hear it was a very long performance, and was drastically edited. We'd have to see the raw footage to be sure what was really going on.

But this Cohen fellow appears to go out of his way not to trick the Eastern left establishment, nor New England church-going folk. It's the South, and the fundies, for him. He knows who butters his bread and generates his money.

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