Democracy Arsenal

« Stop the Murtha-Mongers | Main | Most Absurd Superlative Contest »

November 17, 2006

Borat and Anti-Semitism
Posted by Michael Signer

At the risk of forever marking myself as a dour, humorless scold (see my critique of Talladega Nights, to which one reader, "Mikedbot," crisply responded, "I don't think you fully understood the movie, but then I don't think I fully understood your post.") I want to say here that I thought Borat was a problematic movie -- and even risky. 

I was heartened to read a story yesterday on CNN where Sacha Baron Cohen found himself on the defensive about the film's obsessive anti-Semitism.  His argument:

He said he always had faith in the audience to realize this was a fictitious country and the mere purpose of it was to allow people to expose their own prejudices.

"I think part of the movie shows the absurdity of holding any form of racial prejudice, whether it's hatred of African-Americans or of Jews," said Baron Cohen, a devout Jew who keeps Kosher and observes the Sabbath when he can.

There is a fine line between entertainment and satire; there is another fine line between satire and education.  I don't believe the movie even crosses to satire, much less education.  And this is because of its strangely obsessive, almost totally raw, depiction of anti-Semitism.

If you've seen the movie, you'll recall the scenes.  Near the beginning, a parade is depicted in Borat's fictive Kazakhstan, where enormous papier-mache heads of two iconically devilish Jews are being walked through a crowd of jeering, violent laypeople.  The heads have horns, enormous, crooked noses, and leering, rapacious expressions.  Later, Borat accidentally takes up residence in a bed and breakfast run by a friendly Jewish couple.  Afraid that his food has been poisoned, he escapes through a window.  At another point, he goads a fraternity brother on a bus into overt and unabashed anti-Semitic statements about Jews.

What's most striking about these events in the movie is that they receive no critical treatment, no synthesis into a larger idea.  We do not see Cohen's express aim -- "to allow people to expose their own prejudices" -- translated into what he claims is the larger purpose -- to "show the absurdity of holding any form of racial prejudice."

Borat's vulgar and clumsy treatment of other minorities in the film -- African-Americans, gypsies, and women, to name three -- is relatively mild, comic, and always resolved in a way that highlights his idiocy and the relatively attractive and sympathetic character of the groups he's vilified.  To take the most prominent example, the character actually ends up falling in love with a sweet-dispositioned African-American prostitute, thereby expressly giving the lie to his earlier jokes.  The film, in this instance, seems dedicated not just to satire but to education.

Not so with anti-Semitism.  There is no true rehabilitation of a Jewish character, and no "absurdity."  On the contrary, there is an unreflected-on earnestness in the film's depiction of anti-Semitism.  There is no commentary, for instance, on the frat boys' crudeness in the bus.  The parade where the Jewish puppets are beaten does not lead to some sort of larger comic commentary on the citizens.  It is absurd, but to those who might not get the joke, it is not explained to be absurd.  For many, I fear, these moments will remain simple entertainment -- not the "exposure of prejudice" Cohen claims they are.

I'm sure the underlying joke is that, because Cohen himself is a devout Jew, any and all depictions of anti-Semitism are funny.  But they're not really that funny.  They don't really work.  I used to have a couple of friends who did stand-up comedy, and they always maligned the shallowness and unfunniness of the "easy" joke -- obsessively making fun of handicapped people, say.  The jokes are fragile and easily turn unfunny because they don't really turn on any actual adventuresomeness on the comic's part.  They are plodding, methodical, and do not spin off into the sort of rocket-burst of insight that makes a truly funny joke funny.  So it goes with Borat.

My deepest concern is that, because the film does not really aim for insight, it will simply cast seeds of prejudice in the hearts of some people who watch it and see the grossest depiction of anti-Semitism for the first time.  You now have a generation of American youth who have grown up for the most part free and clear of the horrendous, inherited myths about Jewishness that haunted European societies and, directly and indirectly, led to the Holocaust -- the rapacious, hook-nosed drinkers of children's blood; the horns and tails; the killers of Christ.  For many American youth today, these would be myths as archaic and mysterious as the notion that women were congenitally unable to vote; or that African-Americans have brains smaller than those of Caucasian descent.

But, no more.  Now, thanks to this number-one comedy, tens of thousands of American youth now have the image dancing in their heads of iconic Jewish puppets being beaten by crowds of angry people -- with no commentary, no historical information, no attempt to enlighten.  Yes, the B&B couple are sweet and make Borat appear to be a total ass, in that scene -- but I fear that it's not enough. 

Keep in mind -- we are still at a place where George Allen, a sitting U.S. Senator, upon revealing that he was of ethnic Jewish descent, would feel the need to reassure his audience by saying it was "just an interesting nuance to my background" and adding this stunner:

"I still had a ham sandwich for lunch. And my mother made great pork chops."

Allen's statement was absurd, and I believe said more about him than Virginia or the nation.  But still.  There can be a cost to entertainment, and I think that Cohen himself probably understands this.  There is a defensive, improbable tone to the concluding paragraph in the CNN story on the interview with him.

Cambridge-educated Baron Cohen said his parents "love" the Jewish humor in Borat, and his 91-year-old maternal grandmother even went to a midnight screening in Israel, then phoned to compliment him.

Indeed.  Cohen's parents "loved" the parade scene?  If true, it explains a lot.  If not true, then Cohen is living inside the same twisted world that  his film depicts but does not resolve. 

But -- aside from all this -- I would admit the movie was very funny... the scene where Borat sings at the rodeo, for instance, had me doubled over.  So I'm not really a total scold -- just a selective one, I guess. 

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451c04d69e200d8343adec253ef

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Borat and Anti-Semitism:

Comments

I myself prefer real-life humor over message movies.

The Pentagon is supporting the 29th annual American Cancer Society "Great American Smokeout" as a way to help soldiers quit smoking. Dr. David N. Tornberg, deputy assistant secretary of defense for clinical and program policy explains that smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in America's armed forces.

In a waiting room outside the office of Afghanistan's newly appointed chief justice, Abdul Salam Azimi, a security officer asks some judges from a remote province for identification. The judges say they don't have any. Carrying judges' IDs would have been a death wish on the long, dangerous journey to Kabul, they explain.

The Army's 1st Cavalry Division assumed primary responsibility for Baghdad's security from the 4th Infantry Division during an official handoff ceremony at Camp Liberty. Commanding General Maj. Gen. Joseph Fil noted that this was the second time the unit had been here since the war began. He said his troops were "excited" to be back again. Many are on their second or third tour. "We sense that there's a window here. … There is a clock here, and it's time for things to move forward."

Female Kentucky National Guard soldiers who posed nude before being sent to Iraq will face nonjudicial administrative sanctions rather than courts-martial, the Army said. The women were not suspended, Army spokesman Maj. Jay Adams told The Courier-Journal of Louisville. The allegations were reported before the 410th Quartermaster Company shipped out for Iraq on Aug. 26. The Courier-Journal said it had obtained a compact disc containing 232 photographs of at least a half-dozen nude and seminude women posing with military rifles.

Though voters apparently embraced the Democratic mantra of changing course in Iraq, a majority of the public did not detect a clear Democratic blueprint for ending the war. Fifty-seven percent of all adults in the AP-Ipsos poll said Democrats do not have a plan for Iraq; 29 percent said they do. "Iraq has to be done on a bipartisan basis," Senator Harry Reid said Tuesday. "This is not a time for threatening the president with anything. We're going to see how we can work with him to change course in Iraq."

Michael,

I haven't seen the movie, but having seen Baron-Cohen's Borat schtick a few times on television, I don't think you have quite put your finger on what's really disturbing about his act and approach.

Everybody gets the fact that Borat is an absurd, ridiculous, way over the top caricature. But what is he a caricature of? Satire works by exaggeration: by turning something real and truly bad into something comically ridiculous by augmenting its worst features beyond real proportions. By ridiculing antisemitism and misogyny, Baron-Cohen seeks to call attention to it and critique it through humor. But who is Baron-Cohen implicitly accusing of such egregious antisemitism? Borat is not just a "generic bigot". He comes marked with many stock identifiers of particular places. The effect of Baron-Cohen's routine, as I see it, is to slander a huge (though somewhat indistinct) class of people.

Borat purports to come from Kazakhstan, but his character is also vaguely Middle Eastern, vaguely eastern European and vaguely Central Asian. These are all parts of the traditional "orient" in Western European and American eyes. My sense is that Baron-Cohen is saying: "Yea, I'm making light of anti-semitism and ridiculing it. But my satire has the serious purpose of pointing to the monstrous antisemitism of all those evil and ignorant "eastern" peoples." I find it very frustrating that so many critics and commentators willfully ignore this part of Baron-Cohen's routine, or pretend these identifying components of the Borat character incidental - as though Baron-Cohen settled on the geographical and cultural background of Borat by a random choice.

While purporting to mock bigotry, Baron-Cohen's Borat is itself just as much a bigoted pastiche as earlier English comic depictions of the Irish, white anglo 60's comedians mockery of "wetbacks", and early Hollywood's racist portrayals of blacks as comically ignorant and fearful. Baron-Cohen himself is obviously filled with hate and contempt for the people who occupy the broad region he mocks, and he pulls eagerly from the bag of eastern stereotypes.

Lots of kid's see this movie. They are more sophisticated than you make them out to be. They are not going to come away with any positive feelings about antisemitism. They get that joke. But they are going to come away with is the view that Borat's lampoon of Kazakhstan and its environs is roughly on target, and that the antisemitism and misogyny out there are roughly as blatant, hateful and murderous as Baron-Cohen suggests they is.

Baron Cohen's absurdist depictions of his fictitious oriental locations in Borat is something like Mel Brooks's "Springtime for Hitler" number in The Producers. Nobody who saw that film could possibly interpret it as containing any endorsement of Nazism or antisemitism. Everyone gets the obvious joke, but the joke they get is that staging a light musical about Hitler truly would be outrageous because of the grossly inappropriate incongruity between the gravity of the evil and the comic lightness of the treatment.

The same is true of Borat. Everybody gets the joke that his character's antisemitism and misogyny are absurd and cartoonish. But what some then go on to assume is that the cartoon is designed to make a gravely serious satiric point about the awful antisemitism misogyny of someone. Of whom then? Well, it's those people out in the "stans" of course: those ignorant, backward, violent, authoritarian, beard-and-mustache wearing, women-hating, jew-hating "others".

I think Mikedbot was on to something. I would suggest lightening up just a tad...

Go see the movie.

SPOILER ALERT

If there was any doubt about his point with the anti-semitism, it is removed in the part where Borat and his producer go to a bed and breakfast, only to find that it is run by a very nice, non-threatening, elderly Jewish couple. Their reaction unambiguously makes them look ridiculous, not the Jewish couple.

To Mr. Kervick, the target is not the stans but us. There were several scenes in the movie where real Americans echo, applaud, or even top his racist remarks like before when he sings the national anthem at a rodeo, tells the crowd he supports America's "war of terror" and cheer wildly as he escalates the absurdity, up to and including when he says that Bush should kill every Iraqi and drink their blood. He got similar extremes of racism in the othe sequences. In the dinner party scene, they tolerate him calling one of the guests retarded, implying that a woman at the table is not attractive, and going to the bathroom and bringing back his feces in a glad bag. But when a BLACK hooker he called shows up...well, THAT is just going too far.

The episodes of anti-Semitism are meant to reflect the common stereotype that Muslims are hateful toward Jews and that Jews do not live in Muslim countries (both are entirely false).

These scenes are as poignant in their representations of American misconceptions about Muslims as the scenes depicting misogyny, bad hygiene, and socially-backwards in general. All of this you pointed out, of course. However, I think that the movie made it's point by triggering your annoyance. That's what it's meant to do. The movie addresses issues that run through the heads of most Americans, but that nobody dares to mention, much less joke about.

In short, "Borat" a crass movie, but valuable because it exposes issues which make us uncomfortable--that is, they irk us because they hit very close to home. Only things that have truth in them can offend us.

The world could do with some more outrage and insults. Tolerance is not learned without objects and ideas to be tolerant of and tolerance is exactly what we need more of. It is good for the health of society that it is mocked and insulted. Bravo. We need more insulting movies, books, and cartoons- especially more cartoons.

It's the people that tell us there is some right not to be offended or insulted that are the danger. Better we had 100 more Borats.

I haven't seen the movie, because what I have seen on TV -- mainly the SNL bit, but also his appearance on the Tonight Show -- has been sufficiently stupid and insulting to my intelligence that it is hard for me to conceive of it getting BETTER with more watching. Trying to decide whether I don't like it because it is insulting to Jews, or because it is insulting to me, seems like a real waste of time.

One attitude that I find a little bizarre is the notion that if you don't watch a "crass" movie all the way through to derive the deeper meaning, you must be a Philistine. It could just be that I don't find his shtick about feces and sex with sheep very interesting. To me, if "Borat" is anything like its trailer and like its publicity, it's a lousy movie.

It is not an issue of a "right not to be offended" -- if people want to watch it, go for it. But I am sure I could come up with better ways to spend 2 hours. And $8.50.

Rachel,
where was Islam specifically mentioned at all? I think Cohen was mocking the crass anti-semitism still alive and well in old Xtian Europe, especially in the backwards, oppressed regions of the old Soviet Block.

you know, as much ass all of your complain and rant, what it comes down to is this: you cannot arrest Baron-Cohen for his movie, he is exercising free speech. if everyone who released something someone objected to was penalized, there would be no art. if you are not going to punish him for his actions, there is nothing you can do, since he is not likely to care about some whiners when he is making a lot of money. now, are you going to waste your time posting your opinions on the internet, or are you just going to make sure you don't let your children watch it (or explain your point of view to them if they do) and shut up?

I havent seen the movie, but the conflict between Michael and Dans perspective on the movie actually make me want to see it. There is something powerful and interesting about how this guy has sparked so much dialogue about just what is 'wrong' with his movie. I have always wondered whether Mel Brooks could have pulled off 'Blazing Saddles' today, given the extremes of the rightist class warriors and the leftist PC police. He was even kind enough to explain the joke in the ending, to help those who might not get the joke along a bit. Perhaps Baron-Cohen has found a sweet spot where these themes can still be thoughtfully examined in our society through natural experiment, without the knee-jerk canned memes that have solidified around discussions of race and class in the U.S getting in the way.

There are certain things in life related to smoking that simply cannot :)
parça kontör
parça kontör bayiliği
parça kontör bayilik

Since I entered into this game, I learnt skills to earn Entropia Universe Gold. My friends sometimes give me some Entropia Universe Money. Buy Entropia Universe Gold is a good way. I like to search on Internet to find where to buy cheap Entropiauniverse ped.

It is the Rose zuly which make me very happy these days,


I hope i can get GuildWars Gold in low price.
i buy Guild Wars Gold for you.

Once I played FF11, I did not know how to get strong, someone told me that you must have FFXI Gil. He gave me some cheap Final Fantasy XI Gold.

Do you know the Sho Online gold, I like the Sho gold.

or you could not continue this game without shaiya online gold. If you buy shaiya gold, you can continue this game.

If you buy shaiya gold, you can continue this game

If you buy shaiya gold, you can continue this game

GHD IV mini styler has a safety feature that gives you peace of mind, by turning itself off if it is left unattended for 30 minutes. The unique digital technology of GHD hair straightener means that the temperature is automatically controlled even quicker for even better styling.

Creating tight curls, flicks and waves as well as the perfect straight. The ideal styling tool for urban angels with short hair, men's hair and fringes.

price includes: ghd IV salon styler,ghd purple roll bag.

product features:
Auto sleep mode(A built in safety feature that gives you peace of mind by turning off if the ghd IV styler is left unallended for 30 minutes.)
Universal voltage(So that you can use your styler in any country without an adaptor.)
Advanced ceramic heaters(The ultimate heating technology for the ultimate shine and style creation.)
All our products are cheap,if you want to find cheap ghd,come here and that is right.

If you want to find GHD hair products,you can write GHD straightener,GHD hair straighteners,GHD straightners,GHD hair,straighteners GHD in google browse.

Chanel Handbags are woman’s dream come true.

Chanel, a fashion name that has become synonymous with femininity since 100 years, is on the must-have list of every fashion-conscious woman.? And we bring these must-have Chanel Handbags at never before discounts, just for you.

It is only when you come across an Chanel New Arrivals, do you realize the power of her words.? Chanel handbags are crafted not just to be trendy, but trend-setting.? Hardly has lived a celebrity who has not been seen carrying a Chanel handbag under her arm; such has the influence of Chanel handbags as a fashion statement.

Chanel handbags have been so popular in the elite classes of the society, that their pricing is usually prohibitive for everyone else.? Discount Chanel handbags are really difficult to come across, but today should be your lucky day.? We bring you a superb unbeatable range of Chanel Flap bags, all at fantastic discounts.? With us, you have an incredible chance to buy your favorite Chanel handbags at rock bottom prices!

Chanel Handbags have always been at the forefront of luxury and style.? The Chanel classic quilted leather handbags and its reinventions have ruled fashion since forever.? Chanel handbags have remained extremely popular as they continue to merge evolving modern trends with the class and simplicity of its original avatar.

An Chanel 2008 Collection and Chanel 2009 Collection single handedly enhances the look you are carrying.? The reason you would buy a Chanel handbag is own a bag that mingles with your charm and intensifies it with its inherent simplicity.? If you have owned an authentic Chanel handbag before, you know what we are talking about.? If you are one of the unlucky people who haven’t yet gotten a chance to own an Chanel Cambon, now is your chance to shop for an authentic Chanel handbag and discover its ability to transform your look completely.

Buy Chanel handbags with us, and get fabulous discounts which you will never get at your favorite store.? We offer cheap authentic Chanel handbags and they are all up for grabs!

it looks nice and I want to give my opinion

timberland boots uk is the classic American success story of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps - literally. In 1918, Nathan Swartz began a boot-making career as an apprentice stitcher at The Abington Shoe Company in Massachusetts. He started on the lowest rung on the ladder, learned his trade, and through hard work and determination eventually became the owner of the company.timberland sale Swartz and his sons continued to make shoes and boots for many manufacturers, and in the 1960s they produced the first truly waterproof boots. The innovation came by fusing soles to leather uppers without stitching.Comfortable enough to wear all day and rugged enough for all year round.waterproof bootstimberland boots sale are equipped to help people make a difference in their world, whatever your definition of that may be. Whether a true hiker or just hiking to work, from boots to chukkas to boat shoes to dress casual oxfords, ShoeMall has men's Timberland shoes of all styles. Our women's timberland boots sale range from rugged boots to delicate ballet flats, for however you want to walk through your day. We also have a brand new selection of kids' Timberland shoes. They're the perfect way to start your little adventurer's day off right! And, as always, we offer free shipping on all cheap timberland boots

Post a comment

If you have a TypeKey or TypePad account, please Sign In.

Guest Contributors
Founder
Subscribe
Sign-up to receive a weekly digest of the latest posts from Democracy Arsenal.
Email: 
Powered by TypePad

Disclaimer

The opinions voiced on Democracy Arsenal are those of the individual authors and do not represent the views of any other organization or institution with which any author may be affiliated.
Read Terms of Use