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Onward,
Alexander, Jeffrey, Becky and Deva
November
10, 2006
How "Borat" Lowers the Bar of
Political Satire
The
Joke is On Us
By MEGAN BOLER
Satire is the sign of the times. With
truth a casualty of war, the populace north and south of the
border is desperate for a reality check. When mainstream media
admits it vacated its constitutional role to ensure informed
citizenry and instead parrots White House Press briefings, it's
no wonder we turn in desperation to satire. Jon Stewart's The
Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Rick Mercer, The Simpsons, South
Park all set a high standard for delivering some of the most
biting political commentary to be found in mainstream media.
Colbert deserves the award for biggest cohones of the year for
his unbelievable keynote to the White House Press Correspondent's
Dinner, while Dubya sat three seats away:
"Let's review the rules.
Here's how it works: the president makes decisions. He's the
Decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you
people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce,
type. Just put 'em through a spell-check and go home. Get to
know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel
you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about
the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up
to the administration. You know--fiction!"
Now that's satire-and brilliant
deployment of irony: saying one thing and meaning another. Using
his Bush-loving ("I stand by this man. I stand by this man
because he stands for things. Not only for things, he stands
on things. Things like aircraft carriers and rubble and recently
flooded city squares") ingenious persona (which parodies
Bill O'Reilly of FOX) Colbert is able to make audiences laugh-even
the stuffed ties and Hollywood babes at this Dinner-while roasting
the Bush administration and the media.
But why is Borat getting classed
as political satire? The "man who invented Borat is a courageous
political satirist ... Borat makes you laugh but Baron Cohen
forced you to think" (J. Hoberman City Pages Minneapolis
Nov 1 p45).
"The brilliance of "Borat"
is that its comedy is as pitiless as its social satire, and as
brainy." The International Herald Tribune, Manohla
Dargis, Nov 2)
Then there's Claudia Puig in
USA Today "shockingly hilarious satire ... Cohen's genius
lies in his ease with provocative material. What ends up on the
screen feels almost revolutionary, even subversive." (Nov
3)
Sadly, Borat has lowered the
quality of satire from five-star political savvy to slapstick
that traffics in audacious racism and sexism without biting
that hand that feeds. Don't get me wrong, I love to laugh-especially
at razor sharp political satire that shows the world's absurdities.
I tolerate cringe moments watching Jon Stewart ("I felt
Condi up the other nite") and Colbert who also resort to
sexist jokes and toilet humor, because at least one finds a consistent
satirical bite that demands accountability from media and Washington.
Political satirists speak truth to power.
In contrast, What exactly are
Borat audiences laughing at? When Sasha Boren Cohen appeared
on The Daily Show a few nights ago, Stewart should have asked
the real Cohen to stand up and offer some answers. Instead,
Borat (apparently Cohen is too "publicly shy" to grant
any press interviews) discovers Stewart is a Jew, asks where
his horns are and begins backing off stage.
Granted people are laughing
at different things. Certainly screwed up American cultural
politics are a worthy target. But Cohen is not able to expose
these vulnerabilities without himself engaging in performances
that traffic in atrocious jokes. As a result, the film sets us
audiences to laugh not only at the admittedly complex aspects
of Borat but at straightforward racist and sexist material.
Fat jokes? Come on. While Cohen deserves credit as comedian
who has some political dimension in his performance, Borat: Cultural
Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
cannot be classed with the top-notch political satire that has
flourished in the wake of post-9/11 media muzzling. Is Cohen
profiting from the deadly political and social ethnic tensions?
$8.9 million already at this box office, and his next movie
already contracted at $42 million. The fact that Cohen is devoutly
Jewish does not let him off the hook. The fact that he performs
equal opportunity humor, taking punches at everyone, doesn't
change the fact that he has stooped to the low common denominator
of rude and audacious transgression of every possible social
more. Sometimes his rude and audacious comedy reveals American
racism, often trafficking in stereotypes himself, and often using
toilet humor-a mockumentary that relies on candid camera suckers
who for some reason signed a release.
Why are critics so quick to
call this "political comedy"? If ever there was a time
for savvy political humor to raise the sophistication of awareness
about Middle Eastern cultural and ethnic tensions-gee, now would
be a good time. Will the real Cohen please stand up and explain
what must be a complicated answer to how anti-Semitism, racism
and hating women is the best vehicle for his cultural comedy?
I'm not convinced the guffawing audiences are thinking new thoughts
that critics claim. What insight is gained while laughing at
drunk frat boys solemnly wish slavery would return? Or laughing
at "the Running of the Jew" holiday? "But people
get that, it's absurd and over the top!" So what? Once
you get the joke "Americans are over the top," where's
the savvy cultural commentary? The only moment in the film that
can readily be called satire (as opposed to slapstick spoof that
uses candid camera to make people look idiotic and reveal sad
realities) is when Borat, dressed in an American flag shirt,
wades into a rodeo ring and shouts out his support for the "War
of Terror", and "hopes Bush will drink the blood of
every Iraqi man woman and child". There is great irony in
this candid moment with the Rodeo audience trying to grasp his
meaning, for once in the 90 minutes.
In the Saturday Globe and Mail
(November 4) Camilla Gibb concludes that Borat is getting away
with this because we "need this provocation," that
such "freedom of expression" is the "sign of democracy."
While by no means advocating censorship of the film, am I alone
in my hope for a higher level of democratic debate?
I am not shocked by Borat but
by the dozens of international reviews reporting that people
are laughing for 90 minutes without asking why. The bottom lime
is that Cohen, Larry Charles, marketing staff and god knows how
many corporate interests, has figured out a multi-million dollar,
lowest-common denominator pleasure that rakes in millions. Just
don't call it politically courageous satire.
Megan Boler is an associate professor at the University
of Toronto conducting a three-year funded study of political
multimedia, satire, and digital dissent. She can be reached at:
mboler@oise.utoronto.ca
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