Bruno: Satire, Humor and Stereotypes

Rashad Robinson writes:

“

In April, when the first trailer for Sacha Baron Cohen’s new movie Bruno debuted online, many of us in the LGBT community were cautiously optimistic about what we saw – and I was among them.

I first became familiar with Sacha Baron Cohen through his Da Ali G Show on HBO, where he played different characters who conducted squirm-inducing interviews with political leaders, media personalities and everyday Americans. The characters’ clueless questions – and the actor’s impressive ability to never break character – allowed them to call attention to people’s hang-ups, biases and intolerance.

One of those characters, Bruno, was a flamboyant gay correspondent for the fictional Austrian TV show Funkyzeit mit Bruno — itself a satire of programs that feed people’s obsession with fashion and pop culture. Bruno interviewed fashion designers, nightclub owners and models – but he also spoke to people with anti-gay attitudes, using the setting to send up the homophobia of some of his interview subjects.

Sacha Baron Cohen’s 2006 blockbuster Borat made him a household name. Audiences and critics loved the movie. And based on what I had seen on Da Ali G Show, I had hoped that I might be able to say similar things about the forthcoming Brüno.”

See Bruno: Satire, Humor and Stereotypes

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WATCH: Reporter Calls Out Obama Administration’s DADT Hypocrisy At Briefing

Today’s Briefing Room MVP: Is this guy! Whoever he is, he expertly brought Jon Stewart’s satire into the briefing room, asking Gibbs how President Obama could withhold detention photos, citing the safety of Americans, whilst refusing to champion the cause of a translator discharged from his duty on the basis of being openly gay.

WATCH: Reporter Calls Out Obama Administration’s DADT Hypocrisy At Briefing

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Do Obama and Miss California Have the Same Position on Gay Marriage? Sort of.

By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

I was at a, err, opposite-sex wedding

over the weekend when one of the guests asked me, presumably as the member of the MSM on hand, why Carrie Prejean, Miss California, gets lambasted for being anti-gay marriage, while Barack Obama

, the president of the United States, gets a free pass while having essentially the same position.

The answer lies in tone and nuance.

It is true that Obama’s position is that marriage is “between a man and a woman” and that he is “not in favor of gay marriage.” That said, he articulately advocates for the rights of gay couples on things like hospital visitation. See here, for example, starting at about 1:06: “When I sit down and read scripture and I think how would Jesus feel about somebody not being able to visit someone they love when they’re sick, I conclude that that is something that’s important.”

And it is possible that some portion of people suspect that Obama would favor gay marriage were it a politically viable position: He’s secretly with us, not like that nasty Miss California. And even if that’s not the case, he’s good on enough other stuff that he can get a pass on this.

Then there’s Miss California, whose now-famous answer to the question seems like instant, inadvertent beauty pageant satire. See Do Obama and Miss California Have the Same Position on Gay …

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