This guy is the living embodiment of the some of the rules I lived by in high school and college, namely: Anything for a laugh. Fuck 'em if they can’t take a joke.
Story and video here.
He’s incredibly brave, given that he puts himself in situation where people who don’t understand the joke could become really pissed or violent. He’s basically this generation’s Andy Kauffman, humor through confrontation.
Exactly. I was a huge fan of Kaufman. I was 12 years old when his Carnegie Hall show was on HBO. I swear I watched it every time it was on, much to the consternation of my family. They all just could not understand what I found so entertaining.
Cohen is the same style. Confrontational, surreal and oh so sublime.
Video here:
And I don’t get the Cohen hate, some of his stuff is staged, some isn’t, a lot of it is cringe inducing, and almost all of it is hilarious.
I loved this last night and I commented to my husband that there always needs to be someone around who is willing to tease and expose our sacred cows.
I really, really hope Eminem wasn’t in on the gag!
I see there being a big difference. Cohen is different from Kaufman in a way in that Cohen is consistently about jokes. Kaufman was (sometimes) trying to defy expectations by leaving jokes behind and doing things that were not, on the face of it, funny. Kaufman often made jokes at the expense of the audience; his audience was the target of his comedy. He screwed with them to explore different ways of defining comedy.
Cohen makes jokes at the expense of unwitting people for the benefit of his audience; his comedy may be produced in a guerrilla style but the end result is just good, solid jokes. When he sings “Throw The Jew Down The Well” to an unwitting crowd his intention all along is to put that on tape, show it to you, and make you laugh your ass off. So in a sense, Cohen is closer in theory to Candid Camera than he is to Andy Kaufman.
This should not be taken as a criticism of Cohen; I think he’s the funniest man alive. (And it should be noted that Kaufman’s experimentation was only some of this time; he also did a lot of straight up comedy, like on Taxi or his more conventional physical comedy.)
Word. I think The Ali G show was some of the funniest shows ever, as well as good satire. I must have watched all episodes 5 times. I don’t understand why it was not bigger.
Regarding the video: Bruno is not a new character as they claimed.
Is it just me or when something is as obviously staged as that was it just ain’t really that funny?
I’m having a hard time imagining Eminem agreeing to a skit that involved him 69ing a mostly naked dude. He didn’t look amused. The only thing leading me to think it was staged was the lack of violence.
I find him hilarious and can’t wait for Bruno… but didn’t he and his production team basically screw over the extras form Borat? I’m pretty sure I heard a piece on NPR about how they got a few pounds each, less than they were promised, and are all bitter.
If it wasn’t staged, why is Eminem mic-ed?
I’ve loved Bruno since he was first introduced on Ali G. I find him much more hilarious than Borat.
I don’t think it was staged; I think the lack of violence was a combination of two things. There were cameras everywhere, but also Bruno had help from his crew. He was jerked around quite a bit, and possibly yanked up into safety when things got too confrontational.
I think it was staged because when Eminem punched Triumph at an awards show about 7 years ago they immediately cut away to someone else.
That and the fact that M&M just sat there and let it happen. A guy is lowered down by wires with his crotch into your face and you’re just going to sit there?
No defelcting him, standing up to push him away from you, ducking, etc.
If it was staged, I’d have thought they’d have scripted something more entertaining for Mathers to do than just petulantly storm out of the auditorium and not come back. I don’t think the fact that he didn’t react with physical violence is particularly meaningful.
Bolding mine. I’m trying to picture what exactly that might be, and in my mind it looks really nasty.
This is MTV. Part of Viacom, a huge corporation that probably doesn’t change copy paper without lawyers. MTV isn’t edgy or risky, and any appearance of such is carefully manufactured. They’re not going to drop one star into the lap of an even bigger star (who’s performing on the show), without negating any potential of risk or litigation. All parties are more than likely in on it.
It was most likely Cohen’s idea, though, which validates the title of the thread.
It looked pretty real to me, and Eminem was clearly punching Cohen in the stomach when he was draped over him.
Restored my faith in humanity, it did. I no longer make fun of the wifey for watching MTV.
Yeah, Eminem wasn’t definitely in on, most brilliantly proven by planetcory’s observation that he was mic’d. Em’s on a bit of a publicity tour right now, fresh outta rehab and shilling his new album. Why not show how edgy yet reformed you are by not reacting to der sac in your face at the same venue you famously punched out a puppet a few years earlier? If that was real, Cohen would’ve been flattened under one of those bodyguards’ feet.
Actually that’s a 68. Cohen still owes him one.