I think it was more because it was a platform with a large audience that’s likely to see movies like the one he’s about to release. He’d have done the same thing to Ed Asner, Oprah, Laura Bush, or Oldest Living Best Actress Oscar winner Luise Rainer had it afforded him the same audience. Most of the people who signed releases in Borat weren’t famous for anything- let alone for being humorless pricks- and he mortally embarassed them.
I’ve seen SBC when I thought he was absolutely hysterical. Other times I wanted to kick him in the nuts myself. I think mostly it depends on whether or not it’s a public figure he’s humiliating.
I have no problem with anyone pranking Eminem or most other public figures who are out for publicity. For that matter his visit to Mt. Vernon (though the guide wasn’t a public figure) was funny (he didn’t savage the guide), and the accompanying interview with Gore Vidal comes to mind (and he got Gore Vidal to rap… well, sort of) was classic (plus even in his 80s you could tell that Vidal clocked quickly this was not for real). When he meets with politicians in their office I have no sympathy for their squirming since elected officials all have a staff and someone on it should have sense enough to find out who this person is before going on camera or for that matter even agreeing to do the interview; a google search of Borat would have been sufficient. (If the show didn’t reveal the name of the person who’ll be interviewing you then you shouldn’t agree to the interview; there’s nothing new about ambush journalism and viral videos can destroy careers and I’d think you’d want to be sure that the person you agreed to meet with isn’t a member of the Aryan Brotherhood or a pseudonym for Michael Moore or a nutty activist who’s going to edit you into idiocy or whatever.) These people are mainly out for publicity anyway and, well, they got it.
I have a much greater problem with him targeting non famous people who are not used to being on camera. The dinner party scene in Borat was a prime example; these people were actually trying to help somebody make a documentary, and through stunts and editing he humiliates them in front of a nationwide audience. (He must have some great lawyers for his contracts because were I a judge or juror I’d have awarded them the maximum allowabale for pain/suffering/humiliation/fraud/etc…) These scenes are cringe inducing and infuriating because he’s attacking people who can’t fight back and are acting in good faith and have never had experience with signing a documentary film waiver or any of that jazz and to top it all off don’t even profit from their humiliation.
But anyone picking on Eminem is okay with me. Another vote for “at least mostly staged as Eminem would not only have nadded him big time but would have been within his rights to do so”.
It’s all part of their “I’m such a bad-ass I need body guards cause I have enemies don’t ya know” image they like to parade in front of the cameras. More BS to sell records to the naive kiddies. “I like him, he’s such a bad boy.”:rolleyes:
But he had a huge auditorium of people and the joke would only work if he singled out one person. Out of all those celebs, why not Jim Carrey or the Twilight dreamboat or Forest Whitaker instead? Because Eminem is a humorless prick, and the joke’s always going to go better that way
He’s not attacking anyone–he’s giving these people enough rope and they’re hanging themselves with it. He didn’t put the racist things in people’s mouths. He didn’t force them to say astonishingly ignorant or bigoted things on camera! He didn’t compel them to show their biases and prejudices for all the world to see. That’s all they’re doing. Editing can shape a narrative or judiciously choose what is and isn’t shown. But it can’t play ventriloquist; these people look bad not because of what they’re suggested to have done or rumored to have said or implied to have taken part in. They look bad because the were filmed saying stupid, offensive things without thinking twice about it, and we can only be grateful that you are in no way affiliated with the legal system, because he has them dead to rights. These people are publicly embarrassed for what they’ve done. On camera. With their consent. As well they should be. Does this mean they’re bad people? No. But they’re not rubes either, so I don’t have much sympathy for someone if they allow an ugly side of them to be recorded and then get indignant about it afterwards.
He wasn’t completely naked – he had a g-string on. Watching the video, I think Eminem had no idea (or at least didn’t know he’d be bare-assed.) The guy has no sense of humor, and from the amount of profanity, I think the hissyfit was real.
Of course I think this LA Times articleis also absolutely ridiculous:
I think this article is 32,000 times more offensive to gays than the stunt or Eminem’s actions. Are they trying to imply that most gay guys don’t have a problem with some middle aged Englishman’s bare ass being plopped in their face, or that had Borat been playing a straight character like Borat or even Signor Pirelli then a bare ass in the face wouldn’t have repulsed him? What a total moron.
Of course I was raised right, back in the 70s when we had class and manners and decorum. Bare asses, even the ones you want to see, aren’t for having rubbed in your face in public; they’re for whipping with an extension chord and or CB antenna in a private romantic intimate setting before deciding whether to go further.
Really? You don’t find biting satire on the public’s backwards perception of stereotypes funny? You don’t think uncovering people’s true antiquated feelings toward various groups of people humorous? What do you find funny?
With the frat boys, sure. What did the people at the dinner party in Birmingham say that was offensive? In fact, in part of the footage that was deleted (by Borat’s producers admission) was her insisting as she threw him out that he pay the (actress they thought was a) prostitute for her time.
I remember at the time people actually claimed that a black woman broke up the dinner party, which floored me as much as people saying “a gay character’s ass irritated Eminem”. It was an [actress playing an] obese middle aged black obvious prostitute who broke up the dinner party, and the only really important words are “obvious prostitute”. Had she been white, Asian, multiracial or Navaho it would have sent people scurrying, especially coming immediately after the “doody bag” incident which I can promise you made the people at dinner know then this guy was either insane or a con (because in the highly unlikely event this guy has never seen a toilet in his own country he’s now been on several planes and in several cities and had to relieve himself at some point- something’s up).
So a guy takes a bag of what’s supposedly his own shit to the dinner table (which is acceptable nowhere on Earth, thus again- this is either a prank or a nut) and then a cheap whore walks in to a formal dinner party. People leave. Why? Racism of course. :rolleyes: (Do people really believe that a mixed race couple would be that big a deal in Birmingham? In 1955 then yeah, maybe it would have been, but not in 2005 [or whenever it was filmed]; even in 1975 wouldn’t have raised many eyebrows.)
Anyway, there were others as well who made no racist comments but were made to look like fools or put into extremely horrible situtations. The grocery store manager, the B&B owners, the people in the elevator, conventioners who are disrupted by two naked guys fighting. (If you were attending a convention in your field and two naked men came into the room trying to kill each other [from the looks of it], would you find it amusing?) Plus, lots of people are truly offended by the site of another person’s bare ass and genitals- which I don’t find particularly prudish.
So anyway, pick on celebrities, fine. Leave others alone.
You think a pantsless gay character shoving his bare ass in somebody’s face is “biting satire?” I think not. Some of his stuff is funny, but people give him too much credit for being deep. I’m not a big Andy Kaufman fan, but I have a ton more respect for Kaufman than I do for Cohen.
I was referring more to his Borat character for the satire. The ass in Eminem’s face was entertaining because it shows what a lame, homophobic, spoiled sport Eminem is.
There was plenty of stuff on that level in Borat, too.
How do you figure? It’s not homophobic to prefer not to have some stranger’s bare ass dropped into your face. He could’ve played along with the joke but he’s not under any obligation to put up with Cohen just so you think he’s cool. And between the two of them I think Eminem’s funnier and more perceptive.
I think you might be reading a bit too much into it. I’m not homophobic in the slightest but the number of bare asses you could suddenly drop in my face without upsetting me is comfortably under 1/4 of the population, and doesn’t include any males.
Considering 2 members of D12 (his rap group) have been shot and killed, I don’t think it’s all just hype.
Eminem’s not really as homophobic as you think. He makes a ton of gay jokes, yet at the same time he said that when he was in rehab Elton John helped him out a lot with advice, since he had gone through a similar situation.
I’m an Eminem fan, but it’s always bothered me that he can’t really take a joke even though he proclaims in his raps songs constantly that everyone else is “so sensitive.” He really does have incredibly thin skin.
His demeanor seems to have improved tenfold now that he’s been sober for a year. I watched some recent interviews and was surprised to see how articulate, funny, and upbeat he was.
It’s not witty, it’s not clever, it’s certainly not “biting satire”. It’s a guy plopping his ass in someone’s face. I outgrew that level of humor right around junior high.
mr. jp, there were two seasons of Da Ali G Show on HBO. Get yourself to the nearest DVD-renting facility to see 'em all!
I think Eminem is getting a bit of a raw deal here. As others have noted, it’s not particularly pleasant to have anyone’s ass dangling in your face, regardless of one’s sexual orientation. His repulsion might simply be to having ass in his face-space, uninvited. And I thought he had a good response to the homophobia claims when he performed “Stan” with Elton John. Not that this means he doesn’t harbor some homophobic feelings, but I imagine Sir Elton wouldn’t be part of a ploy to rehab some homophobe’s image - there’s probably something there. Eminem, like Cohen, is a social commentator who no doubt is sometimes conveying multiple opinions and perspectives, some of which are his own, some of which are exaggerations of his own, and some that aren’t at all.
Eminem has no problem taking the piss out of other celebrities - look at his videos that parody Sarah Palin, Elvis, etc. - so what goes around comes around.
The more I think about it, I suspect it might have been staged. The post-buttface stomping off in a huff is a weird reaction… if it really had happened I would suspect stunned silence, or a melee. But I don’t think we’ll ever know, at least not right away. Look at Kaufman vs. Lawler - they kept that going for years, and I would suspect there’ll be some Eminem rap that disses Cohen in the future.
Since I started this post, I see PetW has more info. Given D12’s experiences, you would think serious consequences might follow, so I suspect he and the crew might have been in on it. Secondly, if you noticed some guy suspended in air dropping toward you, you might try to move.
Oh, I don’t think Sacha was exposing any hypocrisy or bigotry or anything. I’m sure he’s well aware pretty much everyone would rather not have a guy’s ass shoved in their face.
It’s just, Eminem deserves to have a guy’s ass shoved in his face. That’s the funny part.
So, everyone invited to that event could have took their own security along? Seems a bit ridiculous to me. Or was the event accessible by anyone? Want to point out any other stars that were accompanied by their own security detail?
Thing about that scene is, I thought the people in it came off very well for the most part. They were trying very hard to overcome prejudices, and this showed, and IMO it was admirable. I was not laughing at them at the end, I was laughing sympathetically. They were trying their best, but the deck was stacked. And I think this is the real source of humor in that particular scene.
