I’ve always thought two things currently making the rounds in comedies and standup aren’t funny: gay jokes and the common use of the word “retard.” Both gay jokes and “retard” seem to be the last area where no one is standing up and demanding it stop – or at least not enough people are putting enough pressure on to make it stop (certainly they’ll never get the kind of press a handful of well-placed protesters got at CBS studios). It is all about to come to a head with the release of Bruno.
Both The Wrap and Hollywood-Elsewhere are looking at the potential backlash for Bruno. HE posted this video with the simple headline, “Minstrel Show?”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aja110SNPo[/youtube]
The Wrap’s Dominic Patten reports that Sacha Baron Cohen and co did “significant reshoots” to temper the potential problem and added that the studio backing the film feels confident that viewers will see a movie that mocks homophobia. Yeah, I don’t know. Clearly, the whole gay thing means big laughs and big bucks from the target demo, where fart jokes reign supreme.¬† It isn’t a film I will rush out to see, however, because those jokes just aren’t that funny. To me, it’s like black face in the way that it’s become dated to lampoon gay men and women.
