No, seriously. If you are just going about your day doing your job and a man walks in wearing a red thong and tube top, do you take him seriously or do you suspect, at the very least, that you’re being Punk’d?
Even if you were under a rock on a deserted island since 2005 and never saw “Borat”, wouldn’t you think twice if a guy with a porn ‘stache and skin-tight gold pants asked to interview you about your neo-Nazi punk band?
This Outfit Just Screams "Tell Me About Your Christian Rock Band".
Well, evidently not. Even after the threats of lawsuits and bodily harm from the Unknowingly-Filmed-for-a-Hollywood-Movie after the release of “Borat”, Sacha Baron Cohen continues on his merry way, finding people who a. haven’t heard of or seen him and b. are ridiculously gullible. And what’s most embarrassing is that he doesn’t seem to have to look that hard.
While Borat was just a very strange man from Kazakhstan, Bruno is an openly-gay very strange man from Austria. And by “openly gay”, well, the matching hot pants and vest with go-go boots say it all.
And Cohen, in the character of Bruno, torments the Religious Right and Liberal Left equally. But he definitely has the most fun with the Religious Right. How he escapes with his life is often a mystery.
When he manages to get backstage at a fashion show in Milan, he blended a little better. Okay, fine, so he asks absurd questions and his accent really isn’t that Austrian. But a gay man backstage at a fashion show is as common as a new engagement ring on Paris Hilton’s finger. And for a Los Angeles talent scout to see someone talentless, though oddly dressed in a red jockstrap and little else, that’s not so unusual. West Hollywood isn’t that far away.
But it’s when he goes into the Deep South and walks around wearing a purple thong that he’s definitely looking for trouble. And the police fell for it, arresting him for lewd behavior.
And a doctor—someone highly educated—who runs the Family Research Institute got taken in by the most flamboyant man on earth, asking to learn how to be straight. Even after Bruno tried to sit on his lap and made a pass at him, the doctor didn’t think it was a little over-the-top. He didn’t know, in fact, until a newspaper called him to ask how he felt about being in Sacha Baron Cohen’s new movie. The good doctor did admit that some of Bruno’s questions “seemed strange”.
Oh, come ON.
If you’re performing at a Christian rock festival and someone suggests that people might be more into the Bible if you changed the ‘loaves and fishes’ story to ‘sushi and a “no-carb alternative or something without gluten”’, wouldn’t you think there was someone waiting to yell “April Fool”? At least that musician was non-judgmental on film. That situation could have gone SO awry.
Sacha Baron Cohen was very lucky to encounter some tolerant Christians and wimpy skinheads. And once again, he made big, fat fools of everyone.
I can’t wait until it comes out on DVD.