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| mo_flixx |
 Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 4:50 pm |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
Posts: 12533
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Befade wrote: Trish and Bart............I don't hate Brad Pitt and he wasn't awful in Babel. It's just that when you've seen an actor over and over again and he's omnipresent in the tabloids..........you say ENOUGH!!! He's a distraction from the story....
TOM CRUISE - tabloid city!!
He makes Brad Pitt look like Greta Garbo in comparison. |
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| chillywilly |
| Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 5:28 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 8250
Location: Salt Lake City
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Joe Vitus wrote: Catching up with the posts since that, I find all these examples of "really funny" things in Borat or Ali G. Makes me cringe. No better example that comedic tastes are highly individual.
That's very true. My daughter-in-law (fiance's daughter) loves Dane Cook. She was all excited to see Employee Of The Month until a friend of her's saw it and said it was the worst $7 she spent.
For me, I don't want to have anything to do with Dane Cook. But then again, my fiance hates Sam Kinison and despises most of what Howard Stern has to say. So what you say about comedic tastes being individual is true. |
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Chilly
"If you should die before me / Ask if you could bring a friend" |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 5:57 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| I keep trying to sell people on Paula Poundstone. They give me the funniest looks. Obviously my taste is not in synch with the majority. |
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-Topher |
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| grace |
| Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 6:18 pm |
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Joined: 11 Nov 2005
Posts: 3211
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| I think Paula Poundstone is really funny on Wait..Wait..Don't Tell Me. But again, it's all a matter of taste. |
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| chillywilly |
| Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 7:21 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 8250
Location: Salt Lake City
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Joe Vitus wrote: I keep trying to sell people on Paula Poundstone. They give me the funniest looks. Obviously my taste is not in synch with the majority.
I've not seen her in ages. I liked her back when she was pretty popular.
If I remember right, she was actually on a TV show (besides her standup appearances) |
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Chilly
"If you should die before me / Ask if you could bring a friend" |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 7:47 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
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Joe,
I'm not a great fan of practical jokes and normally can't bare to watch shows like Candid Camera which depend on embarasinging unsuspecting members of the public. Even films like Jackass, where the humiliation is self-inflicted, leave me cold. But with Sacha Baron Cohen you get an over-riding intelligence coupled to a frisson of danger that raises his comedy to entirely different level.
I think Borat is in danger of hyper-ventilating on the oxygen of publicity - I'm not sure that any film could live up to the level of expectation it is generating. Nonetheless, I think you owe it to yourself to see what has become a cultural phenomenum.
Sacha Baron Cohen is a publicity shy, British Jew, who, similarly to Barry Humphries, is rarely seen as is himself. He only has three unlikely characters to draw on: a naive Kazakh television reporter, an Austrian gay fashion expert and a West London gangsta wannabe. And he specialises in humiliating Americans. That he is currently the most talked about entertainer in the western world is hard to credit. And perhaps it is of credit to America that they have seen the joke. |
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I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it. |
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| Earl |
| Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 7:59 pm |
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Joined: 09 Jun 2004
Posts: 2621
Location: Houston
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jeremy wrote: Joe,
I'm not a great fan of practical jokes and normally can't bare to watch shows like Candid Camera which depend on embarasinging unsuspecting members of the public. Even films like Jackass, where the humiliation is self-inflicted, leave me cold. But with Sacha Baron Cohen you get an over-riding intelligence coupled to a frisson of danger that raises his comedy to entirely different level.
I think Borat is in danger of hyper-ventilating on the oxygen of publicity - I'm not sure that any film could live up to the level of expectation it is generating. Nonetheless, I think you owe it to yourself to see what has become a cultural phenomenum.
Sacha Baron Cohen is a publicity shy, British Jew, who, similarly to Barry Humphries, is rarely seen as is himself. He only has three unlikely characters to draw on: a naive Kazakh television reporter, an Austrian gay fashion expert and a West London gangsta wannabe. And he specialises in humiliating Americans. That he is currently the most talked about entertainer in the western world is hard to credit. And perhaps it is of credit to America that they have seen the joke.
You addressed this post to Joe, but I hope you don't mind me answering since I had expressed some of the concerns you are discussing. Also, the two sentences that are bolded above were emphasized by me, not you.
You may have convinced me to see the movie. If I see it I'll go into it wanting to enjoy it. I'm not a masochist, after all (except maybe in the romantic department, but never mind that now). I just hope that the aspect of the movie in the first sentence I bolded is strong enough to overcome the second sentence I bolded. My natural tendency will be to identify and sympathize with the victims of the practical jokes. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 8:56 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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| Cohen also brings out the finer qualities in people as well. Many of the folks that he engages with are not made fools of but are revealed to be patient and good humored, ie. the driving instructor, the etiquette instructor, the Hummer salesman, the southern blueblood that shows him how to use the toilet, the Black kids in the hood, the Jewish bed and breakfast owners, the tv anchors. For every person that ends up looking ridiculous in the film, there is someone who demonstrates decency and tolerance. Borat is not just about humiliating Americans, he also celebrates their openness and kindness. |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 9:06 pm |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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What Marc says is true. And when Borat returns to Kazakstan, he brings with him some of the lessons he has learned to make it a kinder, gentler (fictitious) country.
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 9:12 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
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| Good points. |
_________________
I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 11:02 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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My apologies to those who have been trying to make sense out of some of my Borat posts. I have been on an Ali G/Borat/Bruno binge since the movie, and I have gotten some of the HBO On Demand material muddled with the film. I haven't been this excited about comedy since early Monty Python.
I agree with Marc. Cohen sets up ridiculous, stressful situations, and some people come through them looking great, others not so. It hurts to say it, but in an Ali G piece, Pat Buchanan rolls with everything (even going with BLT in place of WMD), and looks almost hip. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 11:09 pm |
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| Pat Buchanan may be many things, but he has a good sense of humour and despite his political leanings he is usually a good analyst. He's an anti-semite, but nobody's perfect. |
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| chillywilly |
| Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 11:11 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 8250
Location: Salt Lake City
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yambu wrote: It hurts to say it, but in an Ali G piece, Pat Buchanan rolls with everything (even going with BLT in place of WMD), and looks almost hip.
I watched that (after Marj's raving) and it was side-splitting funny. Plus I gained a bit more repsect for Pat Buchanan to laugh at himself. The only thing missing is the an outtake of Pat watching the footage of himself after the fact. |
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Chilly
"If you should die before me / Ask if you could bring a friend" |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 11:20 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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chillywilly wrote: Joe Vitus wrote: I keep trying to sell people on Paula Poundstone. They give me the funniest looks. Obviously my taste is not in synch with the majority.
I've not seen her in ages. I liked her back when she was pretty popular.
If I remember right, she was actually on a TV show (besides her standup appearances)
One of the basic cable channels is showing a special of hers. I think it is fairly new (she refers to her children and makes oblique references to the alcoholism thing). I loved it until she started hammering on an audience member. |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 12:29 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
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grace wrote: I think Paula Poundstone is really funny on Wait..Wait..Don't Tell Me. But again, it's all a matter of taste.
One of my favorite shows! And she is terrific on it. |
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