From the “How Was I Supposed Ta Know?” file, the Risky Biz Blog says:
The sudden death of Michael Jackson on Thursday prompted a series of discussions at Universal Pictures that resulted in the studio cutting a Jackson-related sketch from “Bruno” only hours before its Los Angeles premiere.
Uni removed a scene in which Bruno, the flamboyant Austrian journalist played by Sacha Baron Cohen, interviews an unsuspecting LaToya Jackson about a number of topics, including her brother.
Among the gags is a joke about the King of Pop’s high-pitched voice, as well as a reference to his trademark white glove, all done in Baron Cohen’s characteristically absurdist tone.
It’s reminiscent of the way Hollywood scrambled to deal with the aftermath of 9/11, even digitally removing the World Trade Center from shots in Zoolander and shelving a Spider-Man trailer that depicted Spidey webbing some bad guys between the Twin Towers. There’s really no way around it, although it’s not like they could’ve known. Including it wouldn’t make them complicit or anything. But then, PR disasters and logic have never been the best of friends.
And if you think the comparison between Michael Jackson’s death and 9/11 is inappropriate, don’t blame me. I got it from Chad Johnson.
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In a perfect world, everyone would be as sick of this guy as I am, this movie would flop, and we’d never have to sit through another three months of this guy promoting a movie so a bunch of semi-retarded 20 year olds with loud mufflers on their Civics can go slap their flippers together in some Cineplex somewhere. It keeps them off the streets, and away from me I guess so whatever.
I have to echo the wise words of Pastafarian over that soon-to-be-released pathetic excuse of a used cinematic hygienic paper towel but it shows the two golden rules of Hollywood: “If it makes money, produce it even if it’s crap” and “If it might hurts profits, cut it”.
Sadly, hypocrisy is still selling very well…
There’s a receiver for the team joke here somewhere…but it takes a sharper wit than mine to properly phrase it.
I think it’s easy (and I mean EASY) to criticize comedians like Cohen and I’m surprised the hypocrisy came from the studios and not him. At least you’ve got to give him that.
As a retort, I say there’s bandwagons on both sides, the haters and the fans.
I like Cohen. His humor is surprisingly sophisticated. Like this picture. The more I think about it, the more I get it and the more I laugh. It’s so stupid, it’s brilliant.
I seriously hope that footage is back in for the DVD release.
No jokes about Michael Jackson or Mohammed I guess.
Cohen has so over-exposed his character prior to the movie’s release that I just can’t stand the sight of him anymore. At this point, no matter how funny the movie is, NOTHING could drag me to the theater for this one.
Just combine Pastafarian and BB’s answers for myself.
And why is Michael Jackson a comedic sacred cow? Its not like he’s the current POTUS…
Fine I got a Michael Jackson joke…
What were Michael Jackson’s last words?
……nah I better not.
This has got to be a first: A Deceiver story about whose principals I do not care even the tiniest bit. MJ? Not that interesting, even prior to Thursday. SBC? Only as King Julien.
I do not care, yet I must comment. Belongs on a T-shirt, I think.
I never liked Cohen. Never watched any movie starring him. The trailers were enough warning for me to stay away. I hated “Ali G” and would change the channel every time he was on the screen. The only thing I have ever watched that he was in (and it was because I didn’t know he was in it) was Sweeny Todd because I’m a Stephen Sondheim fan. Now I must go…this guy just….creeps me out.
Cohen is such absolute bad taste I can’t help but enjoy it. If you think about it, “Borat” was more about *Americans* and how sad some of their views were, and he dug up some people’s deepest truths- like their racism (one kid said he wishes there was still slavery), classism, and homophobia (“take ‘em out and hang ‘em!”) and he exposed those people for what they were. I enjoy watching how people really open themselves up in his movies. In a way, it’s a real twisted social commentary
Simon, a friend of mine wants me to make him a set of PJ’s like that. God help me!
I’d get new friends.
Did ya’ll see him on the Tonight show the other night? Among other weird things he did, he had Conan’s head rammed into his crotch, he gave him a lap dance, took Conan’s hands and placed them on parts of his body…it was horrific to see…like going past a terrible car wreck and looking at the poor victims all bloody inside the vehicle. Well, to me it was. No wonder so many other countries think we are awful. We’ve got SBC, and other grossout so-called comedians, making films based on crude characters that get marketed overseas. All for the almighty dollar.
“In a perfect world, everyone would be as sick of this guy as I am, this movie would flop, and we’d never have to sit through another three months of this guy promoting a movie so a bunch of semi-retarded 20 year olds with loud mufflers on their Civics can go slap their flippers together in some Cineplex somewhere. It keeps them off the streets, and away from me I guess so whatever.”
You are so right, Pasta.
Not that I’m a fan of Ron Paul (who also get COHEN’ed in this movie), but I’m finding it hard to believe that the studio would cut *him* from the film if one of *his* siblings died.
Ditto Pasta and BB. He’s just the newest generation of this kind of “comedian”, after the previous ones faded away. There’s always got to be one out there, he’s not unique in any way. Rather boring actually. It’s too easy to get laughs by acting like that. Ho-hum.
The more that they remove from his movies, the better for the world, IMNSHO.
I never did understand the removing of the WTC from Spiderman. Was it fear of audience trauma keeping them away? Did fear of war “trauma” stop the golden-age comic writers from having superheroes fighting Nazis, Japs, and Soviets? No way! They kicked their shiny butts! I felt that having the WTC in the Spiderman movie would have been very brave and like giving the terrorists the finger. But what do I know.
“No wonder so many other countries think we are awful. We’ve got SBC, and other grossout so-called comedians, making films based on crude characters that get marketed overseas. All for the almighty dollar.”
To be fair, Cohen is British. And everything he’s done before 2005 has pretty much been a UK production.
Yes, but now SBC is also considered “ours”….especially after all the frequent publicity here.
My main point is this….if people wouldn’t go see that type of movie, they would no longer make that type of movie.
Kudos on the Yahoo! Sports Blogs citation. They’re the most consistent voice in sports journalism, and are severely underrated as such.
Cannot stand Cohen and Chad Johnson. I hope nobody sees his film so he can just go away. Too bad that I loved his wife in “Wedding Crashers”
Why do I have to be a Bengals fan?
Because you drew the short straw?
I could’ve gone through life without knowing he is the voice of King Julien, but now I can’t – thanks a lot, Beige. (He is quite funny doing that, though — kind of like a Robin Williams feel to it — now I know he’s just playing himself.)
He’s hilarious, original and really does expose the ignorance of many Americans. Borat wasn’t funny because of him, it was funny because of the reactions of the people in the movie. Everyone on here is so angry!
All part of the service, Les.