Category Archives: Hollywood

Enough of the No-Fault Forgiveness Already

Hollywood, Psychology & Pop-Psychology, Race, Racism, The Zeitgeist

I’ve never been able to watch an entire episode of “Seinfeld,” an insipid and dull skit, with annoying, utterly contrived characters. By contrast, I’m quite capable of enjoying the odd “Everyone Loves Raymond” episode (Doris Roberts as Marie Barone is marvelous). But Seinfeld, including the apparition that went by the name Kramer, was crappy TV.

Now it transpires that actor Michael Richards is every bit as grob as Kramer, the creep he played. (Grob means “coarse, crude, profane, rough, rude� in Yiddish.)

TMZ.com reported that, after being heckled mildly:

“Michael Richards exploded in anger as he performed at a famous L.A. comedy club last Friday, hurling racial epithets that left the crowd gasping… The camera started rolling just as Richards began his attack, screaming at one of the men, ‘Fifty years ago we’d have you upside down with a f***ing fork up your ass.’ Richards continued, ‘You can talk, you can talk, you’re brave now motherf**ker. Throw his ass out. He’s a nigger! He’s a nigger! He’s a nigger! A nigger, look, there’s a nigger!'”

To his credit, the man Richards assailed responded in a rather muted manner: “You’re not funny. That’s That’s un-f***ing called for, ain’t necessary.”

Later, the apology factory went into action, and Richards, who should have been banished forthwith from polite company (that doesn’t include mass media), was beamed via satellite into David Letterman’s “Late Show,” where he gruffly proclaimed: “For me to be at a comedy club and flip out and say this crap, I’m deeply, deeply sorry…I’m not a racist. That’s what’s so insane about this.”

No, what’s “so insane” about these episodes is the apology ritual that follows, and the notion that saying sorry is somehow redemptive; what’s “so insane” about these regular installments of pigs behaving badly is the readiness to believe the bifurcation the scumbag will offer up—that somehow an entity other than himself possessed him for the duration of the tirade. Why would the “black community” even want to engage with this sewer rat?

As I see it, the hatred and unwarranted verbal aggression Richards displayed were far less disturbing than his gutter manners and lack of inhibitions in expressing his foul repertoire.

If the pack of pigmies in the press and TV simply shunned Richards, he’d retreat into the septic tank whence he came.

Updated for the Third Time: Borat’s Cultural Learnings

America, Anti-Semitism, Film, Hollywood, Media

On Saturday, I caught the matinee screening of Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.” It’s well-worth seeing. The man is a great comedian.
I like the way Cohen only interviews in character, as Borat, never revealing who he is. Reviewers haven’t been hip to this tactic. Cohen’s transformation into the unattractive Borat (and equally awful Ali G and Bruno) is remarkable, considering he’s quite a dish.

This next “learning” is probably only available on Barely a Blog, but, for what it’s worth, when Borat and Azamat Bagatov (his Kazakh “producer”) talk, Borat rattles off in Hebrew. Azamat is speaking in tongues, for all I know. Cohen can speak Hebrew, but his accent is not the best.

Here’s a very funny Vanity-Fair interview with Borat Sagdiyev. In response to the question, “Who is your favorite American celebrity and why,” Borat writes:

“My favorites celebritys is dancing Negro Michael Jacksons, singing transvestite Madonna, and, of course, fearless anti-Jew warrior Mel Gibsons. We in Kazakhstan agrees with his statement that Jews started all wars and also have proof that they were responsible for Hurricane Katrina and also killed off the dinosaurs.”

Update: Those of you with a funny bone will find the following hard to believe. Around the Internet, the dour and dreary (that includes Abe Foxman) are decimating Borat for his high-wire antics, and accusing his creator, Baron Cohen:

* Of promoting anti-Semitism (“In one scene Borat insists on driving to California rather than flying, ‘in case the Jews repeat their attack of 9/11′”).
* Of libeling America as endemically anti-Semitic, even though Americans come off (as I pointed out in “Fun in Kazakhstan“) as kind, sweet, polite, and infinitely patient with “this delightful fellow,” as one of his gracious Southern hosts mischaracterizes the bumbling Borat.
* Of harboring an imperial mindset (this is by far the kookiest complaint) because he victimizes and patronizes Kazakhstan. (“In Kazakhstan we say, ‘God, man, horse, dog, then woman, then rat.'” Also according to Borat, the national sport in Kazakhstan is shooting a dog and then having a party. You can earn a living being a Gypsy catcher. Wine is made from fermented horse urine. Kazakh villages all have a Village Rapist.)

Sorry, I had to stop writing—cracked up remembering Borat’s reference to Bush as the “mighty warlord.” The guy’s a satirist—a funny, one-of-a-kind comedian. Only losers “analyze” Cohen, aka Borat, alias Ali G-cum-Bruno.

Updated Again: At last, Alvaro Vargas Llosa of The Independent Institute has a decent defense of Boart as “simply anarchic.” Here’s an excerpt:

“I have read that Borat is a left-winger in disguise. This doesn’t square with his mockery of feminists (“give me a smile, baby, why the angry face”) and of a black politician with whom he discusses homosexuality. I have also read that Borat is a right-wing fascist. It doesn’t quite square with the scene at the rodeo in where he persuades the organizers to let him sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” only to launch into an intentionally satirical tirade against Iraq (“I hope you kill every man, woman, and child in Iraq, down to the lizards”). No, Borat is simply anarchic—there is no institution, idea, cultural value or government he does not find worthy of being picked apart through humor. It’s always healthy to take a second look at the way we all live.”

Updated for the Third Time: Where did you first learn Borat was speaking Hebrew? On BAB, of course. Here’s the confirmation–in case you needed one.

Updated for the Third Time: Borat's Cultural Learnings

America, Anti-Semitism, Film, Hollywood, Media

On Saturday, I caught the matinee screening of Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.” It’s well-worth seeing. The man is a great comedian.
I like the way Cohen only interviews in character, as Borat, never revealing who he is. Reviewers haven’t been hip to this tactic. Cohen’s transformation into the unattractive Borat (and equally awful Ali G and Bruno) is remarkable, considering he’s quite a dish.

This next “learning” is probably only available on Barely a Blog, but, for what it’s worth, when Borat and Azamat Bagatov (his Kazakh “producer”) talk, Borat rattles off in Hebrew. Azamat is speaking in tongues, for all I know. Cohen can speak Hebrew, but his accent is not the best.

Here’s a very funny Vanity-Fair interview with Borat Sagdiyev. In response to the question, “Who is your favorite American celebrity and why,” Borat writes:

“My favorites celebritys is dancing Negro Michael Jacksons, singing transvestite Madonna, and, of course, fearless anti-Jew warrior Mel Gibsons. We in Kazakhstan agrees with his statement that Jews started all wars and also have proof that they were responsible for Hurricane Katrina and also killed off the dinosaurs.”

Update: Those of you with a funny bone will find the following hard to believe. Around the Internet, the dour and dreary (that includes Abe Foxman) are decimating Borat for his high-wire antics, and accusing his creator, Baron Cohen:

* Of promoting anti-Semitism (“In one scene Borat insists on driving to California rather than flying, ‘in case the Jews repeat their attack of 9/11′”).
* Of libeling America as endemically anti-Semitic, even though Americans come off (as I pointed out in “Fun in Kazakhstan“) as kind, sweet, polite, and infinitely patient with “this delightful fellow,” as one of his gracious Southern hosts mischaracterizes the bumbling Borat.
* Of harboring an imperial mindset (this is by far the kookiest complaint) because he victimizes and patronizes Kazakhstan. (“In Kazakhstan we say, ‘God, man, horse, dog, then woman, then rat.'” Also according to Borat, the national sport in Kazakhstan is shooting a dog and then having a party. You can earn a living being a Gypsy catcher. Wine is made from fermented horse urine. Kazakh villages all have a Village Rapist.)

Sorry, I had to stop writing—cracked up remembering Borat’s reference to Bush as the “mighty warlord.” The guy’s a satirist—a funny, one-of-a-kind comedian. Only losers “analyze” Cohen, aka Borat, alias Ali G-cum-Bruno.

Updated Again: At last, Alvaro Vargas Llosa of The Independent Institute has a decent defense of Boart as “simply anarchic.” Here’s an excerpt:

“I have read that Borat is a left-winger in disguise. This doesn’t square with his mockery of feminists (“give me a smile, baby, why the angry face”) and of a black politician with whom he discusses homosexuality. I have also read that Borat is a right-wing fascist. It doesn’t quite square with the scene at the rodeo in where he persuades the organizers to let him sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” only to launch into an intentionally satirical tirade against Iraq (“I hope you kill every man, woman, and child in Iraq, down to the lizards”). No, Borat is simply anarchic—there is no institution, idea, cultural value or government he does not find worthy of being picked apart through humor. It’s always healthy to take a second look at the way we all live.”

Updated for the Third Time: Where did you first learn Borat was speaking Hebrew? On BAB, of course. Here’s the confirmation–in case you needed one.

Limbaugh Climbs Into a Cripple

Hollywood, Media, The Zeitgeist

Rush Limbaugh’s sneering assault on Michael J. Fox’s affliction was utterly depraved. A human being with a head and a heart would have stuck to the issue, rather than level such a cruel attack on a disfigured and suffering human being.

The issue is this: The Founders bequeathed a central government of delegated and enumerated powers. Intellectual property laws are the only constitutional means at Congress’s disposal with which to “promote the Progress of Science. (About their merit Thomas Jefferson, himself an inventor, was unconvinced). Research and development (R&D) spending is nowhere among Congress’s constitutional legislative powers.

Implied in Democratic petit mals about Stem Cell research is that if the House didn’t mulct taxpayers of R&D money, there’d be no R&D. Not according to the United States Department of Health & Human Services: “Based on 2002 data, one study reports that private sector research and development in stem cells was being conducted by approximately 1000 scientists in over 30 firms. Aggregate spending was estimated at $208 million. Geron Corporation alone reported that it spent more than $70 million on stem cell research by September 2003.

In the Stem Cell Business News Guide to Stem Cell Companies (Feb 2003), 61 U.S. and international companies are listed as pursuing some form of research or therapeutic product development involving stem cells. What do you know? The private sector has already been beavering away, for some time now, exploring the promise—or lack thereof—of stem cells.

Limbaugh needed only to remind Fox (and himself and his party) of a thing called the Constitution; he needed to berate Fox only for using his celebrity to petition congress for money not his—tax dollars. Limbaugh ought to have suggested Fox raise money for private research among his stinking rich friends, not pickpocket the taxpayer. Instead Limbaugh climbed into a cripple.

Later, Limbaugh offered a lame apology, the main purpose of which was to point out how magnanimous he was: “All right then, I stand corrected. . . . So I will bigly, hugely admit that I was wrong, and I will apologize to Michael J. Fox, if I am wrong in characterizing his behavior on this commercial as an act.”