To begin, I apologize for lacking the umlauts needed to address this topic properly. I believe Da Ali G Show is the third best thing HBO’s given the world after The Sopranos and the first season of Flight of the Conchords. I’m a big fan of Borat, though I don’t think it compares to the highlights of the TV show. I thought Bruno was a complete waste of my time, even allowing for the fact I saw it at a bargain matinee screening for six bucks (by Manhattan standards, that qualifies as free). Why the diminishing returns from Sacha Baron Cohen, which apparently other people are also sensing since this movie looks to make half the money of its predecessor despite twice the initial hype? In no particular order:

-Cohen’s greatest moments inevitably come not when he offends someone, but when he charms them (witness Borat getting a bar full of people to sing along to the impossibly catchy ditty “Throw the Jew Down the Well”). Bruno is an annoying man doing annoying things until a person–wait for it–becomes annoyed.

-And then Bruno does it again.

-I’m completely desensitized to everything except particularly taboo-shattering Japanese films (usually directed by Takashi Miike). If a movie rises or falls based on me being shocked into reacting, it will fall every time. When my basic response instincts burned out I have no idea, but they’re gone and Hollywood will just have to deal with it.

-Can we please stop pranking the military? Don’t they have enough to deal with without the fact that apparently every third recruit is going undercover for a nutty reality show? Wasn’t the Patriot Act supposed to put a stop to this?

-If I had gone to a fight and two guys who clearly weren’t professional fighters started making out at epic length, I wouldn’t throw chairs, but I’d be annoyed (just as if I’d gone to watch two guys make out and it turned out to be a mixed martial arts exhibition, I’d feel misled).

-Didn’t those fake photos shown in the Richard Bey talk show segment look incredibly fake even by fake photo standards? Shouldn’t people have picked up on that?

-Richard Bey’s in Dallas? Is this the cruel future that awaits Maury Povich?

-Sting and Coldplay’s Chris Martin should never be allowed to appear in a movie together, even ironically.

That said, I very much like that Cohen and his costars speak German so slowly and with such basic vocabulary that I could understand what they were saying without subtitles, making me feel like my six years of German weren’t a complete waste of time. Danke schon, Bruno. Ich liebe dich und tchuss!

___ of the Moment appears each Wednesday.

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