Comments on: Cohen/Borat/Bruno ambush http://cultureby.com/2009/07/cohenboratbruno-ambush.html This Blog Sits At the Intersection of Anthropology and Economics Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:44:05 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: malcolm cecil http://cultureby.com/2009/07/cohenboratbruno-ambush.html/comment-page-1#comment-540 malcolm cecil Sun, 12 Jul 2009 07:04:09 +0000 http://grantmccracken.com/cco/http:/grantmccracken/page-title#comment-540 <p>Crazed with tiny fissures is a lovely descriptor for a fragmenting culture. I don't know much about Ron Paul, but I wonder if we should assume that all of Baron Cohen's 'vics' are really so out of it. I'm thinking two things may be at play here. One, on a Goffmanian level of the interaction ritual, even folks who are in the know may agree to an interview with Borat/Bruno and then find themselves ill equipped to break out of the roles that the culture of polite interaction imposes. I guess that's the basis for much of the humor anyway -- and what does it matter if the people playing the rubes are truly clueless? Two, is there a point at which it doesn't matter that the vic knows or doesn't know what's going on? As though the frame of the performance shifts from being a record of a practical joke to something more ritualized, in which individual awareness doesn't matter much. The celebrity punking as a cultural/televisual form. About as real as what we see on reality tv. Maybe we're not there yet, but couldn't that be where we're going? </p> Crazed with tiny fissures is a lovely descriptor for a fragmenting culture. I don't know much about Ron Paul, but I wonder if we should assume that all of Baron Cohen's 'vics' are really so out of it. I'm thinking two things may be at play here. One, on a Goffmanian level of the interaction ritual, even folks who are in the know may agree to an interview with Borat/Bruno and then find themselves ill equipped to break out of the roles that the culture of polite interaction imposes. I guess that's the basis for much of the humor anyway — and what does it matter if the people playing the rubes are truly clueless? Two, is there a point at which it doesn't matter that the vic knows or doesn't know what's going on? As though the frame of the performance shifts from being a record of a practical joke to something more ritualized, in which individual awareness doesn't matter much. The celebrity punking as a cultural/televisual form. About as real as what we see on reality tv. Maybe we're not there yet, but couldn't that be where we're going?

]]> By: CreativeSpark http://cultureby.com/2009/07/cohenboratbruno-ambush.html/comment-page-1#comment-539 CreativeSpark Sat, 11 Jul 2009 12:01:49 +0000 http://grantmccracken.com/cco/http:/grantmccracken/page-title#comment-539 <p>Michael Moore wouldn't get away with the lederhosen.<br /> ;-)</p> Michael Moore wouldn't get away with the lederhosen.
;-)

]]> By: Charles http://cultureby.com/2009/07/cohenboratbruno-ambush.html/comment-page-1#comment-538 Charles Sat, 11 Jul 2009 11:12:11 +0000 http://grantmccracken.com/cco/http:/grantmccracken/page-title#comment-538 <p>I too have some reservations about this post. First off as an outsider Ron Paul seems like a voice of sanity. If being frank is nutty then that's a cultural sign of decay in any society. It's why China has yet to rise above a cookie cutter approach to innovation.</p> <p>I completely identify with large chunks of popular culture that I either know I don't know, or don't know I don't know. A kindly soul who put me up last week was astonished to learn that I hadn't yet seen Ironweed. That's possibly too British for many but either way we're doing this in English ;)</p> <p>Erm what else. OK, so I always figure that this blog deconstrucst American society through it's Television consumption. I kind of feel that this lens is dissolving through our media fragmentation, specifically the context of our media consumption because it means that the age of global supercelebrity is diminishing. Though likely not disappearing. </p> <p>The Beatles still made it into Soviet Russia but the sheer number of celebrities who are famous for doing nothing; well I only have to look at what Korean Pop is producing these days and I'm convinced it aces Britney. Talent and production.</p> <p>As for Bruno. I'm still laughing at an episode I saw last week. He persuaded a bunch of pumped and ripped American beach guys to expose their bottoms after a number of attempts to get them shouting louder than the previous take. Finally he tosses a throw away comment that it's going to look great on his gay TV show. Which is when it gets really funny. It's like MTV beach party punctured with a single comment.</p> <p>Sasha Baron Cohen is ace, but if I'm not mistaken I read that the recent Letterman appearance was the end of the character development he's been amazingly succesful at with a view to just being himself. I may have got that wrong though.</p> I too have some reservations about this post. First off as an outsider Ron Paul seems like a voice of sanity. If being frank is nutty then that's a cultural sign of decay in any society. It's why China has yet to rise above a cookie cutter approach to innovation.

I completely identify with large chunks of popular culture that I either know I don't know, or don't know I don't know. A kindly soul who put me up last week was astonished to learn that I hadn't yet seen Ironweed. That's possibly too British for many but either way we're doing this in English ;)

Erm what else. OK, so I always figure that this blog deconstrucst American society through it's Television consumption. I kind of feel that this lens is dissolving through our media fragmentation, specifically the context of our media consumption because it means that the age of global supercelebrity is diminishing. Though likely not disappearing.

The Beatles still made it into Soviet Russia but the sheer number of celebrities who are famous for doing nothing; well I only have to look at what Korean Pop is producing these days and I'm convinced it aces Britney. Talent and production.

As for Bruno. I'm still laughing at an episode I saw last week. He persuaded a bunch of pumped and ripped American beach guys to expose their bottoms after a number of attempts to get them shouting louder than the previous take. Finally he tosses a throw away comment that it's going to look great on his gay TV show. Which is when it gets really funny. It's like MTV beach party punctured with a single comment.

Sasha Baron Cohen is ace, but if I'm not mistaken I read that the recent Letterman appearance was the end of the character development he's been amazingly succesful at with a view to just being himself. I may have got that wrong though.

]]> By: Tom Asacker http://cultureby.com/2009/07/cohenboratbruno-ambush.html/comment-page-1#comment-537 Tom Asacker Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:40:44 +0000 http://grantmccracken.com/cco/http:/grantmccracken/page-title#comment-537 <p>Define "center."</p> Define "center."

]]> By: Rob Kleine http://cultureby.com/2009/07/cohenboratbruno-ambush.html/comment-page-1#comment-536 Rob Kleine Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:23:30 +0000 http://grantmccracken.com/cco/http:/grantmccracken/page-title#comment-536 <p>Grant - Cohen who? The Cohen Brothers? No, that's not your intent. So .. Cohen who? And why should I care? I endured 10 minutes of Borat before ejecting the DVD from the player. Why do you appear to offer Cohen as a cultural awareness litmus test? Certainly there are myriad other cultural artifacts that afford a more compelling litmus test of cultural literacy? Such as ... having read "Culture & Consumption" or, perhaps, "A Tail of Two Cities" or perhaps Breen's "The Marketplace of Revolution"? Perhaps. But Cohen? </p> Grant – Cohen who? The Cohen Brothers? No, that's not your intent. So .. Cohen who? And why should I care? I endured 10 minutes of Borat before ejecting the DVD from the player. Why do you appear to offer Cohen as a cultural awareness litmus test? Certainly there are myriad other cultural artifacts that afford a more compelling litmus test of cultural literacy? Such as … having read "Culture & Consumption" or, perhaps, "A Tail of Two Cities" or perhaps Breen's "The Marketplace of Revolution"? Perhaps. But Cohen?

]]> By: Steve Portigal http://cultureby.com/2009/07/cohenboratbruno-ambush.html/comment-page-1#comment-535 Steve Portigal Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:41:04 +0000 http://grantmccracken.com/cco/http:/grantmccracken/page-title#comment-535 <p>I've been amused at how the scandals - and lawsuits - both films generated during their production have provided amazing publicity. The NYT has written about this film for a really long time. Sure, if you go to Comic-Con, you'll see a sneak preview of a work in progress for the die-hard fan, but only a few movies get mainstream making-of publicity (Tom Cruise as a Nazi, sure, Cohen causing upheaval, why not), turning the movie into a Happening rather than just a piece of entertainment (of course, Grant, we know that it's more than just a piece of entertainment but that's not the typical frame that this stuff is produced or consumed within).</p> I've been amused at how the scandals – and lawsuits – both films generated during their production have provided amazing publicity. The NYT has written about this film for a really long time. Sure, if you go to Comic-Con, you'll see a sneak preview of a work in progress for the die-hard fan, but only a few movies get mainstream making-of publicity (Tom Cruise as a Nazi, sure, Cohen causing upheaval, why not), turning the movie into a Happening rather than just a piece of entertainment (of course, Grant, we know that it's more than just a piece of entertainment but that's not the typical frame that this stuff is produced or consumed within).

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