Is “Brüno” Homophobic? (Or Are Some Gay Observers Missing the Point?)

But Robinson points out that other media outlets are exaggerating GLAAD’s response to the film in order to create controversy. “The New York Times took one piece of a quote and made it seem like we were outraged by the movie,” which isn’t true, he says.

Let’s get one thing straight: whatever Cohen or GLAAD might think, Brünoisn’t really a satire about exposing American homophobia – not any more than Borat was “about” exposing racism.

Yes, Cohen mocks the ignorant. But if we know anything by now, it’s that Cohen doesn’t play fair – something that’s been confirmed by multiple media reports. He flagrantly misrepresents himself while filming, and deliberately edits to make his subjects look as ridiculous as possible.

Cohen is a humorist – an admittedly fearless one. But he’s also a brilliant self-promoter.

The imbroglio at the MTV Awards (which we now know was entirely staged) was not the first time that Cohen has made headlines for the movie. While making the film, Cohen made headlines again and again – once when straight men got semi-violent after being invited to a cage-fighting match and being given cheap beer, only to be presented with two men, including Cohen, who got undressed and kiss.

And Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul – no stranger to self-promotion himself – reacted angrily in early 2008 when he was object of one of Cohen’s stunts.

Brüno, who has decided to make a sex tape to rekindle his fame, attempts to seduce Paul on-camera, finally dropping his pants mid-interview – something that prompts the Republican to say, “This guy is a queer!” So far, the sequence appears in the final film.

And Cohen, as Brüno, is currently appearing naked on the cover of GQ. As he proved in Borat, and as he’s proving with his publicity stunts, Cohen does nothing halfway.

So what is he exactly?

A modern-day Andy Kaufman, marching to his own drummer and attempting to expand the notion of what “comedy” is? Or maybe he’s the reincarnation of Lenny Bruce, the comedy provocateur who deliberately pushed buttons just because he could. Or maybe Cohen is simply another self-indulgent attention-starved comedian willing to go to ridiculous lengths to capture media attention.

Surely everyone can agree that Sacha Baron Cohen does whatever he thinks will get a laugh. And maybe those would-be laughs are the real – possibly the only – point of his movies.

Does it matter that Cohen, unlike Lenny Bruce, is no edgy fringe comedian, and Brüno is no obscure arthouse film? This thing is a Major Studio Production, being dropped in blue and red state cineplexes alike with a massive media push – and it’s being marketed directly at the proverbial “impressionable teen.”

“When you see a clip of Brüno in a room full of gay men, everyone laughs, and it’s fine,” Queer as Folk actor Peter Paige told Third Rail Media. “But when you see a clip of Brüno in a room full of straight men, they’re all laughing, and it’s a different thing, and you start to go, ‘Hmmmm, I don’t know how I feel about this.’”

“I think people know the spirit in which it was intended, which was satire,” Brian Graden, President of Programming for MTV (and Logo, which owns AfterElton.com), also told Third Rail Media. “But at the same time, it’s such a fine line between satire and stereotyping, and I really need to see the movie to see if they’ve crossed that line.”

“A lot of people can’t get the joke because they’re just not educated to the basic fact that gay people are stereotyped,” Graden added. “So a lot people laugh at it without realizing that the gay kid next to them is being affected.”

Next Page! Are Brüno's critics missing the point?