mohandasgandhi:

afternoonsnoozebutton:

thenoobyorker:

vh1:

popculturebrain:

The Dictator dumps Kim Jong Il’s “ashes” on Seacrest.

We feel bad for the poor intern who’s frantically finding him a new tux right now. Happy Oscars everyone!!!

I mean this is hilarious but Sasha, homie we need to sit down and have a talk. The characters you portray… sigh, how do I say this? They feed discourse that’s used against the very things you’re trying to “expose” or highlight. I get it, the Oscar’s and Ryan are absurd but come on…

Instead it’s all about the Kardashian gags that should ensure the film’s comic freshness well into 2013, plus plenty of Cohen spouting made-up Arabic gibberish, which will sound extra hilarious (and maybe spark all kinds of fun racist incidents) when it’s being imitated ad nauseam by every college guy who sees this. [AvClub]

Shit. 

Yeah, thenoobyorker hit it on the nose.

I’m asked about my opinion of Baron Cohen’s new character quite frequently and I’m glad people find it to be harmless humor but I think it’s a bit problematic for a European Jew with a parent from Israel to exploit and further stereotypes of the Middle East for mainstream comedic purposes without meaningful substance. Over the last year, we’ve watched several regimes in the MENA fall and very rarely have I seen honest discourse about why those regimes existed in the first place or how they’ve been able to sustain themselves for so long.

Here Baron Cohen is using stereotypes to capitalize off of a skewed version of the horrors inflicted upon the Middle East and its people without understanding either. It’s nice to make jokes and have a laugh but it’s pretty problematic for a Western individual to mock a region of the world that’s currently suffering through another wave of imperialist dominance, particularly when the Western conception of the Middle East is already so flawed and dripping with orientalist perceptions we use to justify its exploitation.

I can’t wait for frat boys to quote the film until the sun goes though.