You either watched a different movie than I did, or you failed to understand the basic premise of the movie.

The movie was never about how antisemitic Arabs are. It was about how other people react to an antisemitic Arab.

Consider the “Throw the Jew down the well” scene. Was the scene about the one fake-Arab actor pretending to be antisemitic, or was it about all the real Americans cheering and singing along with him?

Consider your chosen Bruno scene. The Palestinian was, as you said, visibly puzzled. So was the film actually making him out to be a terrorist? Or was it making fun of the assumption that Palestinians are terrorists? Come on.

When a film shows a puzzled Palestinian, that’s what it wants to show. It’s not like Baron Cohen was trying to set up a gotcha! moment to prove that Palestinians are terrorists, and accidentally failed, and happened to keep the footage in so you could see him failing. Come on.

Never mind the ludicrous claim that “all his bits” are based on Muslims being antisemetic, and that he thinks it’s ok to oppress Palestine, can you even name ONE of his “bits” that is based on on Muslims being antisemetic, and that he thinks it’s ok to oppress Palestine?

Shortened through bit.ly (!) in case the above URL breaks:
http://n.pr/LouBwm

Illuminating. And though I agree with the posters here about Bruno his account of the-making-of is hilarious and astonishing.

Cohen is an equal opportunity offender. His political and social criticism can strike uncomfortably close to home. Mr. Cohen, if you’re reading this, thanks for pushing us out of our comfort zone. The more you make us laugh or at least question at the unfunny parts of our culture, the more we wake up a little. Keep up the good work, subverting that dominant (but oh so failed) paradigm.

There were parts in Bruno when I thought, Holy shit, they’re gonna murder this guy… Without that element, it’s hard to image myself chuckling during the whole “let’s laugh at stereotypes” bit.

Disclosure: I haven’t seen it – and thus have no rock to stand on.

Did you feel I called out your name and stuck you into one of those groups? 

I don’t agree with Zeke, however, if he worries that this factor devalues Cohen’s comedy to the point of potentially negating its utility and benefit to culture.

I’m glad you mentioned this because there are three other principal Arab characters in the film.

1) Efawadh (also played by Cohen) is a dimwitted Arab peasant who when left in a room with naked women, mistakes them for goats and tries to milk their breasts. He’s also shown drinking urine.

2) Tamir (played by Ben Kingsley) is a duplicitous autocrat who conspires to sell his people’s oil out from under them.

3) Nadal (played by Jason Manzoukas) is an exiled nuclear scientist who supports the dictatorship and wants to make a bomb.

None of these actors are of Arab descent (Kingsley is part Indian and Manzoukas is Greek American.) But I suppose the “deeply intelligent and normal people” you’re talking about are briefly glimpsed in the Wadiyan exile restaurant scene. This does not excuse that, on the whole, The Dictator is a film in which non-Arab people engage in racist and Orientalist caricature of Arabs. If you are genuinely curious about why this film’s depiction of Arabs is a problem, I can offer you the two following critiques as an excellent place to start:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/05/17/is_the_dictator_racist 

http://www.loonwatch.com/2012/05/sacha-cohen-and-arab-minstrelsy/

Based on actually watching the movie, I’d say it’s very clear that it’s premised on ugly stereotypes of arab dictators and not middle-easterners generally…

But there are batshit crazy dictators throughout East Asia, throughout Central Asia, throughout Africa. And yet, he modeled his character on Gaddafi rather than Niyazov.

Posts like this, in 2012, show haw far we have to go in recognizing who is racist and what racism means.

In contrast I really have grown to like Russell Brand, but you couldn’t pay me to see “Get Him to the Greek.”

On the other, OTHER hand, the film sets up the psychopathic “hero” in opposition to his treacherous right-hand man (Ben Kinglsey), who wants to bring Western-style democracy to his country — not to emancipate his people but to sell out to Big Oil for $billions. That fact, plus The Dictator’s final speech in which he explains why he likes being a dictator (totalitarian surveillance; due-process free detention, torture and assassination; wars based on lies, etc.), are what counts as political commentary.

But serious political satire is in short supply in The Dictator. The film seems to think vegan feminists and mass-murdering tyrants are equally deserving of satire. The results are often laugh-out-loud funny, but also shallow, silly and nowhere near as dark or sharp as it should have been. Don’t go in expecting a masterpiece.

See, I can be hilariously funny too.