Cohen and Chappelle: Double-edged audience sword

By Stone Martindale Nov 18, 2006, 17:23 GMT

Sacha Baron Cohen's "Borat" is an obvious ruse to those familiar with the British comedian's schtick. Cohen dresses up as a character, infiltrates a segment of society perhaps not up on popular culture or hip to HBO, and lets his experiment play out, racist remarks, societal warts and all. 

American comic Dave Chappelle also attempted this on his short lived Dave Chappelle Show for Comedy Central, until the boomerang of his racial skits appreciated by some white audiences with a bit too much gusto came winging back to the comedian's chagrin, and drove him away from the lucrative deal presented to him by the network.

Orthodox Jew, Cambridge educated Sacha Baron Cohen has defended his controversial creation Borat, saying he is a tool that reveals embedded racism.
Baron Cohen dropped his alter ego for the first time since the Borat film was released, for an interview with Rolling Stone magazine.

"The joke is not on Kazakhstan," he said. "I think the joke is on people who can believe that the Kazakhstan that I describe can exist."

The film, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, has Cohen playing an enthusiastic and wide-eyed Kazakh reporter meeting with a cross section of rural, less worldly people across the United States.  That factor was also key in Cohen's Ali G character's successful ambush style interviews for his HBO show as well.

"Borat works essentially as a tool," said Cohen in the interview.  "By himself being anti-Semitic, he lets people lower their guard and expose their own prejudice, whether it's anti-Semitism or an acceptance of anti-Semitism."

He added: "I think part of the movie shows the absurdity of holding any form of racial prejudice, whether it's hatred of African-Americans or of Jews."

Then there is the unusual case of comic Dave Chappelle, whose rocketing comedy career was built by exaggerating black stereotypes. Chappelle's social experiment backfired. Insiders have mused that when he was filming his Comedy Central show last year, Chappelle had an epiphany he was reinforcing negative stereotypes. He subsequently dropped out of the scene, an has been low key in his comedy career since.