Jewish humour, (Not for Rednecks, Christians and other bigots)

Rating: 6/10 (30 August 2007)

For those who may not have known (or even guess, given the name) Cohen is of Jewish origins (although educated in a Christian school), like Seinfield and other Jewish comics he is the first to criticise his culture/heritage and make us laugh. Very often the jokes against the Jews are in fact aimed at the reaction of the protagonists of the scenes, best example is the "Throw a Jew down the well" scene when he sings a country like song and that the audience repeat the lyrics, or again in the minivan with the graduated students. To understand some jokes you have to either know history or culture, the Jewish Satyre puppet laying an egg being crushed before hatching is a direct reference to the behaviour of some eastern countries citizen against the Jews in the Nazi/Stallinians years of the mid 20th century. I think Cohen had a lot of courage in some of his scenes and I would love to see a behind the scene extra to see how much of it genuine, the Khazak Anthem song, the well mannered people dinner party, the Jesus church, the abduction of Pamela Anderson... because if they are, then that Americans are not so "trigger happy blood minded killers".
Why I gave only a 6 is that although it's a good laugh it doesn't teach us much more about America that we already know. Yes there are loads of Racists (WASP, Rednecks), yes they are a Theocrary instead of a Democracy, yes they are usually unaware of what happens outside their borders but we already know that, don't we? I have lived in America and I can tell you there are a big bunch of very decent and friendly people over there, it' true that the IQ level seems to drop as they gather in larger and larger groups but I think it would have been nice to include some gags with genuinely friendly Americans.
This movie is sure to make some fuss, and on my shelves it goes next to Fast Food Nation, Farenheit 9/11, Bowling for Columbine and Supersize Me and the likes