How to Satirize the Idiotic Haters

The Great Sacha Baron Cohen points the way.

This post is the twenty-first in an ongoing series on antisemitism and culture. See the previous installments here:

1. What It Means When the Leader of the Republican Party Dines With THREE Antisemites

2. What Causes Someone to Be an Antisemite?

3. When & Why Conspiracy Theorists Sometimes Stumble Onto the Truth

4. The JFK Conspiracy Theory Which Makes the Most Sense & Why It Matters Today

5. An Open Letter to Elon Musk Thanking Him for the Correct Decision Shutting Down Neo-Nazi Kanye West

6. Why Morally Decent People Can't Buy Bitcoin

7. 4 Stupid Reasons People Don't Take Antisemitism as Seriously as They Should

8. Obsessing Over 'the Left' Sabotages the Fight Against Antisemitism

9. Is Campus Antisemitism So Pervasive It's Now Normal?

10. Elon Musk Brings Onboard 'How to Fight Anti-Semitism' Author Bari Weiss to Twitter 2.0

11. Even the Smartest Brains Can Become Infected with Antisemitism

12. How Hanukkah Should Inspire Christians Too

13. Is Qatar the Most Terrible State in the Middle East? Or Is Iran Worse?

14. How the Bible Reveals the 3 Types of Antisemites

15. 3 Hidden Weapons to Defend the Jewish State

16. Indifferent to Racist Hate in America, Indifferent to Genocidal Hate in Ukraine

17. Please, My Jewish Friends: We Desperately Need You Here in America

18. 7 Reasons This Christian Hippie Became a Zealot Against Jew Hatred

19. What Zionism Means to Me Today

20. Bipolar Disorder Is Not an Excuse for Kanye West's Jew Hatred

These writings are part of my ongoing effort to overcome my PTSD by forcing myself to try to write and publish something every day commenting on and analyzing current cultural affairs and their impacts on politics, faith, and, well, everything. “Politics is downstream from culture,” the late Andrew Breitbart popularized among conservative bloggers while he was alive. I’d go a step further: Everything is downstream from culture. The cultures you embrace determine who you are and who you become. You become what you worship.

---

This ongoing series on antisemitism and culture is admittedly a bit heavy and dreary much of the time so I thought a bit lighter of an installment would be a good change of pace.

A Jewish News Syndicate brief which I wrote recently summarized the wonderful actor and comedian Sacha Baron Cohen roasting Kanye West at the Kennedy Center Honors Event, featured in the recently-released above video:

Cohen then went after Ye. “Before I proceed I must say I am very upset about the antisemitism in US and A. It not fair! Kazakhstan is number one Jew-crushing nation! Stop stealing our hobby. Your Kanye, he tried to move to Kazakhstan, and he even changed his name to Kazakhstanye West. But we said no, he too antisemitic even for us,” he said, prompting applause from the audience of celebrities.

I’ve been a huge fan of Cohen since he rose to prominence with his “Da Ali G Show” and then when he brought his “Borat” character to the big screen. It’s one of the most hilarious films ever made.

Making jokes about Jew hatred is one of the most difficult tasks a comedian can pursue. In my years of conservative counter-Islamist activism I’ve seen many attempts to try and mock terrorists and most of them just fall flat. It’s such a serious subject with so many tragic consequences that it’s just really hard to pull off properly.

But Cohen has somehow managed to create an antisemitic character that is both deeply hilarious and morally effective in going after the haters. How does he do it so well. I think there are 3 primary factors:

1. Antisemites are idiots. While I’ve talked previously in this serious about how seemingly intelligent people can embrace antisemitic ideas, the truth is that antisemitism and all forms of bigotry are inherently stupid. Anyone who thinks that their interactions with a few members of a group allows them to make broad generalizations about ALL members of the group is a fool. And the Borat character clearly falls into that category. His antisemitism is depicted alongside his general stupidity about everything.

2. Antisemites are cultural primitives. In the 14th installment in this series, How the Bible Reveals the 3 Types of Antisemites, I laid out my general thesis that the root of antisemitic beliefs lies in primitive cultural values which derive from innate aspects of human nature. Feelings-based notions about Jewish conspiracies and an inability to base one’s life on facts and rationality are signs that someone is just a primitive person. And that’s Borat! Throughout the depictions of the character he is perpetually presented as a backward man stuck in the past, still using outdated technology and living in squalor. Not only does he also have archaic ideas about Jews but he’s also a horrid misogynist too, treating women more like property than people.

3. It’s hilarious to cleverly trick people into revealing their own idiocy and primitivism. Let’s face it: the main reason why Cohen has succeeded so much with his Borat comedy style is because he’s had the courage to play the character in the real world, interacting with unsuspecting participants not in on the joke who he provokes into revealing their own tolerance for bigotry. He did this to greatest effect in the “Borat” film in the infamous “Throw the Jew Down the Well” scene in which he provoked an entire bar to clap and sing along with him to an antisemitic song:

So what’s the next step in this satirical tradition? My hope is that some day soon we’ll see a gifted black comedian with the skill, courage, and tenacity to create his own Borat-style “journalist” character who can draw out the latent racism and antisemitism poisoning parts of America’s black ghetto underclass. The Black Hebrew Israelites, Hoteps, and Nation of Islam acolytes are simply ripe for a satirical attack exposing their ridiculous ideologies to the mockery they deserve.