Brüno Gehard (; sometimes spelled ''Bruno'' or ''Brueno'') is a
satirical
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...
fictional character
In fiction, a character (or speaker, in poetry) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life person, ...
portrayed by English comedian
Sacha Baron Cohen
Sacha Noam Baron Cohen (born 13 October 1971) is an English actor, comedian, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his creation and portrayal of the fictional satirical characters Ali G, Borat Sagdiyev, Brüno Gehard, and Admiral ...
. A flamboyantly gay fashion reporter from Austria, Brüno first appeared during short sketches on
Paramount Comedy 1
Comedy Central is a British pay television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated. This channel is specific to audiences within the United Kingdom and Ireland. The channel is aligned with the original US versi ...
in 1998, before reappearing on a 2003 episode of ''
Da Ali G Show
''Da Ali G Show'' is a British Satire, satirical television series created by and starring English comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. In the series, Baron Cohen plays three unorthodox journalists: faux-streetwise poseur Ali G, Kazakh reporter Borat Sag ...
''. Following the success of ''
Ali G Indahouse
''Ali G Indahouse'' is a 2002 British comedy film written by Sacha Baron Cohen and Dan Mazer, directed by Mark Mylod, and starring Baron Cohen as Ali G, the character he originally played on the Channel 4 comedy series '' The 11 O'Clock Show'' ...
'' and ''
Borat
''Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan'' (Kazakh language, Kazakh / Russian language, Russian: ''Борат'') (also stylized as ''BORДT'', or simply ''Borat'') is a 2006 mockumentary black come ...
'',
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
gained the rights to produce and release a 2009 feature film about the character, also called ''
Brüno
''Brüno'' is a 2009 mockumentary comedy film directed by Larry Charles and starring Sacha Baron Cohen, who produced, co-wrote, and played the gay Austrian fashion journalist Brüno. It is the third film based on one of Cohen's characters from ...
''.
The character has since been retired.
[Yahoo News: Cohen puts Bruno to bed](_blank)
Yahoo, 18 July 2009
Eminem incident
In May 2009, Brüno appeared at the
MTV Movie Awards
The MTV Movie & TV Awards (formerly the MTV Movie Awards) is a film and television awards show presented annually on MTV. The first MTV Movie Awards were presented in 1992. The ceremony was renamed the MTV Movie & TV Awards for its 26th editi ...
, dressed as an angel with wings strapped to his buttocks as he descended on wires from the ceiling. As part of a prank, after an alleged equipment malfunction, he was lowered onto rapper
Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclai ...
who was seated directly beneath him. Brüno landed in Eminem's lap in a
69-esque position, with his exposed buttocks in Eminem's face. Members of
D12
D12 (an initialism for The Dirty Dozen) was an American hip hop collective from Detroit, Michigan. Formed in 1996, the group achieved mainstream success with its lineup of ''de facto'' leader Eminem, Proof, Bizarre, Mr. Porter, Kuniva and Swift ...
helped to remove Brüno. Eminem and D12 then stormed out of the ceremony. Eminem appeared surprised and angry about the prank, but both he and Baron Cohen later claimed that the incident had been staged and rehearsed by the two. Eminem told reporters that he laughed uncontrollably for three hours in his hotel room afterward.
While the prank is widely accepted as being staged, some commentators have questioned the extent to which Eminem was in on the joke.
Reaction
The 2009 feature film Brüno was well received by ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', who described him as "howlingly funny, staggeringly rude, brutally incorrect and very often just brilliant".
LGBT response
Some
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term is a ...
groups have criticized the character as perpetuating
LGBT stereotypes
Stereotypes about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people are based on their sexual orientations, gender identities, or gender expressions. Stereotypical perceptions may be acquired through interactions with parents, teachers, peers ...
.
"Sacha Baron Cohen's well-meaning attempt at
satire
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...
is problematic in many places and outright offensive in others,"
Rashad Robinson
Rashad Robinson is an American civil rights leader. He is the president of Color of Change, an advocacy group. He has served as a board member of RaceForward, Demos, State Voices, and currently sits on the board of the Hazen Foundation.
Car ...
, senior director of media programmes for the
Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
GLAAD (), an acronym of Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, is an American non-governmental media monitoring organization originally founded as a protest against defamatory coverage of gay and lesbian demographics and their portrayals i ...
(GLAAD) told the ''New York Times''.
Ayman Abu Aita lawsuit
Baron Cohen appeared as Brüno on the ''
Late Show with David Letterman
The ''Late Show with David Letterman'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the The Late Show (franchise), ''Late Show'' franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by ...
'' in July 2009,
where he made reference to Ayman Abu Aita (whom Brüno interviewed in the movie) as a terrorist. Abu Aita was identified in the film as a member of
al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades
The al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades () is a coalition of Palestinian armed groups in the West Bank. The organization has been designated as a terrorist organization by Israel, the European Union, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and the United States.
L ...
,
a Palestinian terrorist organization responsible for numerous suicide bombings. Abu Aita claimed that he was never a member of the group, though he had identified as such in a 2002 ''
Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' article.
He had also served two years in an Israeli prison for his role in the
Second Intifada
The Second Intifada ( ar, الانتفاضة الثانية, ; he, האינתיפאדה השנייה, ), also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada ( ar, انتفاضة الأقصى, label=none, '), was a major Palestinian uprising against Israel. ...
.
Abu Aita made plans to sue, saying that he was misled and that he did not sign release forms for the footage of him that appeared in the film. Baron Cohen increased his security detail after ''
WorldNetDaily
''WND'' (formerly ''WorldNetDaily'') is an American far-right fake news website. It is known for promoting falsehoods and conspiracy theories, including the false claim that former President Barack Obama was not born in the United States.
Th ...
'' claimed to receive a statement from al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades threatening his life following the premiere of the film. In December 2009, Abu Aita sued Baron Cohen and Letterman at a federal court in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
In November 2010, the lawsuit was dismissed in D.C. so it could be refiled in the
Supreme Court of New York
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...
,
[Supreme Court Records Online Library](_blank)
case 102524-2011 which also dismissed it in July 2012.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gehard, Bruno
Male characters in film
Male characters in television
Comedy television characters
Fictional Austrian people
Television characters introduced in 1998
Fictional gay males
Sacha Baron Cohen
Ethnic humour
Fictional interviewers
Fictional reporters
Fictional television personalities
Fictional LGBT characters in film
Fictional LGBT characters in television
Fictional people in fashion