This is gonna be short and sweet.

I've been keeping up with all of the posts and articles and editorials and movie reviews of Bruno, so I know the debate.  It seems to boil down to "His portrayal of gay people is offensive and unrealistic!" versus "His portrayal of gay people blows up stereotypes that are, in a small way, based in reality."  Knightrider's post, supporting this second take, is excellent and deserved its place on today's cover, so read that if you want a fleshed-out version.

I don't think the point, though, is the character.  The Bruno movie, just like Borat, is not about the character; we could go back on forth all day on whether the characters in both movies are offensive and un-funny, or offensive but funny.  Sure, the characters are funny with a good dose of un-P.C., yes, they make for amazing Halloween costumes.  But the show and the subsequent movies are not about the characters; they are about how regular, unsuspecting people react to the characters.  They are about what the characters can get the people with whom they interact to reveal about themselves.  Borat and Bruno are canvases--crude, awful, knowingly stereotypical canvases--on which the people they talk to paint very revealing self-portraits.  Don't get caught up in looking at the canvases; look at the paintings.  

If you hated Bruno--particularly if you hated Bruno because you found the character offensive--please, please rent some episodes of Da Ali G. Show.  Watch the interviews Bruno conducts with people--particularly at the fashion show, in the very first episode.  No one except Bruno could catch vapid, stupid, cruel people off guard enough to let their vapid, stupid, cruel colors show; no other actor besides Cohen would think to use his incredible talent to show us how people react when you readjust their comfort zone--whether that comfort zone is expanded (Bruno, to certain fashionistas) or very diminished (Borat, to certain rednecks).  And of course, because Cohen is a little bit crazy and his work is comedy, it sometimes devolves into "Let's see how many crazy-ass things this character can get away with."  That's fun, too, but it's not really the point.

I'll say it again: it's not about the character.  It's about how people react to the character.

Oh, yeah.  And I thought Bruno was fucking hysterical.  Thanks for reading my two cents.