Michelle Dubert | Two jokes, two reactions

There were two events that became quite the kerfuffle on Penn's campus this weekend. One was the proliferation of a picture of President Amy Gutmann with Engineering senior Saad Saadi, a "suicide bomber" at her annual Halloween party and a DP photographer. The other was Borat.

One was well received, the other significantly less so.

By now, I take it that most people know the basic premises of both. But what itches me is that the one blatantly offensive was received with rave reviews, and the one intended to be a joke is now subject to a condemnatory eye, literally, around the world (The Jerusalem Post featured a story on the now-infamous photograph). A headline from the New York Post this weekend read, "Ditzy Ivy Prexy's H'ween Ball Bombs." Now, calls are coming in for Gutmann's censure as she's being criticized for the insensitivity the picture evokes toward Penn's student population (read: Jews) and its families.

But Borat, while knee-slappingly hilarious in all its naked and goofy glory, is ostensibly just as insensitive toward the Jewish population, if not more so. Not to be a spoiler, but there are scenes that are so absurdly offensive that the only solace viewers can take is remembering that the film's star and writer, Sacha Baron Cohen, is himself Jewish. Yet nobody here seemed to question his motives, and few are calling his mockery of Jews or Kazakhstan heinously offensive. The satire in his work is implicit. Apparently, it was less so in Saadi's Halloween attire.

Gutmann, whose Jewish grandparents fled Nazi Germany, released a statement this week defending her posing with Saadi, who is Christian and from New Jersey, saying she didn't realize what his costume was at the time.

Saadi's suicide bomber, as he told people, is indisputably offensive when perceived absent of context. His motion for students to pose as though in a hostage situation is not laughable considering the steady stream of beheadings that occurred in Iraq in 2004 and 2005 and the perennial tension between Israelis and Palestinians.

It wasn't funny. But it also wasn't designed to tick people off. It was, alas, a Halloween costume, and the knee-jerk reaction fails to take in other factors - like children in Israel dressing as suicide bombers for Purim. There is a difference between a prejudice or will to do harm and a failed attempt to be funny.

Ezra Billinkoff, the president of Penn Hillel, does not find the correlation in humor between Borat and Saadi. "A suicide bomber's destruction and devastation do not deserve parody," he said. "Saadi's intended joke focuses on a topic that carries with it a lot of sensitivities." Despite the offensive nature of Borat, Billinkoff says he intends to see the film.

In Borat, the title character wonders aloud where Jews' horns are. This perception of humor plays to different sensitivities in Jewish stereotypes, but they don't really evoke any kinder sentiments. Borat isn't advocating terrorism, and, like Saadi, is not actually meant to be taken seriously. Still, it's hardly eliciting the same response as Saadi's costume. The selectivity in where the judgment is laid feels a tad hypocritical.

Sam Rosenbaum, a College senior, wasn't particularly bothered by either display.

"I didn't find the picture of Gutmann offensive. . He can dress up however he wants," Rosenbaum said.

He saw Borat and thought it was "hilarious." But he sees the satire in the movie as not just a campaign for gaffes but a vehicle for social commentary. "It's been a hallmark of Jewish humor to make fun of themselves; . it accomplishes a lot more to take the opposite position and say you hate Jews and take it to the extreme to make it obvious how ridiculous it is," he said.

Both were jokes. Borat's success and Saadi's failure are reduced to their execution, not the content of their pranks. These are not altogether disparate offenses, but embracing one and then condemning the other is either a failed search for political correctness or a very selective sense of humor.

Michelle Dubert is a College senior from Closter, N.J. Her e-mail address is dubert@dailypennsylvanian.com. Department of Strategery appears on Thursdays.

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