"Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World" — Hollywood studio cowardice

[NYCGirl]

This film sounds fantastic! And Albert Brooks is a genius. Can't wait to see it.

http://www.calendarlive.com/printedition/calendar/cl-et-goldstein27sep27,0,7234653.story?track=tothtml

But the real problem with Hollywood isn't simply its glorification of sex, money and lame old TV shows. It's that our Ivy League-educated studio elite often don't know the difference between crass and class. How's this for an example: Sony Pictures, the studio that made "European Gigolo," has refused to release "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World," an inspired new film by Albert Brooks about a comedian — Brooks, playing himself — who is recruited by the U.S. government to go to India and Pakistan to find out what makes Muslims laugh.

The movie makes fun of comedians' neurotic neediness and State Department ineffectuality, but seems to steer clear of anything that would insult Muslims. Still, in a June 30 letter to Brooks, Sony chairman Michael Lynton said that he wouldn't release the film unless Brooks changed the title. Lynton wrote: "I do believe that recent incidents have dramatically changed the landscape that we live in and that this, among other things, warrants changing the title of the film." Sony insiders say Lynton was alarmed by the violent reaction in the Muslim world to Newsweek's May 9 story, since retracted, about a Koran being flushed down the toilet by interrogators at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay.

Brooks' movie, financed by producer Steve Bing, has now found a new home at Warner Independent Pictures, which plans to release it early next year. Warner Indy chief Mark Gill says he had no problems with the title. "How often do you get a laugh simply from the title of a movie?" Gill told me. "We saw the movie, and it was clear that Albert makes fun of himself and America, not anybody else."

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Gee, it sounds funny to me

And if anyone wants to know what makes Muslims laugh, all they have to do is read the Mullah Nasradin stories.

[Kali]

4. Is that the guy that rides the donkey backwards?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

10. At times

He also built himself an elaborate tomb, making sure the door was made of thick oak with many many locks upon it. Of course, there were no walls.....

[tatertop]

5. Those are very witty indeed. Here is one for you:

Fishy Morality

Once a renowned philosopher and moralist was traveling through Nasruddin's village and asked Nasruddin where there was a good place to eat. Nasruddin suggested a place and the scholar, hungry for conversation, invited Mullah Nasruddin to join him. Much obliged, Mullah Nasruddin accompanied the scholar to a nearby restaurant, where they asked the waiter about the special of the day.

"Fish! Fresh Fish!" replied the waiter.

"Bring us two," they requested.

A few minutes later, the waiter brought out a large platter with two cooked fish on it, one of which was quite a bit smaller than the other. Without hesitating, Mullah Nasruddin took the larger of the fish and put in on his plate. The scholar, giving Mullah Nasruddin a look of intense disbelief, proceed to tell him that what he did was not only flagrantly selfish, but that it violated the principles of almost every known moral, religious, and ethical system. Mullah Nasruddin listened to the philosopher's extempore lecture patiently, and when he had finally exhausted his resources, Mullah Nasruddin said,

"Well, Sir, what would you have done?"

"I, being a conscientious human, would have taken the smaller fish for myself." said the scholar.

"And here you are," Mullah Nasruddin said, and placed the smaller fish on the gentleman's plate.

[Dogmudgeon]

6. Also known as "Moo-Lah Nasruddin"

The CIA has recently identified Moo-lah Nasruddin as the number three man in el-Kabong, a shadowy Muslific terrorist organization that has been linked to no fewer than fifteen attacks where pies were thrown into the faces of American assets and sympathizers, resulting in an unknown number of deaths.

We first heard about al-Kabong and the evil Moo-lah Nasruddin in 1996, when a team of el-Kabong operatives, wearing fake glasses-and-schnozzola masks to conceal their identities, was intercepted by a joint CIA-MI5-Mossad-SCTV strike force. They were caught in posession of five whoopie cushions. If they had succeeded with their foul deed, America would have been brought to its knees. The entire emergency response infrastructure would have been occupied for weeks in a vain attempt to determine who cut the cheese.

It should also be noted that in 1998, President Clinton declined an offer by the Shriners to turn Nasruddin over to him. Oliver North himself overheard the conversation by concealing himself behind the toilet in the far stall in the third-floor west wing lavatory.

North also reported that "that trasonous Liberal bastard sprinkles when he tinkles".

--p!

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. What makes Muslims laugh? Well, I noticed when there

was a muslim family living next to me the parents laughed when their kids acted silly.

Weird, eh? :eyes:

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[ComerPerro]

3. That's the real reason right there

He makes fun of America and the US Government.

[NYCGirl]

7. Bingo! NT

[jane_pippin]

8. Albert Brooks is underappreciated, I think.

I think it could be pretty good. I'll go.

[Richard Steele]

9. That's now on my "must see" list! Sony Pictures is on a different list.

It sounds like a great film.
No doubt the REAL reason it had trouble
was that it might depict Muslims as human beings.
That's not the script the corporate media
are reading from these days.