14 DAY TRIAL // Usually, Sacha Baron Cohen’s public appearances and speeches tend to get hearts racing and people turn crimson with bouts of laughter at jokes that they know only too well are this close to utter crassness. Ironically, the comedian’s one-liners at last night’s Golden Globes failed to amuse the A-list audience, with stray boos distinctly being heard here and there.
Cohen took the stage at the star-studded event to present the award for Best Comedy award to Woody Allen’s “Vicky Christina Barcelona,” and started doing so by taking a few jabs at our modern celebrity culture. As expected, jokes about the current economic situation were included, as also a few direct attacks at some of the most mediated celebrities and the scandals they were involved in over the past year.
Nevertheless, while the audience smiled at mentions of Victoria Beckham starving because of the economical downturn, and of Charlie Sheen no longer paying for romantic favors, a thing he was rumored to be doing in the past, a jab at Madonna and her divorce from Guy Ritchie only returned sneers.
According to JustJared, Sacha Baron Cohen’s speech began with, “It’s been a wonderful year for movies, including, of course, Benjamin Button, the story of a man whose face gets younger as he gets older. Uh, which is just like most of the people in this room.” [The camera pans on Brad Pitt, star of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and partner Angelina Jolie.] “It is said that in times of economic hardship, people flock to the cinemas to watch mindless puerile, escapist nonsense, which is great news because I’ve got a movie coming out [‘Bruno’].” he continued by saying, much to the delight of the celebrities in the audience.
However, it was from this point on that the speech stopped being funny, as the comedian really let himself go by intentionally “insulting” other celebrities. “But this recession is affecting everyone, even celebrities. Victoria Beckham hasn’t eaten for three weeks. […] It’s true. And even Madonna has had to get rid of one of her personal assistants. [pauses] Our thoughts go out to you Guy Ritchie.” [Sandra Bullock shakes her head, booing is heard.]
Sacha Baron Cohen’s Madonna joke was deemed even more insulting by the media as she was the one to help him achieve fame in the US, by featuring his Ali G character in one of her videos.