The Lament Of Ted

Alarmist Christian film critic Ted Baehr is someone with whom I go way back, beginning with his criticism of “Saving Private Ryan” as being too violent (as if an authentically-made film about WWII should be a musical comedy).

Over the years, I’ve read many of Ted’s reviews with bemusement, most grousing content he interprets as being hostile to American families (e.g. anything involving gays, or leftist politics). And while I do agree with Ted on a base level that moviegoers must inform themselves on the types of movies that are on the market, moreover I read him to be entertained by his Chicken Little-ish behavior.

Case in point….

Ted’s brave call this week to lobby “local government officials” to stop distribution of Sasha Baron Cohen’s “Bruno” (a mockmentary about a gay Austrian fashion critic) until “officials can look at the movie and determine whether it should be banned because it does not fit the ‘community standards’ in their area, as defined by U.S. Supreme Court rulings on obscenity and pornography.”

Ted then adds: "[‘Bruno’] also contains scenes mocking Jews, African Americans and Christian evangelicals” as if Mel Brooks didn’t also make a very good living doing so. Ted also neglects to note that—like Brooks--Sasha Cohen is a Jew. And as for Cohen poking fun at evangelicals, well, the more, the better I say. Those straight-laced mopes were made for public mockery.

At any rate, Ted’s call for community leaders to stop “Bruno” from (and I quote) “stop molesting children and teens” is pure, reactionary Christian evangelical, over-the-top comedy gold. And of course, Ted’s request to bar "Bruno" will utterly fail, as it is already rated “R” and kids should have no business seeing it anyway. And if they do see it, who is to blame - Hollywood, or their parents for not keeping an eye on their kids' whereabouts?

Shame, Teddy. Shame on you indeed.