Who is Sasha Cohen?

Last week I went to see the new movie "Borat" with some friends at one of our local cinemas. We had to wait 3 shows in: it was sold out, and sold out, and sold out. When we sat down at 10:30pm, every seat was filled(and by a suprising number of orthodox Jews). How was it? It was outrageous and yes, I laughed my head off. It was gross; I put my hands over my face--but continued watching through my fingers. No one near me vomited during that scene. you know which one I'm talking about, but I sort of wished someone had, because it would have validated some things for me, but whatever.

The thing is with Sasha B. Cohen, some of the tears of laughter are really tears of pain. You laugh at the anti semitic jokes because you see the irony. Yet you are aware of the people sitting a few rows behind you who haven't a clue--their bigotry is as apparant as your diet coke in the cupholder in your armrest.

I know Jews who act like Sasha Cohen, and I think a lot of Jews identify with what he does. Call it chutzpah or madness--they show the world for what it really is--they bring out humanity in its best and worse forms, and Sasha can do it better than anyone. When he enters a bar in the deep American South and performs an open mike song titled, "Throw the Jews Down the Well." you are not outraged by him, but of his audience, who gleefully sings along.

What propels his masochistic behavior? One wonders how he stays in character as his target/victim blandly utters a brutal remark against some minority group. Here is where you wonder about his sanity.

I have a relative who passed away a few years ago from colon cancer. When he received his dire prognosis from the doctor, he flew to Israel for inspiration? closure? Before he left for his trip, he made a bet with a friend that he would go to Ramalah and try to get someone to give him a cuban cigar. The intifada was just starting then. I remember him telling the story with a mixed sense of awe and revulsion. His audacity was propelled by grief and dispare--and by a sense of rage and fustration against what he believed to be a people who condone suicide bombers and terrorism agains Israel. He went to Ramalah to find out why, what and how. He wanted to see the faces of those who wish he were dead.

Sasha Cohen gives us the same sense of catharism. He is the Jew who laughes at non-Jews laughing at Jews. It's painfully funny. It hurts, but it's a release.