Clash of the Left

Skimming through Megan McArdle's post on Bruno titled "Sacha Baron-Cohen Strikes Again" got me thinking about the man behind the camera, Larry Charles.

Charles has very little name recognition outside of television and film geeks but his name belongs in the same breath as Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David for his work on Seinfeld. It was Larry Charles who helped imbue, through writing, the Kramer character with the qualities and attitudes that made him the icon he became. He has said that he gave Kramer a distrust of authority (not necessarily a bad thing) which added depth but also setup a number of Kramer-focused story arcs.

Larry Charles directed Borat. Charles has also directed a number of episodes of Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm and direct the Bill Maher feature Religulous.

So, putting aside Baron-Cohen, what is Larry Charles trying to say? As a contributor to Democratic causes, he must be unhappy with the stink that GLAAD is making about the film. Granted, the anger of the activists has trumped their understanding of the obvious intent of the film. It must annoy nonetheless that they are not forgiving him offense for the sake of making everyday America look xenophobic, Islamaphobic, sexist, racist and anti-semitic (Borat) or xenophobic, homophobic (Bruno). He must think, "Don't you see what I'm doing? I'm exposing the very heart of a cruel America. How can you not support that in whatever form it comes?"

It always makes me chuckle when the Left clashes with itself.