Julian Clary was once asked why he made so many jokes about anal sex.

His answer was that he found that what really seemed to make people homophobic was not homosexual men per se, that they were effeminate or whatever, but basic revulsion at the act of anal sex itself.

By making repeated jokes about anal sex, Clary said, he wanted to make it less of a bugbear for straight people. Laughing at something, after all, robs it of its power. This was the same logic used by Richard Pryor and Mel Brooks in "Blazing Saddles", or in the British TV series "Love Thy Neighbour".

Perhaps by exaggerating every ridiculous stereotype about homosexual men, "Bruno" may actually show those stereotypes to be as ridiculous as they are?

It is supposed to be in poor taste. Of course Bruno fires broadsides at political correctness and let's face it, with the all-pervasive, intrusive and humourless PC that abounds in the West, safety valves like Bruno's comedy are in short supply. So what about giving the thought police a day off?

One assumes that homosexual romance is not all Brokeback Mountain, just as The Sound of Music is not really representative of what having children is like.

The PC censor is not required, just a little maturity and a little less self-righteous indignation:

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/film/film-23373524-details/Bruno/filmReview.do?reviewId=23709056

What a drab and dreary world those from Socialist Worker must live in! They can't even recognise that a comedy isn't going to '...take sides, and as such does nothing to undermine anyone’s anti-gay ideas' - it's a comedy FFS! That's not what comedies do! But what's odd is that later the author correctly says "In fact the film mocks everybody and everything" - Yes! That's the nature of many comedies out there!

It's articles like this that reaffirm my view that Socialist Worker has the intellectual horsepower of your average garden variety 2 stroke whippersnipper. I'm yet to see anything from them to change that view.

Cornflower nailed it - really, and who can question someone who can use The Sound of Music to make a point?

Everyone ends up being the brunt of jokes at some stage, how you deal with it defines you. Drawing attention to your intolerance in most cases would define you as overly conservative.

"all-pervasive, intrusive and humourless PC that abounds in the West"...this kind of comment always completely bemuses me?..what all-pervasive PC? Where exactly is it? I would say that it is mainly right wing conservative views, everywhere, that are all pervasive. I see no actual PC at all, certainly not in Australia, which just gets more and more right wing as it goes along it's merry self interested way.....

E(ric) Sykes I trust?

You have been funnier:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ilsw_rRN4GM

C'mon, loosen up, the Left is as jack-booted as the Right. A matching pair I would have thought.