Original "Bruno" ending gay-bashes for laughs.

Whether or not Sacha Baron Cohen’s Bruno is an offensive gay minstrel show or tongue-in-cheek satire of homophobia will undoubtedly be a hot topic of discussion over the next few weeks, but some new information has definitely tipped the scales towards the former.

According to Movieline, the film’s original finale was to take place during a press conference announcing a wedding between Bruno and his partner, who is now drooling and brain-damaged in a wheelchair as a result of a gay-bashing. Insert hysterical laughter here.

I’m personally torn over the Bruno hysteria. On the one hand, Cohen is exposing darker aspects of human nature in a satirical way not unlike the method used in Borat (which honestly was hysterical, if not a little disturbing at points), but on the other hand it’s almost like he’s trying to have it both ways.

Cohen seems to be marketing his movie as “satire” to the brainier portion of the movie going public while emphasizing the baser stereotypical nature of the character for the type who thinks Transformers 2 is a thought-provoking character study about man’s relationship with technology.

In short, some will be laughing at how uncomfortable Cohen’s gay caricature makes his victims, and some will be laughing at how "much like those queers" he is.

Bruno and child

Whether the hand wringing and fears of the gay community over this film prove to be founded or not, there’s something disturbing about a gay bashing being played for laughs even if it was eventually edited out, especially when there are still very real bashing and murders of gays still happening off-screen.

What do you all think? Is the world ready for Bruno? Will you be seeing it?