What's Muslim About This?

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From there, he tries to make tracks to Pakistan, only to discover that visa problems have shut down that portion of the trip. But his two U.S. government accomplices set up an illegal border crossing, allowing Brooks to meet secretly with a group of Pakistani wannabe comedians. The covert crossing is one of the few funny moments in this otherwise bland comedy, as a blindfolded, petrified Brooks learns that the Pakistanis are deliberately scaring him for fun.

It's all hurriedly wrapped up when Brooks's travels inadvertently escalate tension between the two countries and he is whisked back home without learning much of anything. Neither Brooks--nor the audience--makes any headway into finding out what Muslims find funny.

In one clever scene, Al Jazeera (the Arab world's CNN) asks for a meeting with Brooks, only to tell him that they'd like him to be the star of a new Arab sitcom, roughly translated as "That Darn Jew." Another running joke about India's growing status as the outsourced call-center to all U.S. companies and agencies is also funny, but soon beaten into the ground by repetition.

The bright spot in this comedic drag is Brooks' assistant Maya (Sheetal Seth), whose wide-eyed portrayal of an intelligent, progressive Indian woman who doesn't get Brooks's brand of funny, speaks volumes about the current Indian attitude toward anything American: That the country is all ego (which constantly needs stroking) and little substance.

In a way, Brooks's classic comedic persona, which fails to discover what Muslims--or Indians for that matter--find funny, does succeed in showcasing the self-absorbed American attitudes that can emerge when visiting foreign countries. Brooks invites you to be annoyed with his "American-ness" when he demands star treatment and rags on typical aspects of Indian life, like the streets crowded with cars, bicycle taxis, pedestrians, and cows.

In the end, we learn more about Indian attitudes and what life is really like in the country than we do about comedy. No stereotypes of clueless Indians stuck in poverty here. India, in this movie, is as much about its hustling urbanity as its rural population. That is one good thing that Brooks achieves with the film: Giving a true taste of Indian life in the now.

Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the brief scenes in Pakistan. The Pakistanis find Brooks's comedic styling hilarious, but they're high at the time. But maybe that's an intentional joke about needing to be high to find Brooks funny. Could he be poking fun at himself?

Brooks really does put himself out there in this movie. He wants you to be annoyed with him, to find him unfunny, but unfortunately even this is lost in jokes that are bad enough be annoying, but not bad enough to look deliberately stupid. His intentions are good, but he lets an interesting premise get pushed aside for a study in pretentious American attitudes in a foreign country.

Really, nothing much is discovered or learned about comedy in the Muslim world--and, as Brooks admitted in various interviews, the movie was

to do so. Then why call it "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World"? That title may bring the audience--and especially curious Muslims--in to the theaters. But they won't learn much, nor will they laugh much.

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