The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation thinks that Bruno misses the mark, and it does, but not in the way GLAAD thinks.

Bruno is the latest film from actor/comic Sacha Baron Cohen. In the new film he plays a flamboyant, hopelessly shallow, openly gay “fashionista”. GLAAD is concerned that this deliberately over-the-top queen will reinforce negative gay stereotypes.

Note to GLAAD: there are real people like Bruno out there: Does the name Perez Hilton ring a bell? Like Bruno, Hilton is a shallow, celebrity-obsessed man with little self-awareness. These types of silly characters are well worth satirizing.

There’s nothing Bruno/Cohen won’t do for a laugh. His “sex scene” with the invisible ghost of Milli (of Milli Vanilli fame) is screamingly funny. But most of Bruno falls flat. Not because it’s offensive (I don’t think it is), but because it’s childish.

Showing a close-up of his testicles solely to make people laugh at the sight of them, as Bruno does early on, isn’t particularly funny. It’s more akin to watching a child scream “Look at my wee wee!”

Cohen has chutzpah. Parts of the film were shot with hidden cameras, as superstar-wannabe Bruno interviews unsuspecting “victims” who have no idea they’re in a feature film. Bruno’s attempted seduction of former U.S. presidential candidate Ron Paul is hilarious. Bruno’s “therapy” with two ex-gay ministers in Alabama shows us how ignorant these “preachers” are: As they wear their antigay bigotry on their sleeves, Bruno/Cohen makes fun of them to their oblivious faces — there are none so blind as those who cannot see.

One wonders how Cohen got out of some of these “real life” situations alive. His camping trip with three rednecks (We’re just like the Sex & the City girls — which one are you, Donny?) could very well have put him in harm’s way.

Cohen takes even greater risks when Bruno “interviews” the leader of Al Aska Martyrs’ Brigade in Lebanon — a pro-Palestinian group that encourages suicide bombings. Bruno’s “grooming advice” to the terrorist leader is foolish, and could have gotten him killed.

This, along with his race-baiting comments on the Richard Bey TV talk show, comes across as pointless and offensive. Sometimes less is more.

So yes, there are moments that work, moments of screaming, hysterically funny brilliance. But Bruno is a short film, a scant 82 minutes, and Cohen wastes far too much time and footage on scenes that focus on his bare body parts for comic effect. He’s not a bad looking guy — but it just isn’t funny to hear someone screaming the word “penis” again and again.

But is the film homophobic, as some have claimed? On his recently aired Biography episode, Cohen is revealed to be a staunch supporter of liberal social causes: He’s been actively involved in the civil rights movement. He supports numerous other liberal causes.

I suspect this is a case of a straight performer using a comedic character to expose homophobia and force viewers to confront homosexuality. Sometimes it works. With a little more subtlety, it may have worked more often.

David Alex Nahmod lives in San Francisco.