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And so all the political humor that works on some level because it seems so edgy is almost displaced by a somewhat more conventional, and thus less interesting, series of gags involving sexual arousal and the like. Curiously, Zohan is almost never shown cutting anyone's hair; all the montages in which he gets his clients excited consist of washing and shampooing. Eventually, even Zohan gets bored of the non-stop sex—all with older women—and begins to fall in love with his Palestinian boss, Dalia (Emmanuelle Chriqui), who is much closer to his own age.

Rob Schneider as Salim, a Palestinian cab driver

But politics of some sort is never far from view, and just as I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry ended on a didactic note, so too You Don't Mess with the Zohan has scenes in which Israelis and Arabs vent all their frustrations, peacefully and verbally, before finding that they agree on the sexual allure of various presidents' and senators' wives. But while all these racial and cultural barriers are being broken, two easy stereotypes remain firmly intact: the evil white businessman, and the evil white redneck.

It seems a wealthy tycoon named Wallbridge (Michael Buffer) wants to build a new shopping mall on the street where the Israeli and Palestinian shops are, and he hires some racist thugs, led by a man named James (Dave Matthews), to stir up trouble by posing as one ethnic group or the other. James, after delighting in the fact that he can now disturb "Jews and terrorists" at the same time, commends Wallbridge for being the only rich man he can stand—besides Mel Gibson. (Alas, Gibson's drunk-driving anti-Semitic comments do open him up to this sort of scorn. Thankfully, no one explicitly links these characters to the Church or to The Passion of the Christ specifically.)

Emmanuelle Chriqui plays one of the clients who love their hairdresser

The film, written by Sandler with his former roommate Judd Apatow (director of Knocked Up) and his fellow Saturday Night Live alumnus Robert Smigel (creator of "The Ambiguously Gay Duo"), does have some pleasant surprises. I never thought I'd say this, but Sandler buddy Rob Schneider practically steals the show as Salim, a Palestinian cab driver who recognizes Zohan and plots his revenge; the scene in which he tries to dial a really long phone number, in order to speak to someone in the Middle East, is a minor masterpiece of comic timing. And, perhaps without realizing it, the film presents an excellent example of "turning the other cheek"—a concept that Jesus taught during a similarly turbulent time in the Holy Land.

But the positive messages are practically drowned out by the film's relentless crude humor, much of which is too dumb to be all that funny. And what exactly is the positive message here? While peace of a sort is depicted as possible between Israelis and Palestinians, it occurs only in the United States; the Holy Land itself remains a problem that, for these characters at least, may as well be abandoned because it cannot be resolved. (As Eric Kohn has put it, "Zohan isn't pro-Israel or pro-Palestine; it's pro-America.") So beneath the laughter, a sense of hopelessness remains, and the film's efforts to depict some sort of reconciliation never quite overcome it.

Talk About It

1. Is it okay to make comedies about the Middle East? Why or why not? How does humor help people cope with violent or turbulent situations? Does it ever help people to do more than cope? Does it point to something better?
2. What does this film have to say about "turning the other cheek" (see Matthew 5:39, Luke 6:29)? How is the modern situation in the Holy Land similar to or different from the situation in which Jesus spoke? Have you always understood the phrase metaphorically, or have you ever seen someone literally turn the other cheek, in a film or in real life?
3. How does the film depict Zohan? Is he always a hero, or does he do any bad things himself? What about the flashback involving Salim's goat? Do Zohan's actions in Israel justify any of the things that Salim tries to do to get revenge in the U.S.?

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