Just as the movie “Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay” hit theaters across the country, the reviled American prison camps were in the headlines once again.  An Al-Jazeera cameraman detained by the American government in Guantanamo Bay for 7 years was released. 

The movie, a slapstick comedy, drew large audiences, but came at a time when the horrors of the camp became evident again.

The latest high profile released detainee, Sami Al-Hajj, had to be carried on a stretcher and was hospitalized when he arrived in Khartoum.  United States government officials accused former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Sami Al-Hajj of feigning his condition, calling him a “manipulator” and “propagandist.” 

Al Hajj was the only journalist held at Guantanamo Bay.  He was picked up in December, 2001 in Pakistan and held as an “enemy combatant.”  He was heading to Afghanistan to report on the American invasion.

Al-Hajj’s lawyer, Clive Smith, claims he was been beaten and a had a scar on his face.  Guards flushed a Qur’an down a toilet, defaced a Qur’an, and sexually assaulted him.

They questioned him more than 130 times, always asking whether Al Jazeera was a front for al-Qaeda.  They also hoped he would agree to spy on Al-Jazeera.

To protest his treatment and that of other prisoners, he went on a hunger strike in January, 2007.  He lost over 55 pounds and his health suffered significantly.

So when I went to see the film, it was with mixed expectations.

The film begins where the first one left off.  They spent the night venturing out for White Castle hamburgers to satisfy drug-induced urges.  In the sequel, Harold and Kumar are planning to visit Amsterdam, where the drugs of their choice are legal and where Harold’s love interest is at the moment.

The first point I cheered was when Kumar was “randomly” selected by airport security. He questioned just how random the selection was and accused the guard of racism for assuming that he would have drugs or weapons because of his skin color.  The security officer, a light-skinned black man, scoffed at the idea he could be racist.  Kumar mocked his lack of melanin. 

Though I was in solidarity with Kumar’s rebellious stance, he later showed it was a ploy to divert attention from the fact that he did indeed have drugs in his possession.  This characterized the entire movie. It humiliated people who care about the world.

After they board the plane, they are mistakenly seen as terrorists. Kumar, “the Arab,” and Harold, “the North Korean,” are caught with a bomb-resembling bong mid-flight, and in the ensuing chaos are subdued by the air marshals and other passengers.

When they get to the island prison, they are placed in dark and damp cells.  In the next cell over, angry Arabs/Muslims praise them for joining them in their jihad against America. Kumar and Harold reject their views, saying they are nothing like them.

This offers the necessary disclaimer, a condemnation of terrorism, to let the audience know that their laughter does not mean hating America.

It also dangerously insinuates that the prison holds actual terrorists, despite the fact that only a handful of the hundreds of detainees were eventually convicted of any wrongdoing.

The escape ensues when prison guards start to “torture” the prisoners by sexually assaulting them, though in a comic way.

Clearly, stories such as Sami Al-Hajj’s and the testimonies of human rights organizations show that Guantanamo Bay is far from a laughable place.

The movie is most biting in its portrayal of the Homeland Security head, a racist right-winger who disregards the constitution and uses every weapon and stereotype to capture Harold and Kumar.  He manages to insult almost every ethnic and racial group.  This paints the war on terror agenda as a racist one, in some ways.

When the actor who plays Kumar, Kal Penn, appeared on MSNBC’s “The Countdown” with Keith Olbermann, he said that mocking the government at such a level entered popular culture. However, he was careful to paint the movie as a slapstick buddy movie, not as a political satire.  He admitted the movie’s title was a bit misleading. 

“Harold and Kumar” was less about Guantanamo Bay, and more about friendship, love, drugs and fun. I’m not sure I expected more.  I just hoped for it.

Though there is great potential for political satire in humor, Hollywood is unlikely to produce it.  “Harold and Kumar” did ridicule some aspects of the war on terror, but did not really aim at making powerful political messages.  The laughter it generated was not subversive, and was too often juvenile.

Will Youmans is a writer for The Arab American News.