I know that education is severely lacking in this country, and that most American children, sadly, cannot find China on a map, let alone Kazakhstan. (And forget about spelling it; that right there took me two tries, and I graduated long before No Child Left Behind took effect.)
HOWEVER. I should think that the adults of this country, as well as many other Westernized nations around the world, should be able to discern the difference between an actual documentary and comedic satire. Sadly, this is turning out to not be true, and now there is real live hysteria about the effect that Sacha Baron Cohen’s upcoming Borat movie is going to have on international relations between the U.S. and its Kazakh friends. It started with the KZ prez expressing much dismay that the movie even exists, then Bush inviting the KZ prez over for a slumber party to make amends, and now our friends over at Reuters have written a very nice article titled "Don’t pity the Kazakhs — they aren’t like Borat."
Two things:
1) DEAR GOD REALLY I HAD NO IDEA YOU HAVE CHANGED MY LIFE REUTERS
2) Um, isn’t Baron Cohen British? Is everything our fault now?
Yup. Borat is British (Well, SBC is), but ‘irony’ is a little tougher to grasp in the US and so there is more of a fuss made. Fuss = Publicity for the movie.
Not to mention the fact that the film was made in and funded by the US. And the director, Larry Charles, is American.
Any more questions?
Yes, Gary, one more question — on what do you base your statement about ‘irony’?
The first link on this blurb goes to a week-old story on some random blog, which was subsequently found to be a hoax. The second link even mentions there is no truth to the first story, so if anyone is falling for the Borat thing, it’s EW.
So is the hirsutism CGI?
I take offense of the picture that is posted of Borat.
For the past several weeks I have been overdosing on my newly purchased DA ALI G SHOW DVDs (I missed the show when it was running on HBO), and cannot wait until the movie.
Any controversy this movie creates only adds to its aura of subversiveness.
I think Baron is a comedic genius, right up there with the Larry Davids, Jon Stewarts, Steve Carells and Ricky Gervais’.
Wahwahwewah.
I did not know that Nickelodeon made slime colored thongs? Why won’t he learn that thongs made for a Ken doll do not stretch too well?
Still, he is one of the best Jewish comedians out there next to Lewis Black. His movie is going to kick a-ss.
I fail to find his show funny and am even less interested in a movie. Can y’all stop all the hype?
Remember “Snakes ona Plane”?
Snakes on a Borat?
DP, many of my friends just don’t ‘get’ Borat. Their understanding is that he is belittling an obscure Eastern European country, or that he is indeed a REAL person which the network is unfairly exploiting.
Not everyone, I admit, but enough of them to endorse the ‘myth’ that our people are a little slow on the irony side.
Is it absolutely necessary that we demean people who are desperately poor? The Borat trailer was appalling. We (American or British) have all the money and then we wonder why poking very insulting fun at people for being poor is insulting to them. This seems pretty obvious.
Ha, if you not like my show, you must be woman, in Kazakhstan woman one step above rat. Now you excuse, I need make poop in my house.
Personally, I hope that the movie is banned in every country on the planet, plus Antarctica, if only so that I never have to look at that picture again.
If you watch the first two seasons of Da Ali G Show, and you don’t laugh yourself silly…I don’t know, I guess your sense of humor is one that I can’t, and don’t want to understand. Just keep watching that Jay Leno I guess, maybe he’ll do that bit where he magnifies his chin and makes it look bigger, which is funny because his chin is already big, so making it look bigger is comedy genius, even after the first one hundred times you’ve seen it.
LMAO! Borat.