STOP BORAT !!!

[elgato]

^^ lol i didnt want to say

i'd be interested to see how k-punk would respond to all this

[adruu]

It's a problem of timing.

Borat was funny when we weren't slaughtering poor people, or when "kill em all" wasn't on the table as an option.

Now Conservatives and Liberals both laugh for widely different reasons
1) Everything non-west is poor and dumb
2) a self hating jew (see wody allen/sartre) can hold a character in tough situations (butchering the anthem at a rodeo) and snipe at western culture

Anyways, it's a Laughing with the Other Side problem...not strictly an American thing, just a Mass Media + Satire = Cyclical Politics question...

[boomnoise]

perhaps becayse he's middle class?

hehehe someone's been reading k-punk!
busteeeed!

lol i simply happen to agree. and have plenty of ideas about it.

don't forget i've got a sociology degree and affiliations to far left organisations - and i'm not affraid to use them lol

[relaks]

From borat's "blog" on his MySpace.

The movie is out TODAY in the UK, btw

Friday, September 29, 2006


My Speehes on Kazakhstan Embassy. Here is what I say.

Jagshemash, my name Borat Sagdiyev. I would like comment on recent advertisements on television and in media about my nation of Kazakhstan, saying that women are treated equally, and that all religions are tolerated – these are disgusting fabrications. These claims are part of a propoganda campaign against our country by evil nitwits Uzbekistan – who as we all know are a very nosey people, with a bone in the middle of their brain.
There is a man name Roman Vasilenko who is claiming to be Press Secretary of Kazakhstan. Please do not listen this man, he is Uzbek imposter, and is currently being hunted by our agents. I must further say on behalf of my government, that if Uzbekistan do not desist from funding these attacks, then we will not rule out the possibility of military intervention.
If there is one more item of Uzbek Propoganda claiming that we do NOT drink fermented horse urine, give death penalty for baking baigels, or export over 300 tonnes of human pubis per year, then we will be left with no alternative but to commence bombardment of their cities with our catapaults.
Furthermores, all claims that our glorious leader is displeased with my film, 'Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan' is lie. Infacts main purpose of Premier Nazharbayev's visit to Washingtons is to promote this moviefilm. This why together with Ministry of Information he will be hosting a screening tomorrow evening, to which he have invitate Premiere George Walter Bush and other American dignitaries - Donald Rumsfeld, Bill Gates, OJ Simpson and Mel Gibsons.
This screening will be followed by cocktail party and a discussion of closer ties between our countries at Hooters.
Thank you, I must now return to Embassy where my government need me.
Chenquieh

[elgato]

don't forget i've got a sociology degree and affiliations to far left organisations - and i'm not affraid to use them lol

lol classic

think ADRUU does very well with this sentence:

Now Conservatives and Liberals both laugh for widely different reasons

[m9918868]

weird how in todays climate he doesnt get labelled as outwardly racist !!!!!

exactly. for me this is no different to the outrageous race sterotypes of the 70s. why is he getting away with it?

Because the joke is not that jews are dirt and should be thrown in the well or whatever it was, but the cowboys cheering and singing along, for example. I thought it was quite obvious that this isn't about smutting jews, kazachs or whatever, if not the americans. Of all people, I thought you britons would appreciate that.

i just don't think it's very intelligently done, he raises no valid point.

Oh well, when he goes on about how one should be allowed to hunt jews down and you see the other one agreeing, it says quite something about the presence of racism and antisemitism in society. That seems to me a valid point. If it's intelligently done, is another question. For sure it's a very pretentious way of humour.

[shonky]

I don't really think there's any morality to humour anyway - it works on whether it's funny or not. Was watching the double bill of his stuff last night and was laughing my ass off at some points - I think the bit where he shows a picture of him and his "sister" in lurid shots where "we are being like husband and wife" was hilarious.

I think that it's so offensive across the board that it sort of cancels it out.

It's kind of patronising to think that people are that dumb that they don't understand what's going on here. I don't think Borat is going to be fuel for the far right as most people realise that this is a ridiculously over the top stereotype. I don't think anyone's going to become a racist over this

On a not unrelated topic, when the war in the Balkans was happening, most news crews were looking for pictures of peasants with donkeys for their footage, which sent the idea back to viewers at home that the former yugoslavs were essentially third world and stone age in outlook, almost completely disregarding the fact that it was actually one of the more modern and urbanised of the former eastern bloc countries. In some ways, the Borat character is already playing to a fantasy

[alex bk-bk]

all the comments to justify Borat have been relating to his cameos in the Ali G show. What about the movie, isnt this basically Cohen blowing up his satirical character into a vehicle with little relevance, while managing to offend a load of people in thep process.

Well fuckit, im offended anyways! I come from an ex-Soviet country and I hate the idea that we're perceived as backwards retards living in shanty towns and mud huts in constant Chernobyl fallout.

[relaks]

Well fuckit, im offended anyways! I come from an ex-Soviet country and I hate the idea that we're perceived as backwards retards living in shanty towns and mud huts in constant Chernobyl fallout.

You have a good and valid point. I also have quite a few friends from ex-ussr and balkan countries who love the show. Most of them think of their hated neighbor

At any rate, the show is hilarious and the reviews of the movie are a+ so far.

What about Black cat, white cat? I love that movie too...

[shonky]

Well fuckit, im offended anyways! I come from an ex-Soviet country and I hate the idea that we're perceived as backwards retards living in shanty towns and mud huts in constant Chernobyl fallout.

Truth is, I don't think that most people do think that. The ones that do are generally ignorant dickheads anyway and I think it's that preconception that enables him to reveal the attitudes of his interviewees.

I used to get quite pissed off when the english in US films were depicted as upper-class aristos or cockney villains. I've got some Colombian friends, one of which is a trained architect, who everyone assume must be in the cocaine trade. None of these assumptions are true though so I don't worry about it and they just brush it off or make a joke out of it.

I used to have a Ukrainian mate who played up to these assumptions about FSU people for a laugh himself and he found it hilarious how easily people would believe him. He convinced an entire table that his village used to hold an annual potato dance, which I found hilarious knowing that he was from the suburbs of a big city and had a law degree.

[drbluebeat]

What about the movie, isnt this basically Cohen blowing up his satirical character into a vehicle with little relevance, while managing to offend a load of people in thep process.

I think you should watch the movie - it isn't about what he says it's about people's reactions to it. As a reviewer pointed out it is actually an anti-US film cleverly disguised. When he says at the Rodeo "George Bush should drink the blood of every last Iraqi" the crowd cheer wildly. When he asks a gun shop owner what the best gun for killing a jew would be the owner replies without blinking "a .45"

Thats how I'm reading it anyways.

[boomnoise]

i guess the problem is when you are dealing with something as base and raw as stereotypes and charateurisation, then the problem is always going to be who's in on the gag and who isn't. i just think that it's more of a problem than a joke. especially for the easily impressionable youth to which baron-cohen no doubt appeals.

to what extent should the gullability and fatuity of one nation be exposed at the expense of another's integrity and reputation?

[relaks]

So this morning I saw the movie. I was (needless to say) flooored w laughter.

Regarding the race issue....sorry, but the commentary on american culture is so strong (really really at the forefront) that I didnt have time to think if the vehicle in any way off.

What am I saying? The presentation is SO wrong. And thats whats great about it.

Go see it. What a great film. 'Jackass w a brain' my local paper called it.

[shonky]

i guess the problem is when you are dealing with something as base and raw as stereotypes and charateurisation, then the problem is always going to be who's in on the gag and who isn't. i just think that it's more of a problem than a joke. especially for the easily impressionable youth to which baron-cohen no doubt appeals.

to what extent should the gullability and fatuity of one nation be exposed at the expense of another's integrity and reputation?

There was a (hopefully) unintentionally hilarious piece on this yesterday on the "Tonight with Trevor Macdonald" programme, where Bernard Manning was interviewed, where he said that he wasn't racist because he took the piss out of everyone, but he said that Sacha Baron Cohen was.

There was also an interview with some Kazakhstani's living in the UK who said that they didn't find it offensive because his portrayal wasn't true. Don't know if this is the way that all Kazakhstan residents feel as the film has been banned there.

So from this programme we can deduct that Bernard Manning is a shining example of multi-culturalism, and Borat is just a hate-monger.

Hmmmmmnnnnn.....

[electric eliminator]

just seen this and its piss funny, the wrestling scene is too much!

[fubar]

i always saw the silly lines about how brass kazakhstan is as (a) a means to draw particular responses from the interviewees, and (b) a minor (secondary) exercise in surreal comedy

is it not the case that this film in america is in fact a critique of american attitudes rather than purile silliness (regardless of how its interpreted)

but it seems that perhaps now the emphasis has shifted, i dont know

yea exactly, and isn't the fact that people believe the opinions/traditions beleifs etc that borat describes as typical of Kazakhstan.make them much more stupid then the country itself as its obviously fictional to the viewer. I cant wait to see the film looks hilarious.

[echo wanderer]

Missed this thread altogether somehow...

I just saw the "Stop Borat" site.

It's a joke site,correct?I mean,it even says at the top of the page:"WE ARE NOT STUPID COUNTRY!".If it was a serious campain against Borat and anti-Khazaki sentiments,wouldn't they make a point of using correct English to prove how "up with the times" they really are?

But apparently it's true that humour does indeed affect the innocent from time to time.

This just hit the news:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061113/ap_ ... _s_victims

And @Alex BkBk:Privet!!

I can see why you are offended.Menya zhal,moye droog.
I have an Armenian friend who thinks the character is hilarious,but even she thinks the jokes go to far.My ex-boss(Ukraine-Jew and owner of a business where I was the only American among Russians,Ukranians,Moldavians,Latvians,and Belarusians) used to tell me about how when he first came to the States 17 some odd years ago,how Americans either percieved them as vodka drinking mafia or peasants,and that all USSR women were supposed to look like fat,old babashkas!Not the women I worked with.Soviet women are some of the most krassiva devushkas I've ever laid eyes on!!And the class that exists in post-communist countries totally defies the stereotypes of the 80's.

Prebvaniesh klass!!!

[ramadanman]

haven't seen the movie, but loved the tv show for a variety of reasons

hilarious parody of old soviet style state tv programmes - the music, graphics etc. meaningless subtitles
borat's sheer inappropriateness
baron cohen's "chris morris" esque way of highlighting the interviewee's prejudices etc

[clone.a.k.]

words are words, it's what's in your heart that matters.

[echo wanderer]

words are words, it's what's in your heart that matters.

Word.

Mad respect.