Borat

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clivex

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Peter Tatchell, human rights campaigner
It was very funny, but I was always laughing rather nervously. The jokes were sailing very close to being offensive. The whole thing was a parody, so I suppose he gets away with it. But there's part of me that thinks he's just an updated version of Bernard Manning. All his jokes are at the expense of minority groups and he plays a lot to basic prejudice

Cohen is often parodying prejudice and, because it is so over the top, he arguably ridicules and undermines bigotry. However, I worry that certain people might take Borat seriously. They could see him as reinforcing and validating their lumpen mentality.
Taken at face value, the film is offensive to women and minorities. But the subtext is quite complex, ambiguous and often subversive. Many of the victims of his scurrilous send-ups are small-town middle Americans. Borat gives them the rope to hang themselves. He's baiting them. They express real ignorance and prejudice, whereas Borat is only acting.

Some of the old Ali G sketches had more than a whiff of homophobia to them, but I don't find Borat anti-gay. If anything, his attempts to greet American men with a French-style kiss on the cheeks provokes negative reactions that expose the homophobia of others.

The Running of the Jews sketch made me feel uncomfortable. I know it was parody, but it pandered to anti-semitic stereotypes. Cohen's satire obviously has its limits. He self-censors. Although he regards
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Christians and Jews as fair game, he never gives Muslims the same doing over.
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Hilarious in its own way

Talk about missing the whole point of Borat by a country mile

Should people without a sense of humour be allowed (or even worse, comment on) satire?
 
He's one of those 'comedians' some of whose material is potentially funny and/or clever but I could never imagine him putting it across in a way that would make me laugh whereas some comedians just need to blink and they can make me laugh. They've either got it or they haven't. Cohen hasn't.
 
Originally posted by clivex@Nov 6 2006, 11:10 AM
Peter Tatchell, human rights campaigner
It was very funny, but I was always laughing rather nervously. The jokes were sailing very close to being offensive. The whole thing was a parody, so I suppose he gets away with it. But there's part of me that thinks he's just an updated version of Bernard Manning. All his jokes are at the expense of minority groups and he plays a lot to basic prejudice

Cohen is often parodying prejudice and, because it is so over the top, he arguably ridicules and undermines bigotry. However, I worry that certain people might take Borat seriously. They could see him as reinforcing and validating their lumpen mentality.
Taken at face value, the film is offensive to women and minorities. But the subtext is quite complex, ambiguous and often subversive. Many of the victims of his scurrilous send-ups are small-town middle Americans. Borat gives them the rope to hang themselves. He's baiting them. They express real ignorance and prejudice, whereas Borat is only acting.

Some of the old Ali G sketches had more than a whiff of homophobia to them, but I don't find Borat anti-gay. If anything, his attempts to greet American men with a French-style kiss on the cheeks provokes negative reactions that expose the homophobia of others.

The Running of the Jews sketch made me feel uncomfortable. I know it was parody, but it pandered to anti-semitic stereotypes. Cohen's satire obviously has its limits. He self-censors. Although he regards
Click to expand...
Christians and Jews as fair game, he never gives Muslims the same doing over.
Click to expand...

Hilarious in its own way

Talk about missing the whole point of Borat by a country mile

Should people without a sense of humour be allowed (or even worse, comment on) satire?
Click to expand...
Some might say this would be somewhat similar to missing the point of an ironic statement in another forumites signature...

Back on topic - whilst having not seen the film, I admit to finding the Borat sketches on the TV to be very funny. However, I'm not sure I could sit through more than an hour of them, I believe the joke would wear very thin over time.
 
I am happy to miss the point. Satire is one thing, he is something very different.
 
Way wide of the mark and you have neatly summed up why some people cannot understand the difference between satire and abuse

There was nothing ironic about taht "signature" which on the face of it looked like a somewhat xenophobic statement, because non of us could see who was posting it...

I find a comment that ALL british are suspicious of all things foreign as abuse, simply because it labels me and others as a narrow minded bigots. Comg from and loving the most cosmoplitan city in teh world, I also find it ridiculous

If borat had made that comment or some parody of an aussie say, then i could have laughed it off. But the poster is not a comedian...in the professional sense
 
He could only be compared to Manning if Manning was Asian or Black. He was on the Late Show with Jon Stewart last week and made a big show of being disgusted when Stewart revealed he was Jewish. Borat`s creator is of course a Jew himself.
 
Cohen's Borat is probably squirmworthy in the same way that the late Lenny Bruce was squirmworthy (and Jewish). Bruce's opening gambit to many of his stand-up shows went like this: "Good evening! Do we have any Kikes in the audience this evening? We do? Hi! That's great! Any wops? Terrific! Now, how about niggers? We got niggers! Fantastic! Right, how about spics, chinks, gooks, dagos... " having used just about every possible term of racial abuse, he set the scene for an evening of pricking bigoted balloons by using the abuse itself to deflate them. A huge shame the guy died too young, but he was a trail-blazer for the kind of bigot and bias-exposing show 'Borat' does. And given today's climate, there's still a huge need for it.
 
I defy you not to find these Borat clips funny....but there is a funnier character

[1] Baseball
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii-_cxDyChg

[2] Dating Service
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d-qsnMPC0g

[3] Borat in the South - the first two minutes is priceless
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YvxE7TpgbI

However, I must point out that I believe that another Ali G alter ego Bruno is in fact funnier than Borat or, at least, better at the general function of exposing other people's inadequacies or racism or whatever.

He poses as a presenter from Austrian Gay TV. He is less lovable a character than Borat hence the fact he isn't picked up on as much. Yet I think it provides some funny...while also quite shocking...moments.

If you don't have time to look through all of these, I would strongly advise looking at number 1, 2 or number 4 in particular.

[1] Bruno meets a pastor keen on 'converting gays'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW8_cz-6qro

[2] Bruno at Daytona Beach - "Gay means happy, right?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyGQoPWY0ng

[3] Dancing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aULGt39XC4c

[4] Alabama
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNLojm0l84k

[5] Fashion Show [not great until the end]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16lkQ0BkZoo

[6] LA [similar until the last interview]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCdvzh3CNNU

[7] Psychic [a little bit weird]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJWekfak_1c
 
Its interesting that some find Borat "offensive"

As if mercilessly sending up the gullibility of some americans and the horrible attitudes of some, shall we say, Middle easterners is a bad thing

But no doubt the (long overdue and very welcome) hammering of certain "minorities" is not seen as PC is some areas

Bet terrorist hugging Ken Livingstone hates it...
 
Of course

hes carefully selected a country just on the fringe of those countries where Borats attitudes are virtually state sponsored.
 
I just this minute posted this on F-F as someone called him racist...

I personally was very amused when I saw the latest film!! Clip,(I have not seen the full film as yet) and he never came over to me as being racist......................but I am a philosophical sort of guy and don’t look for things, such as someone coming over as racist, (its not taboo to talk about other peoples/nationalities, idiosyncrasies??? Is it) I try to enjoy the act in the way its supposed to be taken????......I suppose!!
 
Two US students are suing a film studio claiming they were duped into appearing in spoof movie Borat starring Sacha Baron Cohen as a Kazakh journalist.
The unknown plaintiffs are seen making sexist and racist remarks in Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

Legal papers said the two men "engaged in behaviour that they otherwise would not have engaged in".

Spokesman for 20th Century Fox Gregg Brilliant said the case "has no merit".

The men are identified in the film as two fraternity members from a South Carolina university.

'Humiliation'

They are not named in the case "to protect themselves from any additional and unnecessary embarrassment".

According to legal documents, a production crew took the pair to a bar to drink and "loosen up" before taking part in a documentary they were told would be shown outside the US.

The film "made plaintiffs the object of ridicule, humiliation, mental anguish and emotional and physical distress, loss of reputation, goodwill and standing in the community," the papers stated.

British comedian Cohen appears in the film as an apparently naive reporter whose enthusiastic offensiveness either leaves his US interviewees in shock, or persuades them to reveal a little too much of their own prejudices.

As well as Fox, the two men are also suing three other production companies.
 
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