Borat

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Perhaps it is meaningless but I just wanted to know if (and if so why?) changing colour is fundamentally wrong? I took exception to that article which I thought was quite badly written and argued. More points in your last post that I might slightly disagree with you on (though no massive argument) but I probably shouldn't have jumped in and derailed the whole Borat (which I haven't seen) thing so I'll leave it there I think.

I don't think it is fundamentally wrong, just that the whole reason it is an issue is because of its connotations given the world we live in.
 

Guybrush

Dittohead
From today's Washington Post:

My 'Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan'

By Gauhar Abdygaliyeva
Wednesday, November 8, 2006; Page A27

I'm a Muslim Kazakh woman who arrived in the United States two months ago to work on my master's in public administration. Almost every time I meet people and tell them where I come from, they ask me about the "Kazakh journalist" Borat, "the sixth most famous man" in Kazakhstan. I answer that Borat is a satirical fictional character who has nothing in common with Kazakhstan or its people.

Many of my new American friends find Borat's adventures in "US and A" hilarious and his remarks about my country amusing. Unsurprisingly, not many of the people of Kazakhstan are equally amused. So I want to tell you the inside story about Kazakhstan. And, to steal a line from Borat, please read my article, or I will be execute.

Kazakhstan is the world's ninth-largest country in land area. It is in Central Asia along the famous Silk Road, which once stretched from Venice to Beijing. We "walk on oil," but that's not the only thing we were blessed with. Our social and economic achievements in the past decade have been remarkable.

But I would rather speak of my people. I am in my mid-20s and am myself a good example of what today's Kazakhstan is about. I was the first of three children born to an average Soviet family in the year of the Moscow Olympic Games and the Oscar-winning movie "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears." My dad worked at the Space Research Institute of the Kazakh Academy of Sciences, while my mom taught computer science at the National Technical University. The tradition of education in my family, which led me to degrees in international law and business administration and now has brought me to this country, is strong in Kazakhstan. That is why its people are among the most educated in the world and have a 98 percent literacy rate.

Borat says women can now ride "inside of bus" in Kazakhstan. Actually, men and women enjoy equal opportunity, and our women are more likely to be driving the bus. Before arriving in the United States, I worked for the best local law firm and then a U.N. field mission, and I had a car and an apartment in Kazakhstan's capital, Astana.

People in Kazakhstan take pride in their ancestors, the nomadic Turkic tribes that managed to unite and retain a territory the size of Western Europe for centuries, despite their vulnerable location between the Chinese and Russian empires. For many years the mostly Sunni Muslim Kazakhs, first as part of the Russian empire and then the Soviet Union, welcomed Russians, Ukrainians, Germans, Koreans, Jews, Chechens and Uighurs to their land regardless of their religious beliefs. Those people either chose to come or were deported to Kazakhstan by the communists for various reasons. At different periods my country has been affected by wars, famine and repression.

With the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, the economic turmoil brought hardship. Many of my Russian, German, Korean and Jewish friends left for their historical homelands, but many others chose to stay and build a modern, thriving Kazakhstan together. Today those troubles are a thing of the past, and our people look to the future with great optimism.

The Kazakh flag Borat uses in the movie, with an eagle soaring in the blue sky under the sun, is our symbol of independence and pride. If your eyes have ever welled up when you saw the Stars and Stripes, you will understand how we feel about it.

The "moviefilm" by Sacha Baron Cohen, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," is playing well in American theaters. One can only applaud the humorist's talent, but the movie is entertaining only because the world is so unfamiliar with reality.

Perhaps that will change. The movie has already created unprecedented interest in Kazakhstan. Not only has Borat promoted our name and flag, he has also indirectly fueled a great wave of patriotism among my fellow citizens.

Please take an opportunity to visit us one day and hear our real language, not Borat's:

"Kazakhstanga kosh keliniz!" -- "Welcome to Kazakhstan!"

The writer is a student from Kazakhstan doing graduate work at George Washington University.
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
i didnt really think much of borat. maybe its cos i missed the first ten minutes but it just wasnt that funny. i wanted to laugh more than i actually did. i found parts of his sketches on TV really funny (when he sings the national anthem at the baseball game and goes into the showers; when he sings his song at that bar and everyone sings along) but for an entire film, it was repetitive. its good he didnt try to put borat into a conventional film narrative like the ali g film but it just makes borat seem like an overlong sketch outstaying its welcome.

i also found it slightly difficult and uncomfortable to watch as borat is clearly meant to be an east european/muslim and even if hes not, most people would likely recognise him as such. borat does in one scene actually clear up that hes not muslim when one redneck southerner tells him how to avoid being seen as such and there, were meant to realise the satirical genius of cohen (same thing as ali g really) as he once again makes other people look stupid, but its not really an eye opener at this stage, showing how dumb americans would be. it would have been more surprising if he did this in the UK.

i also find it incredible how many people support borat in the name of satire - there is some of that of course, but most of the films appeal comes from laughing AT (not with) borat and his idiocy (loveable though he might be) more than anything else. yeah, the stuff about how backward he and his country is is obviously OTT but it does play into what people basically think about muslims and well, east europeans (two groups who could probably do with better PR in the present climate) and works it for cheap laughs.
 
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swears

preppy-kei
I love a bit of slapstick, low humour, crudity and all that. I don't think the film is groundbreaking anti-American imperialist satire and I don't think it's vile racist anti-Muslim propaganda either. Just a succession of cheap gags and references to willies and fannies.
I enjoyed it, anyway.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
i didnt really think much of borat. maybe its cos i missed the first ten minutes but it just wasnt that funny. i wanted to laugh more than i actually did.

i also find it incredible how many people support borat in the name of satire - there is some of that of course, but most of the films appeal comes from laughing AT (not with) borat and his idiocy (loveable though he might be) more than anything else. yeah, the stuff about how backward he and his country is is obviously OTT but it does play into what people basically think about muslims and well, east europeans (two groups who could probably do with better PR in the present climate) and works it for cheap laughs.

Right on.
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
one of the 'jokes' seemed to be when Cohen called a black man 'chocolate face'. But because he's in 'character' as a Kazakh man who he's also patronising, then that's OK then.

In a decent world, RIP Sasha Baron-Cohen's career.

in the ali g series, there was also one interview (it was on the video of the interviews from that ch4 series he used to do with ian lee and daisy donovan) where he called bangladeshis pakis as well. and there wasnt any sort of satirical or greater point to be made by him saying that, he just seemed to get a kick out of saying it.

this hasnt/wont RIP cohens career - if anything it seems to be sending him into the stratosphere.
 

Guybrush

Dittohead
it does play into what people basically think about muslims and well, east europeans (two groups who could probably do with better PR in the present climate)
The thing about East-Europeans having a bad rep, is that a specifically English sentiment? I have never heard of it before.
 

swears

preppy-kei
The thing about East-Europeans having a bad rep, is that a specifically English sentiment? I have never heard of it before.

The European Union is opening it's borders to new members like Poland. There is a lot of hysteria in the right-wing press about a flood of immigrants, putting people out of work with cheap labour, etc. But no, they're not traditionally a figure of ridicule in the UK particularly.
 

Guybrush

Dittohead
The European Union is opening it's borders to new members like Poland. There is a lot of hysteria in the right-wing press about a flood of immigrants, putting people out of work with cheap labour, etc. But no, they're not traditionally a figure of ridicule in the UK particularly.
I see. A former Prime Minister incited a similar debate here in Sweden a couple of years ago (at the eve of the EU expansion) when he warned about "social tourists" from Eastern Europe eroding the Scandinavian welfare states; it turned out these allegations were groundless to say the least and the Poles, in particular, were incensed. Interestingly, in Sweden it's the right-wing press that is the most enthusiastic supporter of the influx of cheap labour (the prime minister I mentioned was a Social Democrat, for example).
 

DJ PIMP

Well-known member
Reminds me of another forum where a guy in the US was talking about how weird it was that "Euros" always get upset about racism, because "in America we love the shit".
 

UFO over easy

online mahjong
But Borat (unlike Ali G) has no relation to any social reality whatsoever.

That this is so blindingly obvious is exactly the reason it's not racist. At all.

The fact that the actual character the movie is based on is so ridiculous makes the exposure of his victims (reference the the final solution advocating ranch owner, or the "SPRING BREAK!!" jock morons targeted by Bruno) even more poignant.
 
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petergunn

plywood violin
It would be, but I didn't do that. I said that Bill Hicks had interesting, sound ideas etc, but he failed to make them funny.

Plus, I don't buy the argument that to like something/someone, you have to like all their influences. Influences are by their nature appropriated and melded to the needs of the influencee (?).


well, there's also the part that bill hicks is really fucking funny...
 

Rambler

Awanturnik
OK, so people have heard of Kazakhstan (how many could point to it on a map, though? Really?). But before Borat, who had heard of anti-Kazakh racism? No one. Even if it existed, it certainly wasn't something we cared about. The fact that several people on this board casually ally British racism towards Poland, eg (a prejudice that has run through British culture on and off since at least the 1940s) with racism against Central Asian states shows how confused and simplistic we are about such issues.

For me, Borat has opened (whether S BC cares or not is beside the point, but I suspect he does a bit) the racism debate to encompass prejudice against all races/minorities, not just those with distinguished records of resistance and powerful lobbying voices. Kazakhstan certainly does not belong in this company, but does that make Kazakh jokes any more acceptable than black jokes? I think the most telling trend I've read in reports of the film is that people are most offended not by the Kazakh jokes, but by the 'Jew-running' scene. Jewish jokes appear to cause greater offence, and one thing S BC does appear to be asking is why should that be so - an absolutely legitimate question.
 
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