Borat is fucking trash / hilarious

Dude, you are so WRONG on this! Ok, the portrayal of Kazakstan is supposed to be funny only in the sense that Cohen is protraying those people, that culture as many ignorant Americans see the third world, I cannot believe you don’t see this! This film is all about America and nothing about the third world. It’s about American racism, machismo, and anti-semitism. It’s hard for me to believe this went over your head man. Borat is about making parrellels with ignorant America and it’s damn funny too. The Borat character was created to put up a mirror to the civilized West and show us back the ugly fact that we are as awful as Borat himself.
I hate to use this term, but man this post sounds like a green whiny bitch post.
had fun at the Lidell show though man, thanks for ride!

ps: Dumb and Dumber is the shit!

Jason, does Borat make us uncomfortable because he forces us to face our (Jungian) Shadow?
Get ready for a female version of Dumb and Dumber. Blonde and Blonder, with Pamela Anderson and Denise Richards, will be here soon.

Paul-
The first ten minutes doesn't make Kazakstanis look like fools, it makes US look like fools for laughing and thereby plausibly accepting the notion that Kazakstan is really like that! Buy that! There is nothing cruel about the film, you sound like one of the 4 critics out of 200 on Rottentomatoes who called Borat cruel, they also called those people “terminally humorless” but I know you're not that.

Tigana-
Personally Borat never made me feel uncomfortable because as an ardent fan of Sacha Baron Cohen I knew what he was striving for, and yes I do believe for most it's uncomfortable for shadow aspect of it. I don't get offended at all, maybe because I'm a white American male, but I just don't. The funniest part of the movie also was the most pure comically had nothing to with mirroring Borat did was the nude fight scene, now that made me cringe.

Interesting take on the film, and I must say that I was pretty enthusastic about it after immediately seeing it, but have had some second thoughts after hearing about what happened behind the scenes in order to get people to agree on go on film. 

I still really enjoyed the film, and wrote up a blog post analyzing it through a spiral dynamics lens.  The Borat character is certain Red, and I originally thought that Cohen was coming from a Yellow center of gravity, but the more I read into it I think that he's really just coming from Orange. 

Re: Village scenes.  This article gives the backstory on the real life village of Glod, which is actually in Romania.  I thought that the beginning scenes were pretty staged upon first seeing it with paid actors all around.  But it does indeed appear as if they were real villagers who had no idea what was going on, and they're pretty pissed about it.

Other articles that tracked down participants who have egg on their face can be found here, here and here.

I orginally thought that Cohen had pure intentions for exposing ignorance and for pushing the boundaries of Green PC-ness with his Red character, but now I just think that he's in it for the money.  Nonetheless, I still laughed a lot, and enjoyed watching it.

I'll have to agree with Jason in that I think this movie clearly is criticizing the American people and the stereotypes that are set in our heads (not all of us, of course ;) ) 

I've read all there is to read about the way the film was made, you can call it exploitation or whatever Paul but the fact remains when you allow yourself to get coaxed into signing something or let producers get you drunk to say something you get exactly what you deserve, you get a camera put in your face and you say any of that shit, it's on you for being a dumb fucker.
There is no exploitation, there are only idiots who are too dim to realize they are on camera.

Speaking as a BRIT I'm with Paul  … Sasha is a comic genius pushing an edge.
But Borat is a sad mistake …  personally I think something has been lost in translation from Ali G to Borat, to Borat in a movie for a prodominantly US audience… something went horribly wrong.

PS love the quote from Paul:
  … “i mean, Hitler got us thinking about racism as well; that didn't make what he did right.” right on!

Um… yeah, Paul is right… Good job! I mean I love poop humor, and when he handed over that sack of shit I had to laugh. However, the beginning of the film and Borat’s character in general jaded every laugh from there on in, I sat waiting and hoping for some kind of redemption or indication that I should feel this way but that never occurred. I don’t doubt whether or not their intention was to say something about the way Americans view foreign nations, in such an appalling way so as we all introspect about our fucked up American sensibilities and get this brilliant hilarious commentary, but it didn’t work… not at all. If it had worked I wouldn’t have left feeling so irritated. I mean I don’t get offended easily, but I was really annoyed and unimpressed. Seriously, I love explaining away bad taste with an integral perspective as much as the next person but not for this. After the movie I actually made the statement that “Freddie got fingered was more tasteful”. That shouldn’t happen. (Note: I may have also been pissed because my ticket evaporated before the show and I had to by a second one, well you know, I made a guy do it).

Paul
Spoken like a Republican? It's the anti-republican statement, haven't you seen Republicans too dim to realize they're on camera? George Allen calling the Native American Macacka during his campaign. That's where I am pointing to the significance of Borat. All the nasty thing Borat says are not for low brow humor and his very adolescent act is also charming and disalarming to those people he talked to. It's only then people will let their guard down and say what's truly on their mind, be it sexist, racist, or whatever. He shows an America with it's guard let down, at home per say. Maybe I am accutely sensitive to this because my dad is only slightly above Borat when he's around family, but he can act PC enough when he's out among the multi ethic Detroit area. That's the thing, Borat shows the ugly underbelly of America, that's more racist and sexist then we would like to think. As for the Romanians and Kazakstanis it wasn't quite so funny to me, but still a trophy for 4th best prostitute, that's a hoot.
and Paul not to be a dick but you sound like one those mega intellectual anarchists I used to live with who deplored any laugh gotten at the expense of any person below their standard of living, while in some ways admirable, ultimately they were most humorless bunch I knew, a disadvantage of being so serious, ahem!!!!

Paul,

couple of things.

1) How is his exploration of American ignorance any difference from his exploitation of the 'stupid slavic' character? I totally agree that the eastern european hyper stereotype is one of the last remaining acceptable prejudices. I should know, in my comedy show (PLUG) my friends and I made a fake Russian documentary, in much the same vein. Cheap laughs about being poor, shit facilities, and so on. As much as we all like to laugh at the stupid frat boy thing, truth be told, you could pull the same shit anywhere in the world and get the same result. Americans don't have a monopoly on ignorance, but nobody's going to pay 10 bucks to see some non-American yokels sing 'throw the jew down the well'. Imagine if he'd gone to a middle eastern country and done the same thing, there'd be an uproar about how he was framing the whole thing with selective editing, yada yada. All it does is reinforce the dumb American stereotype. It's funny sure, but it's nothing that hasn't been done a million times before. There's a satirical Australian show called the Chaser, (kinda like the daily show) and they do the same thing, get some Americans on camera and laugh about how they don't know where North Korea is. Boring.

2) Just to be a cock: Borat is overrated. You Yanks are hopeless Anglophiles. The Ali G was a boring one note joke that got old quickly, and likewise the whole Borat thing is a great half hour that drags on and on. Cohen has a vicious, anti-human defensive streak that goes for way too many cheap laughs.

And I'm spent.

I agree with almost all y'all.  Paul, the movie was lacking in the taste department, it's true.  On the other hand, the first ten minutes of the film, now that I think about it, remind me a bit of Monty Python's portrayal of peasants in the Middle Ages.  It's merely an exaggeration of a perspective held by a part of society.  And there I agree with Jason.  Obviously not intended to be a correct portrayal, nor even meant to make fun of the group portrayed, but rather meant to mock the perspective it is exaggerating.  It is, however, a bit of a problem that the people that are portrayed in Borat, as opposed to Monty Python, present the rather significant disadvantage of, ya know, being alive, and therefore prone to being offended.  One can't portray a culture in such a light and expect them to just laugh it off.  Most probably will, but too many won't.  That in mind, it was a tad callous.

I do think the film could've been a little more, ya know, interesting.  Also, the kids featured in the film that feel wronged should just suck it up and be happy that they're in a hit film, even if they are portrayed as douchebags (probably not a terribly inaccurate portrayal in their case).

Conclusion; whatever.  Fuck it.  I laughed.

Oh, and on a different note; Paul, how dare you imply that Dumb and Dumber is Jim Carrey's best work.  Man on the Moon, The Truman Show, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind are all fantastic films with a real talent shown from Carrey.  Don't judge the dude based on Liar, Liar and Ace Ventura, as it seems you're doing.  Fuck that.