Borat: Don't Fall For The Hype
Robert Paul Reyes
November 12, 2006
The movie "Borat" is a surprise hit at the box office, taking in almost $26 million its first weekend and garnishing extravagant praise from the critics.
I have no intentions of falling for the hype; I won't hand my hard-earned money to a comic who views people as objects and props for his dark brand of comedy.
It's no wonder that many of the unsuspecting foils in his "mockumentary" are suing him, I'm just surprised that he hasn't been killed.
Borat presents himself to the audience — and to many unsuspecting real people (not actors) in the movie — as a hapless reporter from Kazakhstan filming a ducumentary on America. But he's actually a British, Cambridge-educated comedian named Sacha Baron Cohen filming "Stupid People Tricks."
Perhaps I would have more respect for Cohen if he ridiculed and lampooned the high and mighty, but he makes fun of Average Joes'. It doesn't take keen insight or a Cambridge education to poke fun at a bunch of drunk "rednecks" in a bar.
From ABC News:
"Two college students, who claim they were given alcohol and encouraged to be outrageous, are suing.
Our contention is that they were set up and made to say things they don't believe,' said the students' attorney, Olivier Taillieu. 'They want to be cut from the movie and they want financial compensation.'"
I am acquainted with the character "Borat", I have watched a couple of episodes of Cohen's "Da Al G Show". I have seen enough to know I don't want to see any more of his despicable type of humor.
Maybe Cohen thinks that assuming an alter ego like "Borat" or "Ali G" absolves him of any guilt for using people and bringing out the worst in them.
I'm not wishing evil on Cohen, but it would be poetic justice if one of his unwitting victims lashed out in violence. If that were to happen, it would not be a bumbling reporter from Kazakhstan that would be bleeding and hurt, but a shrewd multimillionaire Jewish comic.
I have no intentions of falling for the hype; I won't hand my hard-earned money to a comic who views people as objects and props for his dark brand of comedy.
It's no wonder that many of the unsuspecting foils in his "mockumentary" are suing him, I'm just surprised that he hasn't been killed.
Borat presents himself to the audience — and to many unsuspecting real people (not actors) in the movie — as a hapless reporter from Kazakhstan filming a ducumentary on America. But he's actually a British, Cambridge-educated comedian named Sacha Baron Cohen filming "Stupid People Tricks."
Perhaps I would have more respect for Cohen if he ridiculed and lampooned the high and mighty, but he makes fun of Average Joes'. It doesn't take keen insight or a Cambridge education to poke fun at a bunch of drunk "rednecks" in a bar.
From ABC News:
"Two college students, who claim they were given alcohol and encouraged to be outrageous, are suing.
Our contention is that they were set up and made to say things they don't believe,' said the students' attorney, Olivier Taillieu. 'They want to be cut from the movie and they want financial compensation.'"
I am acquainted with the character "Borat", I have watched a couple of episodes of Cohen's "Da Al G Show". I have seen enough to know I don't want to see any more of his despicable type of humor.
Maybe Cohen thinks that assuming an alter ego like "Borat" or "Ali G" absolves him of any guilt for using people and bringing out the worst in them.
I'm not wishing evil on Cohen, but it would be poetic justice if one of his unwitting victims lashed out in violence. If that were to happen, it would not be a bumbling reporter from Kazakhstan that would be bleeding and hurt, but a shrewd multimillionaire Jewish comic.
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