Letters to the Editor
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I'm with the second poster
Yes, this kind of satire is revealing, possibly edgy (just ask Michael Moore!) and guiltily entertaning, but I'm amazed that so many people are missing the other point here.
Cohen is not only making fun of Americans in his interviews, he's making fun of Kazakhs as well. The difference is, we don't really think much about the latter because most people don't even know where Kazakhstan is, let alone what its people or customs are like.
Imagine, if as the second poster had suggested, Cohen appeared in blackface, or perhaps in "yellowface," talked with a Charlie Chan accent, discussed rural Chinese rituals and his disdain for the Japanese.
How far would this movie go then? How long would it be before powerful and well organized Asian advocacy groups denounced the movie and anyone who had anything to do with it?
Cohen is belittling a country and its people with his absurd actions and stereotypes. This seems to be exactly what he is satirizing. Irony?
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woman who lost her job
In the newsweek article, the woman says that she wasn't immediatly fired after the Borat skit but that she percieved that after it happened her boss lost confidence in her and began to second guess her and that caused her to be depressed and go into a downward spiral which eventually led to her getting fired. This is a lot different than what people are making it out to be in the posts.
The skit could have contributed to her termination, but it appears there is a lot more going on here than "evil borat gets poor woman fired". This issue is not nearly as linear as people like to make it. Plus i wouldn't be surprised if SBC does something to make up for being in any way responsible for the loss of this woman's job. Just wait and we'll see some more information come forth.
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You've Convinced Me Not to See It
I wondered whether I should see "Borat" or not, and I think this article has convinced me not to.
I, like a lot of the letter writers here, squirm at victim humor. Yes, it is true that a lot of the victims "deserve" what they get. This does not make it more pleasant to watch.
Every person has dignity. I believe dignity falls in the "unalienable right" category -- that is, people are entitled to their diginity even if they do not deserve it. There is no social benefit in treating anyone like trash, and that includes bigots. There is a sense in which, when you humiliate the bigot, you prove his point. A bigot looks down on other people, and when you look down on him, you justify his position -- a person who is looked upon with disdain is more likely to feel justified in disdaining others. Put another way, dehumanization is a poor antedote to hatred.
I don't want to see a homophobe publically undressed. I know homophobia is bad, but will the homophobe see his mistake in total humiliaton? No.
So, I think I'll pass on "Borat." I get my fill of brutality on the nightly news.
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This is Insane
There's an election next week; hadn't you all heard?
Should there really be this much banter about a COMEDY?
And to the person who got picked on for 12 years in the playground...I think they were right. I'd have picked on you too....
Q
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nemisis misses the point a little...
"There seems to be this sentiment out there that the jews and blacks can laugh at everyone else but won't laugh at themselves, for those people, watch Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle and Curb Your Enthusiasm and see if you still hold the same view."
No, nemesis, you miss the point being made. The 'sentiment out there' is, jews and blacks can laugh at everyone else but won't LET OTHERS laugh at THEM. It's one thing to be self-deprecating--African Americans, Jews, and Southerners are admired often for laughing at themselves. But when do you find a lot of them laughing when OTHERS laugh at them? That's the point made by earlier commentaries, and one I tend to agree with.
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Very similiar article/headline.
New York Times has a very similiar article as this one.
http://movies2.nytimes.com/2006/11/03/movies/03bora.html?8dpc
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Actually
He's got no problem making fun of ghetto mentality, see Da Ali G.
Mainly his shtick is clueless foreigner and most of the time he comes off looking like a buffoon, if someone says something biogted on camera, get it, ON CAMERA, not a hidden camera like Candid Camera or Punk'd, they are not victims, they are standing behind their statements and aren't ashamed of them and I'm not supposed to laugh at their ridiculous viewpoints if they have them? If someone looks at you and seriously says that they think that strawberry jelly is contraceptive jelly, aren't you going to laugh (thanks to House for one of the best laughs I've had in a while). It's not being "superior" to laugh at how some people can come to such illogical beliefs, they signed releases. They aren't just some poor shlubs Borat tricked into saying bigoted or ignorant things and they wern't aware, all he does is trick them into thinking he is a foreign reporter. They are willing to say these things to people in other countries as examples of the USA and I'm not supposed to find it funny? To also find it reassuring that some people refuse to particpate in the singing of "Throw the Jews Down the Well" and you can watch others wrestle internally, throwing jews down the well is wrong but this foreign guy wants us to sing along to his first country song, what to do, be polite? Then his other bit is to say insane things to everyday people and see how they react, they also know they are on camera. Many times things elicit a laugh because it's Borat who looks foolish, like when he was interviewing a farm vet and Borat kept letting the guy think he thought a veternarian was the same thing as a veteran, then he'd confuse it with a doctor for war animals and the vet kept trying to patiently explain and when he couldn't he was all just lets move on. It was funny because imagine you are the vet, you want to laugh at how obtuse this guy is either because he's a foreigner or he's an idiot, so you have to be polite and not laugh in his face because it's not okay to make fun of foreigners or stupid people.
Some of his bits fall flat, sometimes people don't play along or get angry, but when it's great, it's gold.
So I'll be seeing Borat this weekend and hopefully I'll laugh so hard my guts will hurt.