Letters to the Editor
-
Thank you...
alienated in iowa and sfericmars (and whoever it was who mentioned the "overearnest" as being one of SBC's oft-skewered marks)! Save your bloody empathy (it must be such a burden to be so sensitive) for the real "victims"--the Jews and gays who really do get beaten, bashed and broken by these scum. SBC is both hilarious and scathing, and he reveals both the scabrousness and the compassion in the people he encounters.
Bet you voted for Nader, too.
-
We should be uncomfortable
The satire of Borat makes us uncomfortable and sometimes offends us. It is not a comedy -- which ultimately comforts us with amusement -- but a satire. Discomfort and offense are the point of satire and a part of a long tradition. Consider Aristophanes' attack on Socrates or Swift's Modest Proposal -- which proposes using Irish children as a food supply.
We should take Borat seriously -- not to discuss whether or not Sacha Cohen should make these offensive 'jokes' but to discuss the deep pools of anti-semitism, homophobia and misogyny that lie beneath superficial politeness and correctness in our country. What can we do about that?
-
Not like Candid Camera
I'm pretty sensitive and did not find that SBC was making fun of unsuspecting victims in Borat. The movie's humour reminded me more of John Waters or Paul Bartels updated for a South Park world.
-
Borat and Brooks
Sascha Baron Cohen doesn't remind me of Andy Kaufman, but he does remind me of Mel Brooks. Both men are on the surface 'comedians', but both are also communicating their rage at the world's anti-semitism.
Brooks' The Producers Springtime for Hitler number is funny, but the plot twist that the musical is successful shows that Brooks despairs of non-Jews ever understanding the Holocaust. Similarly, the Inquisition song in History of the World Part 1 seemingly makes light of the torture of Jews, while nursing a fierce anger that such things could happen.
SBC's technique is blunter than Brooks', and less forgiving. He assumes every non-Jew to be anti-Semitic, and adopts the persona of an anti-Semitic Muslim in order to test his theory. Only those who robustly reject Borat's anti-semitism can emerge unscathed. The racists are revealed, but this is hardly unexpected. SBC's real targets are those who play along for politness' sake. To SBc, this is the equivalent of saying nothing. I suspect he hates these people more than he does the genuine anti-Semites.
-
altab, of course he's not making fun of them
In some cases, He's gives them a half-inch of rope, and they still find a way to hang themselves with it.
I saw the movie yesterday. And while I am a fan of Ali G, Borat & Bruno, I definitely think that Sacha Baron Cohen is very selective in who he shows being an a**hole. The most sympathetic people in the film are the Jewish B&B owners (because, they were very sweet people), the young black men in Atlanta, and the black call girl. Pretty much everyone else (all the white people) comes off like a Neo-Nazi at worst and a dimwitted weirdo at best. I suppose we are to believe that there were no white people who were very patient and kind with Borat, or who told him that they disagreed with his anti-semitism, right? Or a black person who told him to f*** off, or threatened him when he tried to kiss them on the cheek (not that he ever bothered trying).
The scariest people in the film are the white USC fraternity brothers. The black guys in Atlanta, while trying to look tough (as is the rule in the urban black male community), ended up being pretty nice, but Borat also didn't try to bait them. He didn't bring up Jews at all. He asks them for fashion advice and advice on how to talk. Now imagine if he had walked up and said, "Tupac was a fag", or "Martin Luther King was chocolate face man" or asked them advice on how to get on welfare or smoke crack. In essence, that is the equivelant what Borat *does* do when he mangles the Star Spangled Banner at a Rodeo in the south. Of course, he selects who he antagonizes.
That is all, thanks for reading.
-
Self-reflection
A lot of letters are wondering whether Borat's showcase of American bigotry will cause any bigots to re-think their positions. For the most part, I doubt it. The horrifying rodeo guy (who wants not just all homosexuals but also all Muslims to fly right or hang high) is not going to see this movie. I don't suspect he goes to any movies, let alone satires.
But one group that looked bad in the movie is also its most ardent audience: young men who like penis jokes. An encounter with a group of frat boys in an RV shows what happens when young men are so repellent that women won't stay with them (Borat himself is ready to escape by getting wasted within 30 seconds of meeting them). These fellows are so hateful that they must soothe their inability to keep a girlfriend with the notion that women are the problem, and they repeat their misogyny in so many different ways that it looks like the very essence of their personalities.
Of course, not all young men are repellent jackasses. But some of the guys excited to see Borat certainly are. It's possible that a repellent jackass or two who sees the movie will not like what they see in the mirror Borat held up, and maybe they'll re-think whether they really hate all women or just themselves.
-
Amahl,
There is absolutely no evidence that Borat is supposed to be Muslim. None. I have seen every episode of Da Ali G Show, and the Borat movie. Sorry, you're wrong. You make valid points elsewhere, but not when it comes to Borat.
-
Meh
I “get it”, in fact I like Colbert type comedy. I just dont think its that funny, very much like Jesus is Magic. I once saw this nasty old Italian film from the 70s that hip moive kids were way into called Cannibal Holicaust wherein some italians went into the jungle to film the horrible cannable "savages", but surprise at the end of the film we find out the italians are the real savages. The movie had buckets of gore and a ton of shock theater. It just isnt that clever and the set up is bound to be patronizing. So Borat is kind of like Cannable Holocuast. The message and the punchline are predictable, there are plenty of shock value easy entertianment moments the means is a little questionable and in the end you get a free sense of superiority to take home.
In the 80s we had Yakov Smirnoff kissing our reganomnics-asses, plus he talked funny, comic gold. This is much the same. Look it's an english guy in poor-face/offwhite-face/secondworld country-face, he talks funny and has a stupid mustache. Ha! But wait thers more, we're just as ass backward as his stupid country, hilarious. And so complex, who are the real savages anyway?