Saturday, October 28, 2006

makes offensive a lot does Borat

call me old fashioned or call me just flat out old, but i cannot get behind the Borat. i have not seen this movie yet, but i probably won't because i really do not want to contribute any money or support to this idea or grovelling for humor. i did watch the first four minutes of the movie on youtube though from a link a buddy of mine sent me, so i feel like that combined with doing a little research on Borat websites and wikipedia i can at least give my opinion based on the information i know. i will admit this may be unfair until i see the entire movie and that perhaps i am Borat ignorant. i will not admit that what i have seen to date is not offensive though.

i agree that the picture attached to this post is somewhat funny without knowing anything else about Borat. most of us are suckers for low quality humor such as physical embarrassment and making fun of the appearance of others. will ferrell and ben stiller both take part in such humor in many circumstances. for example, it is funny to see will ferrell in an elf costume in the movie Elf. something about that alone looks so absurd that it becomes humorous.

Borat is a fictional character from Kazakhstan. you can watch the movie trailer by going HERE
and then clicking on the blue rectangle in the middle which says "Please see my MOVIE you can be seeing small pictures NOW!! MAKE CLICK". Borat is basically a stereotype of an uncivilized, uneducated Kazakhstani journalist who first shows off his native land by telling villagers not to have sex with animals while he is gone and gives his sister a extended smooching that gives the idea that sexual acts within the family are acceptable. he also makes light of the level of sophistication and hygeine of people from Kazakhstan and frequently utters mixed up nonsensical sentences, often including comments about oral sex, prostitution, and reproductive organs.

i find this character inconsiderate and disgusting. in a time where we have much tension between different nations around the world i do not see how directly targeting a particular country and making a joke out of them is a good idea for a movie. the Kazakhi Foreign Ministry had the following statement regarding Borat's behavior of inappropriately touching children on stage as a joke at the MTV Europe Music Awards...

"We do not rule out that Mr. Cohen is serving someone's political order designed to present Kazakhstan and its people in a derogatory way. We reserve the right to any legal action to prevent new pranks of the kind. We view Mr. Cohen's behaviour at the MTV Europe Music Awards as utterly unacceptable, being a concoction of bad taste and ill manners which is completely incompatible with ethics and civilized behaviour."-Yerzhan Ashykbayev, Kazakh Foreign Ministry Spokesman

by that statement it would appear that i am not the only one who finds this offensive, and i am not even from Kazakhstan. in response, Borat speaks of Kazakhstan having some of the cleanest prostitutes in central asia and homosexuals are no longer required to wear blue hats and thus Kazakhstan being a civilized nation. Borat is a sophomoric attempt at a quick laugh, but i wouldn't be surprised if that is in fact what he ends up getting. this movie will probably be successful, i just think it is weak.

1 Comments:

At 11/02/2006 06:46:00 AM, Blogger mikeandtim said...

I wish I could find the person who originally composed and sent these messages and give them a little Denzel-Washington-Man-on-Fire-chop-off-
fingers-stop-bleeding-with-cigarette-
lighter treamtment. Except that I would not stop the bleeding and just use the cigarette lighter on their exposed reproductive/urinary areas. Sorry- it just makes me that mad.

 

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