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Stringer in a strange land

Is Borat laughing at you?

By: PETER KEOUGH
11/1/2006 6:45:39 PM

Rating: 3.0 stars

061103_borat_mainw
AN ANTI-PC PARADISE: of squalor, ignorance, sexism, homophobia, racism, anti-Semitism, and bad taste, and Borat is its id-like innocent.

One principle of comedy is that something is funny if it’s us laughing at them, not the other way around. Thus, we can laugh, and do, when Borat (or Sacha Baron Cohen, since in theory we are laughing at Borat also) gleefully, seemingly ingenuously, acts like an idiot and so encourages his victim to act likewise. We laugh when, for example, Borat’s boorishness encourages a redneck to indulge in his own racism and homophobia. Or when he spurs a rodeo crowd into bloodthirsty jingoism. Or provokes a panel of venerable feminists to disclose that, indeed, they are opposed to misogyny.

But I wonder, what if Borat were to corner one of us, we who so smugly laugh at the discomfiture of these fools, in similar circumstances? Say, if he, in all sincerity, presented us with a bag of his excrement? Ignorant of his real identity or intentions, perhaps we too would end up looking pretty stupid. In which case, I suppose, the result would no longer be comedy but art.

Be that as it may, who is Borat? In some circles that question would get you laughed out of the room. (Although Fox, by cutting the film’s opening to only 800 screens, has shown less confidence in how wide those circles might be.) For the uninitiated: he’s a TV reporter from Kazakhstan, a real former Soviet Republic reimagined as an updating of Al Capp’s Lower Slobbovia. It’s an anti-PC paradise of squalor, ignorance, sexism, homophobia, racism, anti-Semitism, and bad taste, a lost Eden of impulses that even talk radio would find over the top, and Borat is its id-like innocent — an innocent whom Cohen and the movie cannily exploit.

With his producer, Azamat (Ken Davitian), Borat sets off for America on the title quest, and his guilelessness charms as he encounters such wonders as elevators, indoor plumbing, and cable TV. The latter introduces him to Baywatch and Pamela Anderson. He falls in love with her, and secretly his goal now is to head for Hollywood and bag his beloved.


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It’s the oldest and purist genre, the road movie, but whereas Borat’s anguish can be touching, if scatological, Cohen’s intentions are highly calculated. The pair take a Southern route to the West Coast, guaranteeing a tour of deepest Dixie and leaving more than a few red-staters red-faced. Somehow, though, I suspect that the degree to which those being punked were in on the gag depended on their access to legal representation. Pamela Anderson, I’m pretty sure, knew what was up, but maybe not so much the drunken frat boys in the Winnebago. As for political fat cats: Alan Keyes? Even with such lightweights Borat goes uncharacteristically soft; he’s no Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert.

On the other hand, maybe it’s just Larry Charles in his feature debut trying to get arty (note the Midnight Cowboy allusion), but Borat takes time just to enjoy its sheer visual absurdity, whether it’s a brief shot of a very tall and a very small man intent at ping-pong or an excruciatingly prolonged sequence of a very thin and hairy man and a very fat and hairy man wrestling without shame or mercy. Although I knew it was dishonest, cynical, and the ultimate in cheap-shot humor, I laughed more at Borat than at any other film this year. So I guess the joke is on me.

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I think humor and laughter is one of the least understood emotions that humans have. We laugh when we identify things, either as harmless or because we're somehow afraid or threatened by them. It's a natural human reaction. It relieves stress. Just because we laugh at something does not mean we are cruel or dumb, or rascist, or callous, or shameless. It usually does not mean we are bad people. More than anything, I find Borat absurd, (the type of humor I love) and just like South Park, or Python, or whomever 'offends' people, you laugh at HIS character, and his actions and reactions. Borat is an absurd character, and yes, he is exploiting third world stereotypes for some fun, (and a very healthy paycheck), but I don't think he's going to start some anti-Khazak movement, or shame that country in any way. The humor in Borat is largely the people's reactions to his outrageous behaviour, not necessarily to his comments or 'beliefs'. It's in HIS naivete. The scary part is when some people agree with him! I laugh at Borat till I cry, mostly, and without shame!

POSTED BY Spradlinnn' AT 11/02/06 8:25 AM

I think one thing the reviewer missed is that outside the USA, the fact the direct way that Borat illustrates what Americans believe and how they could possibly be fooled by such a ridiculous character as Borat is the real absurd joke. Borat is not just laughing at us, he shows the world how easily duped Americans can be and thereby scores a high-five for anyone in the world who wishes to show how such a powerful nation can also be, for better or worse, incredibly naive.

POSTED BY Veector AT 11/06/06 12:39 PM


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