I saw it last week, It's funny, A little bit on the aimless side for me . It seemed as if the storyline was geared around the comedy and only the comedy . " Did any of what I just said make any sense" ? The sad thing here is, It's the truth ! There was no real story behind the comedy of this movie . It was funny as hell though , I'll give him that ! I've never seen his show though . *Signing off "Not Amused the movie critic"

it's called satire.

he's satirizing american perceptions of the muslim world by playing a blown out middle eastern caricature. (i know, big duh, but maybe not). he's an outsider who pretends to be an insider, but the joke's on us. sarah silverman has been doing related schtick, but people tolerate her because she's attractive. but she's not particularly gutsy. she's not immersed in the joke.

the joke is (post-post-?)postmodern. modern even.

sure, there are some VERY uncomfortable moments in the film, but comedy isn't really about comfort. if it were, well it would be like all that frat pack, scato-humor churl that's been shovelled down our gullets for the past 5 years.

a lot of my laughter from this film wasn't because of hilarity, it was out of discomfort and nerves. i think it's a fairly successful film. but as the adl says, the overall success of its "message" can only be gauged by our sophistication as an audience.

It's no more improv than the guest interviews that both Stewart and Colbert do off-the-cuff.

Anonymass. No, it's not like John Stewart (unless you f'd up making the 11 O'Clock show comparison, but you'd still be wrong). Ali G/Borat is IMPROV.

Oh, and Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert is much better at it than Sacha Cohen ever was.

You're all giving this guy far too much intellectual credit.

Yes, he was funny as Ali G; Borat is the same character - a caricature who feigns ignorance to get away with asking outlandish questions to anyone dumb enough not to understand what it is to 'get played.' It's a lot less of a social commentary in terms of racism as it is a critique of an older generation not in sync with the younger generation's sense of humor.

This is comedy for the Jackass crowd, pure and simple.

according to the Kazakhstan Government embessy 57% of Kazakhstan is muslim. http://www.kazakhstanembassy.org.uk/cgi-bin/index/57%5B/url%5D

take that dumbass.

About 55% of the Kazakh people aren't even Muslim.

I'm constantly amazed at what passes for logic here in New York.

Hey, I hate the jew and hate the muslim terrorist. Why so many you confuse?

Yakov. I do get the joke. I find it hilarious. I dislike the jews so I find it hilarious. I didn't dispute the fact that Sasha Cohen is funny, merely that he has an insidious ulterior motive to frame muslims. And he also stole all of yakov Smirnoff's shtick added some anti-semitism and tom green and made 25 million dollars on opening weekend. Funny considering that Yakov Smirnoff was voted 4th unfunniest comedian in Maxim.

Sorry, Jelena I thought you were from the Ukraine. you're from Latvia, the only other famous Latvian is Fred from Mars.

Anyway, there's a deep history of Ukraines in NYC.

Jewguy, you're a retard. He didn't choose Kazakstan because it rhymes with Afghanastan or Osamastan, he chose it because nobody's ever heard of it or if they have they know nothing about it, couldn't point to it on a map, and have no intention of ever going. Considering that the 11 O'Clock show has been around since the 90s, and I believe Borat showed up circa 2000, your entire argument is flawed.

And on the whole Ali G/Muslim rapper thing - you clearly haven't spent any amount of time in London, have you, to understand any pop culture references of his.

btw I'm of the jew, and I heard "throw the jew down the well", and I thought it was some of the funniest shit I ever heard, because it's making fun of idiots like you who don't get the joke. That includes making fun of anti-semites, and making fun of the people who get upset because THEY DON'T GET THE JOKE. That's what makes it funny. People like you.

America....Powdered milk, powdered eggs, baby powder...what a country!"

Gwin: I appreciate your acknowledgement that the contradictions were merely "seeming".

It's really only offensive to Muslims. Borat is like a muslim arab middle eastern stereotype. Even though Borat isn't muslim (he worships the hawk). Islam is the major religion of Kazakhstan. Hell, even Kazakhstan sounds like Pakistan and Afghanistan, 2 very muslim countries. He's like Elaine from Seinfeld. Even though her character isn't Jewish she plays the Jew Girl Stereotype. And Since Sasha Cohen is Jewish and he goes around town saying stuff in the Borat Disguise to get people to show their anti-semitism I think there is some underhanded stuff going on. For example if a ethnic Muslim were to dress like a Rabbi and infiltrate Jewish Orthodox Zionist temples and say stuff that was inflammatory like "throw the muslim down the well" and the zionists were to whole hardedly agree with him and he were to make a movie about it and show it to everyone would it have the same effect?

You're not actually laughing at the opinions of Americans. The people in all of the Borat sketches/movie set ups are pushed to extremes and provoked into behaviour they would probably never exhibit without Cohen's own intervention. What you dont see are the failed skits - the ones where middle america DIDNT react to Borat's ever increasing provocation. Because that wouldnt make a particularly funny movie

The whole point that Sasha cohen chose Kazakhstan is so that people would confuse it with Afghanistan. His whole shtick is about deception and manipulation. Would people laugh if they knew he was a Jew in Disguise when he says "throw the jew down the well?". My whole point is not to say Sasha Cohen is not funny, cause I find him hilarious my point is to say What is his "Ulterior Motive?".Why is his other alter ego "Ali G" a caricature of a muslim rapper? Why is this jew going to great lengths to be muslim? Why would he dress like some funny speaking foreign accent guy who say's anti-semetic remarks? is it to show people are racist? cause, duh. I already knew that. So what else is there? Borat is in the same vein as Larry the Cable guy. The only difference is that Borat is funny. at the moment.

For those who know that Sasha is Jewish and read the trade mags. But what if you went in not knowing that he was Jewish and heard him say those things. Then you'd be pissed off right? It's just like this guy in NYC who dressed as Hitler for Halloween and went to his Jewish school. A lot of people were pissed off. Then he uses the whole "but I'm jewish and it was a joke, why can't you laugh at it?" but he knew that it would incite people because he dressed as charlie chaplin on the train. Same with Borat. He makes sure that you know he's Jewish. In fact it's the first thing you pretty much read in every article about him. It's like they try to justify the anti-semetic jokes

fishtale: sorry dude, but you totally missed my point. I was merely pointing out the seeming contradictions in someone else's post - I made no general, declarative statement of my own about the relative intolerance of America(in fact, I questioned the idea that Europe was more tolerant than America). Use your reading comprehension skills much?

Hey arthur/douchebag, it's not anti-muslim. Borat is waaay more Russian/Ukrainian/Eastern European than he is say Turkish or Arabic or Pakistani. Ever been to St. Petersburg? Then you'll know what he means by "beat the gypsy". Jesus he even uses cyrillic everywhere. Anyway, he's a jew so he's not anti-semitic, and he's playing an eastern european, not an arab. And he's making fun of southern hilbillies who go to megacrazychurch. And he's making fun of idiot frats.

The great irony here is the idiot frats he's making fun of, many of which are seeing and laughing at the movie. I imagine the only person not laughing at the movie is the Mississippi supreme court justice who spoke at pentecostal. Or that old grandpa homophobe cowboy.

Anyway, his shtick is the same as Yakov Smirnoff (albeit a zillion times funnier). In America, you go to theater to watch movie the Rock. In Soviet Russia, you break rock in gulag.

Too much like the TV segments from several years ago. He re-used a lot of scenarios for the US audience who obviously haven't seen the tv show. ho-hum.

arthur, to be fair, there's a few people in the honkey tonk who look utterly disgusted.

and besides, the overall lesson to take from borat is "never be polite to foreigners, for they may have video cameras."

arthur, you are making more blanket statements about muslims than i believe borat does. you assume he must be muslim just because he's anti-jewish and misogynistic. it never once occurred to me he was suppose to be muslim at all, and if you asked baron cohen i'm sure he would affirm that. to me borat is just supposed to be a stereoptype of the isolated, old-world that doesn't really exist anymore- you know, someone who speaks broken english,thinks the eagles are the height of cool, and has never used a computer before.

and gwin, you are an absolute retard. the fact of the matter is that america is by and large more tolerant than the majority of other countries out there. there i said it.

arthur-

Congratulations! you got the point.