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Author Topic: Borat Allison Parsons Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 630 From: East Peoria, IL Registered: Oct 2004 posted 11-10-2006 10:26 AM                        It's not so much that the wrestling was , it's the fact that it was 20 feet tall in front of me on the screen! I think the hairy scrotum wouldn't of had made me turn away in horror if I watched it on, oh, a 20 inch TV. Well...yeah, it probably would. Great movie though! I screened it by myself, and I must say it would probably have been funnier if I was with a crowd. [ 11-10-2006, 02:47 PM: Message edited by: Allison Parsons ]  |  IP: Logged Brian Michael Weidemann Expert cat molester Posts: 944 From: Costa Mesa, CA United States Registered: Feb 2004 posted 11-10-2006 09:03 PM                        I've caught most of this movie at this point. I just don't get it. Yes, I can see where the funny parts are. Yes, I smirk here and there by the sheer unexpectedness. And the audience roaring with laughter and stomping their feet happens at what seems like the right bits ... But I just don't GET it. Nothing really makes me laugh. Nothing really makes me understand why this is as popular as it is. I'm not that old, am I?  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 11-10-2006 09:29 PM                        I felt exactly the same way at Greek Wedding. Everyone was rolling in the aisles with laughter. But I just didn't get it. "Humor. It is a difficult concept."  |  IP: Logged Allison Parsons Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 630 From: East Peoria, IL Registered: Oct 2004 posted 11-11-2006 12:51 AM                        I think Borat is like Monty Python. You either get it, or you don't.  |  IP: Logged Brian Michael Weidemann Expert cat molester Posts: 944 From: Costa Mesa, CA United States Registered: Feb 2004 posted 11-11-2006 03:08 AM                        What's not to get about Python!? That's brilliant F'ing comic genius, that is!  |  IP: Logged Alan Dallas Film Handler Posts: 48 From: Prescott Valley, AZ Registered: Jul 2004 posted 11-11-2006 06:24 AM                     I didn't screen our copy, but I did try to sit through it at a regular show time. Sorry not my cup of comedic tea. In my opinion it was complete and utter crap. Just a big ole steaming pile. About the nude wrestling scene however. 2nd night we were playing it I was cruising past projector 10 were Borat was playing on the way to #12 and I literally HEARD the audiance over all the running projectors and other booth noise through the port glass and wall give out a collective "OH NOOOO!" and I heard a couple females scream all at the same time. Which made me glance out the port glass as I was walking by. Of course when I saw a big hairy ass and "bean bag" on screen I knew exactly what the ruckus was about. "I don't love you anymore Paa-Mela!... NOT!"  |  IP: Logged Edwin Sheldon Film Handler Posts: 95 From: Mobile, AL, USA Registered: Sep 2006 posted 11-11-2006 11:14 AM                     quote: Brian Michael Weidemann But I just don't GET it. Nothing really makes me laugh. Nothing really makes me understand why this is as popular as it is. I'm not that old, am I? I didn't get Borat's humor at first when I saw Da Ali G Show. It was when I learned that the actor is Jewish that it all made sense. If you want sheer hilarity, find a YouTube clip of him singing his song, "In my Country There is a Problem". Seeing real Americans clap and sing along to such horribly offensive material had me both laughing my posterior off and lamenting the attitudes of many Americans.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 11-11-2006 12:23 PM                     I think that Borat song is called Throw the Jew Down the Well. It is pretty funny (in an ironically sad way) to see those folks clapping along. One guy even raises a toast. Many are bigots able to let those feelings come out of their cave. Others don't have the guts raise their voices against it. That's probably even more sad. Many are willing to go along with all sorts of insanity just out of the need to avoid any confrontations. And that's part of what makes Sasha Baron Cohen's Borat act so funny.  |  IP: Logged Aaron Mehocic Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 804 From: New Castle, PA, USA Registered: Jun 99 posted 11-11-2006 12:42 PM                     Sydicated radio talk show host Michael Savage (a Jew) once said that for as many anti-Jewish comments he has heard in his life, he knows just as many Jews who have made anti-Christian comments. The knife cuts both ways. As for Borat . . . a stupid film at best. Many co-workers who travelled to see it before we received our print told me I'd love it. Chuckled quietly maybe four times when I saw it. Sacha Cohen is not the first person to use this type of comedy to illustrate human nature. He was far more funny in Talledega Nights.  |  IP: Logged Brian Michael Weidemann Expert cat molester Posts: 944 From: Costa Mesa, CA United States Registered: Feb 2004 posted 11-11-2006 09:04 PM                        No, I'm fully aware of the direction the bigotry takes, and what's being made fun of, and who's the butt of the "jokes". I can see the humor, I just don't find myself laughing at it, or finding the appeal of constant doses of it. I could compare it to knock-knock jokes; you might smirk or groan, but you don't really LAUGH laugh. I'm not going to lessen the sophistication of the Borat character or Sasha Baron Cohen's comic sensibilities by reducing them to knock-knock jokes. I'm sure he's a great comic talent. I haven't seen Da Ali G Show, but I wouldn't think it would be necessary in order to find the Borat movie as hilarious as these sold-out auditoriums of people obviously do. I don't think I'm "missing" something about the comedy, so much as just not finding it funny. I'm missing what makes this so popular, though.  |  IP: Logged Will Kutler Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1506 From: Tucson, AZ, USA Registered: Feb 2001 posted 11-12-2006 05:57 PM                     This crap is supposed to be funny???? Kutler  |  IP: Logged Gerard S. Cohen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 975 From: Forest Hills, NY, USA Registered: Sep 2001 posted 11-12-2006 07:41 PM                     Cohen's humor is funny, but it cuts deep. For example, Borat, when asked why he hates Jews, replies, "They killed the dinosaurs." This is not only absurd, but evokes many other absurd lies perpetuated through history: <The Jews killed Jesus.> (Repudiated by the Pope.) <The Jews plan to control the world.> (Even such illustrious Americans as Henry Ford and Charles Lindburg disseminated copies of the 1880's Czarist libel "Protacols of the Elders of Zion" <The blood libel.> (Resulting in pogroms at Eastertime.) <Jews poisen wells.> (Actually being done in Darfur, not by Jews) <Jews control the world's economies through the World Bank.> So the humor here hits at a bitter truth--that antisemitism exists in many forms, and no accusation is too absurd to be believed by the ignorant and the gullible. Or take the line from Borat's folk-song, "Throw the Jew down the well, Take him by the horns..." Michaelangelo sculpted Moses with horns owing to a mistranslation of the Hebrew word for "rays", or "beams of light", and Mel Gibson in his Passion film had the Jewish children outfitted with horns in a dream sequence, as was done in the Passion plays at Oberamargau. In Texas a fellow soldier told me he never met a Jew (though there were many in our company and barracks), but he would know them by their horns. Asked why the horns were'nt visible, he answered, "Because they always wear hats." I think these examples--and I could cite many more from Borat, Ali-G and Borus--show that Cohen's method of satire uses absurdity grounded in reality to explode many forms of prejudice.  |  IP: Logged Jeremy Fuentes Mmmm, Dr. Pepper! Posts: 1168 From: Corpus Christi, TX United States Registered: Jan 2004 posted 11-12-2006 07:47 PM                     yeah, but its funny though. actually, hilarious.  |  IP: Logged Will Kutler Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1506 From: Tucson, AZ, USA Registered: Feb 2001 posted 11-13-2006 01:31 AM                     Hey Jeremy You are a hypocrite! If Borate was about Hispanics or African Americans you'd be yelling bloody murder!  |  IP: Logged Michael Schaffer "Where is the Boardwalk Hotel?" Posts: 4143 From: Boston, MA Registered: Apr 2002 posted 11-13-2006 01:48 AM                        Will - the guy who plays Borat is himself Jewish. He isn't making fun of Jews, but of stereotypes and prejudices against Jews, among other groups of people, about other cultures and lifestyles in general. That can't be that difficult to understand, can it? I am personally not quite sure if that really works. I have no idea what is going on in Kazakhstan, but now a lot of people think people there are "like that". Well, maybe not quite "like that", because the characters are obviously over the top, but somehow "like that". It does seem pretty safe to say that in some areas of the world, especially in those areas where religious groups still have a firm grip on people - and as we all know, that is not just defined to the Near East or Central Asia -, a lot of people still seem to have a lot of prejudices against people outside their own culture, but whether or not that is particularly strong in Kazakhstan, I really have no idea. I wish he had made his character come from some invented country, like, say, "Benistan" or "Khungistan" or something like that. As it is, I found the movie moderately funny. Not too bad, but not really great either. Some good gags, some good lines - "do you have a telephone in this village?" - some nasty stuff - yes, the naked wrestling scene was pretty grotesque. Overall, a few mild laughs throughout the movie for me.  |  IP: Logged

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