Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Borat has no sense of humor

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Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 11-17-2006, 05:53 PM:

I'd post this in the review thread but that has gotten way off topic, so here's a vid from youtube about some guy who spoofed Borat at the premiere, and interviews Cohen at about the 6:00 min mark, he seems to be quite a douchebag, he could have played along with the bit more.

Borat can't take it

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 11-17-2006, 06:55 PM:

I'm not surprised. Borat = boring. Many comedians of his ilk can dish it out but absolutely cannot take it.

Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 11-17-2006, 07:25 PM:

I find him to be along the lines of Andy Kaufman.

Posted by Chad Souder (Member # 343) on 11-17-2006, 09:33 PM:

I would guess Baron Cohen would find the Kaufman comparison to be quite a compliment.

Seriously, though, what is he supposed to do? Is he to stand there and carry on a dialogue with every random look-alike that shows up with a camera after memorizing 3 or 4 catch phrases? All but only a couple of the celebrities that walked by blew off "Horat" as well and that is with editing. The ones that did talk were B list at best and didn't stay long. At least he stayed for one question instead of just walking by.

I think true comedians recognize and appreciate other comedians, which is why Baron Cohen invited Larry David, Gary Shandling and other comic greats to review a raw cut of his movie this past summer and give him tips. The guy that did this bit is just some fan with a myspace account try to do what impersonators do - make money off someone else's success.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 11-17-2006, 10:16 PM:

What Chad said. Borat is Cohen's character. The lookalike is a parasite.

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 11-17-2006, 10:41 PM:

The reason I posted the video was to point out Sacha's douchebag attitude towards the guy, who was doing to Sacha what he did to people in the film, not whether the guy spoofing Borat was funny or not.

Here's an interesting article:

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article1990387.ece

Baron Cohen comes out of character to defend Borat
By Arifa Akbar
Published: 17 November 2006

He is a comedian whose alter ego - a racist, sexist homophobe - has delighted many, appalled some and is selling out cinemas across Britain and America.

Now, after staying resolutely in boorish persona during previous interviews, Sacha Baron Cohen has spoken in depth about his motives in creating his comical anti-hero Borat. The journalist from Kazakhstan who sings anti-Semitic songs and refers to women as prostitutes was created "as a tool" to expose people's prejudices, he said.

The 35-year-old Jewish comedian from London has maintained a long silence over the controversy raised by Borat, whose extreme anti-Semitic remarks have earned censure both from the Kazakh government and from the Jewish community.

In one sketch from Baron Cohen's film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, which premiered this month in London, Borat performs a song called "Throw the Jew Down the Well" in a country and western bar in Arizona.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, the comedian revealed he was a devout Jew, observing Sabbath and eating kosher foods, and he referred to the singing scene to defend his inflammatory comedy.

"Borat essentially works as a tool. By himself being anti-Semitic, he lets people lower their guard and expose their own prejudices, whether it's anti-Semitism or an acceptance of anti-Semitism. 'Throw the Jew Down the Well' was a very controversial sketch, and some members of the Jewish community thought it was actually going to encourage anti-Semitism.

"But to me it revealed something about that bar in Tuscon. And the question is: did it reveal that they were anti-Semitic? Perhaps. But maybe it just revealed that they were indifferent to anti-Semitism," he said.

Baron Cohen said the concept of "indifference towards anti-Semitism" had been informed by his study of the Holocaust while at Cambridge University, where he read history. "I remember, when I was in university, and there was this one major historian of the Third Reich, Ian Kershaw. And his quote was, 'The path to Auschwitz was paved with indifference.'

"I know it's not very funny being a comedian talking about the Holocaust, but I think it's an interesting idea that not everyone in Germany had to be a raving anti-Semite. They just had to be apathetic," he said.

He also talked of his astonishment at hearing that the Kazakh government was thinking of suing him over the offence caused by his comic alter ego, and stressed that the "joke is not on Kazakhstan".

"I was surprised, because I always had faith in the audience that they would realise that this was a fictitious country and the mere purpose of it was to allow people to bring out their own prejudices. And the reason we chose Kazakhstan was because it was a country that no one had heard anything about, so we could essentially play on stereotypes they might have about this ex-Soviet backwater. The joke is not on Kazakhstan. I think the joke is on people who can believe that the Kazakhstan that I describe can exist - who believe that there's a country where homosexuals wear blue hats and the women live in cages and they drink fermented horse urine and the age of consent has been raised to nine years old...

"I've been in a bizarre situation, where a country has declared me as its number one enemy. It's inherently a comic situation," he said.

While Borat has drawn much criticism from Kazakh ministers - the government took out a full page ad in The New York Times to promote their country at one stage - Erlan Idrissov, the Kazakhstan ambassador to Britain, admitted to finding some humour in the film.

Baron Cohen, who was born in Hammersmith to an affluent Orthodox Jewish family, is the second of three sons. He went to an independent school in Elstree, and Christ's College, Cambridge, and worked for the investment bank Goldman Sachs before starting his career in television.

It's a moot point, but even the JDF or a different Jewish group said that he should have made it fictional from what I read in another article.

[ 11-19-2006, 11:08 AM: Message edited by: Mike Heenan ]

Posted by Anslem Rayburn (Member # 1267) on 11-18-2006, 06:53 AM:

quote: Mike Heenan
In one sketch from Baron Cohen's film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, which premiered this month in London, Borat performs a song called "Throw the Jew Down the Well" in a country and western bar in Arizona.

Funny, I don't remember that scene from the movie. I do remember seeing on YouTube, and reading that it was from a DVD for 'Da Ali G Show'. I'm sure I would remember if I saw that in the film while watching it in Arizona, but I don't. Maybe I'm wrong...

Posted by Chad Souder (Member # 343) on 11-19-2006, 10:33 AM:

The scene of him singing wasn't in the movie, it was on Da Ali G show and was quite funny. The writer of this article, Arifa Akbar, obviously didn't even watch the movie. He or She (I don't know what gender Arifa goes with) is just using the Rolling Stone article as a chance to write his or her own.

Mike - Why did you paste the article twice?

If Baron Cohen was in the Borat character, which he certainly appears to be during the clip, then would it not be Borat's douchebag attitude that you have a problem with and not the actor?

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 11-19-2006, 11:07 AM:

No because Sacha is Borat and... ah who gives a crap, any more than this is just pointless squabbling, like in the typo thread. I dont find him funny, I'll just leave it at that. Sorry about the double post on the article, I'll edit it, not sure why that happened.

Posted by Anslem Rayburn (Member # 1267) on 11-20-2006, 04:24 AM:

Jews who hate jews, good times. Irish who hate irish, good times. Fun that exposes others, good times.

I'm Irish, German, and Cherokee Indian. Good times are good times. If you laugh at others, and are offended when others laugh back, you are douche-bag. You get what you deserve. God (and Johnny Cash)be with you if you don't like a good joke...

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-20-2006, 12:00 PM:

I am getting so tired of all the religious groups getting offended over this or that. You are only offended if you ALLOW yourself to be offended...it's a personal choice. You can suck it up and slough it off, or you can stew in your own juices over it, but don't involve the rest of the world. Political correctness in general is a huge pain in the ass and probably responsible for more fighting than for any good it's done.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 11-21-2006, 01:30 AM:

Mike, to keep from ruffling the feathers of the PC crowd/jerks, I'm sure you meant "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas". [Wink]

Posted by Dave Williams (Member # 299) on 11-21-2006, 04:56 AM:

quote: Mike Heenan
The reason I posted the video was to point out Sacha's douchebag attitude towards the guy, who was doing to Sacha what he did to people in the film, not whether the guy spoofing Borat was funny or not.

I just think you are pissed that someone other than you is making money... real money... and you don't get any... so therefore he is a douchebag and this is your excuse to call him one..

So people are douchebags because they don't spend all their damn time in the world trying to impress people who already think they are douchebags that they aren't douchebags...

In the movie he is in character. Is everyone a douchebag that doesn't act the way that everyone expects them to act all the damn time? How about the guy that makes your fries at mcdonalds. Is he a douchebag because he doesn't stop and make you fries when you walk by him at the supermarket?

I really am not trying to rag on you personally as I normally respect much of what you say, but the douchebag thing seems a little over the top for someone that was not in character and not contractually obligated to do anything but show up.

Imagine if you boss started calling you a douchebag because you refused to work 100 hours a week for the cost of 40. You are really great at getting paid for all of your 40 hours, but why wont you work for an extra sixty hours for free? Isn't it your duty to do that?

Just a thought. I am probably being a douchebag. I haven't seen the film yet though, I am waiting for movies that have great wet nipple scenes.

Rock on man!!! Ciao [evil]

Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 11-21-2006, 11:40 AM:

Dave, Mike goes by the psuedonym Rock Johnson, so I'm sure he makes plenty of money. [Big Grin]