Borat the Movie

[waverunner]

In the spirit of the film... here's an old one

 

[waverunner]

ok now i'm getting carried away but fuck it

 

[MysteryGuest]

I really really really can't wait for this. I love a good parody, and Borat makes me do very intense laughing noises. Better character than Ali G imo.

 

[gsv]

OK so he's exposing some people's opinions of foreigners, but by promulgating an entirely new and nasty ethnic prejudice.
Nasty cunt imo (based on other history as well), shouldn't be given the airtime.

GS(v)

 

[Loki]

^ yes, this Borat person makes me realise how stupid and backward Kazaks are and how superior I and my culture are.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Taking Borat seriously means you have no capicity to laugh at yourself. We laugh because he reflects our ignorance.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

OK so he's exposing some people's opinions of foreigners, but by promulgating an entirely new and nasty ethnic prejudice.
Nasty cunt imo (based on other history as well), shouldn't be given the airtime.

GS(v)

Rubbish. The portrayal of Kazakhs in Borat is so far removed from what Kazakhs are actually like that it completely departs from reality. If it was more like the actual kazakhstan but making these stereotypes, your post would be correct. But it isn't, so it isn't.

It's taking somewhere that most people would know nothing about, and exposing peoples' ignorance.

 

[STFC]

Is Borat Offensive? A panel carefully selected by The Guardian discusses the burning issue.

A Kazakh speaks:

In the end, it doesn't really matter if Borat is from Kazakhstan or any other relatively unknown country. All the shots were taken outside Kazakhstan, and there is not a single Kazakh person in the film. For me, the film is so detached from reality that it's difficult to find it offensive, but I know some students have been offended by this film and the whole Borat character.

 

[nino_savatte]

Sorry but BORДT does not spell "Borat" in Cyrillic.

This is Borat - БOPAT. The other is Vo...er...the "R" doesn't exist in Cyrillic.

In case any of you were wondering "Я" is pronounced as a "ya" sound. So Toys Я Us really means Toys? Ya, us!

 

[The Groke]

Is Borat Offensive? A panel carefully selected by The Guardian discusses the burning issue.

The best thing about the panel, was that it included:

Dawn Vincent, donkey expert

 

[Poi E]

The best thing about the panel, was that it included:

Dawn Vincent, donkey expert

What on earth.

 

[llantwit]

Borat (and the early Ali G) is good because his comedy puts us in such an awkward position as viewers. It's not a question about whether he's offensive or simply parodic - he's clearly both offensive and parodic... as viewers we can't quite decide, and that's fecking exciting and funny. He doesn't offer us any easilly understandable position from which to take in his comedy - he makes us laugh at bigotry (like the anti-semetic stuff) but he also implicates us in that bigotry (who doesn't feel slightly uncomfortable when laughing at that 'throw the jew down the well' stuff?.
It's good (and quite radical) because it's disruptive and not an altogether easy experience, like all the best comedy/satire (Chris Morris, Alan Partridge, etc).
That's what I reckon, anyway.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

I agree. I don't agree with the person in the article who claimed he was just like Bernard Manning. In fact in many ways he's like a modern day Johnathan Swift. OK, not quite as good, but there you go...

 

[kyser_soze]

Hehe...that would be quite funny wouldn't it? Someone writing a modern variant on Swift's 'Modest Proposal' - say for Africa - and seeing what the reaction was...or maybe a rewrite of Gulliver taking in the big world religions...Lilliput re-written for Islam/Christianity

Unfortunately it's also a bit obvious and self-consciously post-modern and would be seen for what it is too quickly I reckon...

 

[Jorum]

My wife is from Kazakhstan so don't think gonna be seeing this one.

I think the majority Kazakstani view is that is not so much offensive becasue it is so massively far removed from anything resembling Kazakstan.

Especially the thing about women. Remember it is a former Soviet state and the Soviets were quite big on equality of sexes.
(although the native Kazakhs are of nomadic tribal descent so probably a bit less egalitarian culture)

How do you know most don't have TVs?
They probably do. Whether they can receive western TV stations on them is another matter, of course.

Yeah Kazakhstan was a major resource area from the USSR (and also where space launches are made) so pretty much level with any other part of the USSR.
Due to privatisation and massive amounts of oil and uranium there are now lots of millionaires as well.

 

[Jorum]

Having said all that, their president is a dodgy corrupt murderous git.
And unfortunatley alot of ex-soviet countries suffer from widespread racism

 

[Poi E]

Having said all that, their president is a dodgy corrupt murderous git.
And unfortunatley alot of ex-soviet countries suffer from widespread racism

I wonder why SBC didn't choose Uzbekistan. Afraid of being boiled?

 

[nino_savatte]

I wonder why SBC didn't choose Uzbekistan. Afraid of being boiled?

 

[iROBOT]

I agree. I don't agree with the person in the article who claimed he was just like Bernard Manning. In fact in many ways he's like a modern day Johnathan Swift. OK, not quite as good, but there you go...

Or maybe a Peter Sellers? Us Indian descended folk are still confronted by his stereotype of us.

 

[Loki]

My wife is from Kazakhstan so don't think gonna be seeing this one.

I think the majority Kazakstani view is that is not so much offensive becasue it is so massively far removed from anything resembling Kazakstan.

The word "Boratstan" was used I think by a Kazakh representative in the US. I honestly can't see sensible Kazakhs taking personal offence, any more than us Swedes felt insulted by the Swedish chef on the muppets

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Or maybe a Peter Sellers? Us Indian descended folk are still confronted by his stereotype of us.

Yes, but Seller's Indian portrayal was semi-realistic, which made it quite offensive in today's view. It's the one negative aspect of the Goon Show.

On the other hand, Borat is so far away that it carries a great deal of contradictions, and as many in that article said, is actually quite subversive. Anyone who knew anything about kazakhstan would know that the character bore little to no resemblance.

Admittedly all I really know about the place is from a film called the Killer (excellent, highly underrated Hana Bi-esque thriller) but that made it look in many ways more like China than the sort of Afghanistan-type place Borat portrays.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Jorum, have you seen The Killer?

 

[Idaho]

I just don't get people who complain that he's taking the piss out of Kazakhstan, when clearly the only people being made to look stupid are the Americans who react to him...

I think 20% of the audience think that. The other 80% think "haha - that funny foreigner - isn't it great we are allowed to laugh at funny foreigners again. They really are barely civilised."

I also think that SBC once again picks on very semitic targets - a gay german, an asian briton, and now an anti-semitic central asian.

 

[Jorum]

Jorum, have you seen The Killer?

I haven't - may have to look it up somewhere.

To give you some idea of differences between UK and Kazakhstan consider this:- My wife's college and another local one some kind of rivalry because one was very big on mathamatics while the other had good reputation for foreign language studies. (?)
My school was rivals with the neighbouring one because they liked to kick shit out each other at lunchtimes.........

If anyone is interested this website http://www.chimkent.kz/fotos.php has lots of pictures of Chimkent and surrounding areas, which is probably good example of a Kazakhstan city.

Then when people talk about Borat you can impress them with your extensive knowledge

A quaint little local exhibition

 

[Poi E]

<packs bags for Chimkent>

 

[Loki]

I also think that SBC once again picks on very semitic targets - a gay german, an asian briton, and now an anti-semitic central asian.

SBC by the way comes from a nice middle class Jewish family in Staines.

I think courses on satire should be made more widely available meself.

 

[Ms T]

Exactly - plus he doesn't even look like a Kazakh. It's taking the piss out of perceptions, not Kazakhstan itself. IMHO.

I'm not sure about that. Isn't the President of Kazakhstan an autocratic nutcase who's banned opera and ballet, and made his own poetry compulsory in schools?

 

[iROBOT]

I'm not sure about that. Isn't the President of Kazakhstan an autocratic nutcase who's banned opera and ballet, and made his own poetry compulsory in schools?

Nursultan Nazarbayev...yes a bit dodgy, corruption, vote rigging...(usual stuff) ...dont know about poetry bit though.

 

[Idaho]

SBC by the way comes from a nice middle class Jewish family in Staines.

I know, which is why I am suspicious of the particular cultures he selects for ridicule.

 

[Poi E]

I'm not sure about that. Isn't the President of Kazakhstan an autocratic nutcase who's banned opera and ballet, and made his own poetry compulsory in schools?

Not confusing him with the colourful Niyazov, "Turkmenbashi", father of the Turkmens?