Posted on 09/29/2006 2:09:45 PM PDT by Panerai
Borat, a fictional Kazakh TV reporter whose boorish antics have got under the skin of the Central Asian state's government, seems destined to remain largely unknown in his "homeland."
Kazakhstan's largest chain of cinemas confirmed on Friday it had no plans to screen his forthcoming movie with its deliberately ungainly title "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan."
"We consider this movie offensive, a complete lie and nonsense," Ruslan Sultanov, distribution manager for Otau Cinema, told Reuters. "It's a shame that some Americans will probably believe what they see there."
In the movie, Borat Sagdiyev, a creation of British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, portrays Kazakhs as a nation of misogynists, racists and anti-semites whose favorite drink is fermented horse urine.
Speaking broken English peppered with something resembling Polish (his catchphrase 'Jagshemash' comes from hello), he also expresses support for the U.S.-led "war of terror" and provokes homophobic remarks from unsuspecting Americans.
The device was originally conceived by Cohen to satirize the prejudices of his interviewees but ever since he annoyed the government a year ago, Cohen has subtly shifted the joke to needle Kazakh officialdom.
A foreign ministry spokesman threatened "legal measures" against Cohen last November and the authorities shut down his www.borat.kz website, prompting a move to www.borat.tv.
The little I've seen of him is hilarious.
Yes, if I had to pick one word for Cohen's brand of comedy, that word would definitely be 'subtle'. /eye-roll
Didn't he interview Neal Armstrong and ask him what it was like to walk on Mars?
His humor is definitely an acquired taste --and for those who have acquired it, he is a riot!
Danged if I know, but it sounds like it would be funny, in the right context.
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