Posted on 12/15/2005 8:39:08 PM PST by LdSentinal
ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) Kazakhstan needs to chill out and leave Borat alone, an international media watchdog group says.
Reporters Without Borders is criticizing Kazakhstan for going too far in its war over the words of British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, best known in the U.S. as the title character of the satirical "Da Ali G Show."
The leaders of the Central Asian ex-Soviet nation, fuming over Cohen's brutally satirical portrayal of an ignorant Kazakh journalist, pulled the plug this week on his Web-site use of a Kazakh Internet domain name.
That move led the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders to issue a statement Wednesday saying that the government's decision to block Cohen from a ".kz" domain name is censorship. The group also expressed concern about "the politicization of the administration of domain names."
Cohen's Borat Sagdiyev has upset the Kazakhstan government with comedic statements suggesting that Kazakhs make wine out of fermented horse urine, shoot dogs for fun and consider incest and rape popular hobbies.
Cohen's show, which is broadcast only in English on American and British television, is virtually unknown to most Kazakhs.
Kazakhstan's embassies in Washington and elsewhere have lodged protests through media interviews and letters. But Cohen's appearance as Sagdiyev last month on the MTV Europe Music Awards -- during which he made fun of President Nursultan Nazarbayev -- prompted the Foreign Ministry to threaten legal action.
"We do not rule out that Mr. Cohen is serving someone's political order designed to present Kazakhstan and its people in a derogatory way," Ministry spokesman Yerzhan Ashykbayev said.
In a statement posted on the now-blocked Borat Web site, Cohen, who is Jewish, said: "I like to state, I have no connection with Mr. Cohen and fully support my government's position to sue this Jew."
"Since the 2003 ... reforms Kazakhstan is as civilized as any other country in the world," he said in his video address using the blue Kazakh national flag as a backdrop. "Women can now travel on inside of bus, homosexuals no longer have to wear blue hat and age of consent has been raised to eight years old."
Maybe it's just me, but I never found this fella's schtick to be particularly amusing.
Well, it's probably not just you, but I can assure you he has plenty of fans here in the US.
He's an equal opportunity satirist, and some of his skits (including singing a butchered national anthem at a Texas rodeo) probably don't sit well with some of the more anal retentive on this board. But check out Ali G's interview of Andy Rooney if you want to see some of the best he has to offer.
I believe I recall the Andy Rooney bit, and that was amusing. I caught part of his "Ali G" movie the other week, and that was what kinda left me scratching my head over what the fuss was all about.
You must have better taste than me! :)
I find his schtick absolutely hysterical. Sick, wrong, twisted, but hysterical. He's sort of a modern-day Andy Kaufman. Wine out of horses' urine!
...and according to Borat, in Kazakhstan, women do not have the right to vote but horses do, LOL!
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