I Smell a Borat [A review by Ben Stein]

American Spectator ^ | December 27, 2006 | Ben Stein

[Quilla]

Let's talk about Borat. I finally caught up with it at my local theater here in Rancho Mirage not long ago. It made me laugh a few times, but basically I hated it. Here's why.

1.) The auteur and star of the movie, Sacha Baron Cohen, is a Jew of high degree in England and now in Hollywood. But much of the movie is viciously anti-Semitic. This includes not just some but many "jokes" about killing Jews, about how Jews are the devil, about how Jews will kill for money, about how Jews are like cockroaches (the last a direct steal from Joachim Goebbels, who compared Jews with breeding rats and insects). This is in a world where we just lived through an anti-Semitic holocaust with the same themes and another is promised by the terrorists in Iran.

These are not funny jokes. These are really just old-fashioned sickening racism disguised as hipness. It's also a smug joke by Sacha Cohen which is basically his endlessly saying, "I hate Jews, too, even though I'm Jewish, and hey, I guess I don't look Jewish because I can say all these horrible Jew hatred things and no one says, 'Hey, what are you doing? You're a Jew.'"

It's repulsive.

[Dominic Harr]

Yes!!!!!!

What was it, "Nobody move or the ni***r gets it!"

[Frwy]

Seems to me that any "comedy" that requires this much explanation isn't comedy at all. I won't hazard a guess as to what it is, at least not aloud, but let's just say it isn't good. There can never be anything funny about the Holocaust, Jews as a Religious sect and certainly not about muslims as a religious sect who only desires to kill the infidels, of which I know I am one. If you are too, and see humor in it, then one of us is not getting it. I don't think it's me.

[freedomlover]

There were racist jokes in Blazing Saddles?
:-D

One or two, if memory serves!

---

It's TWUE it's TWUE!

[ssaftler]

Amen to Ben on his commentary. A few times, you laugh in spite of yourself, but, unlike the great comic minds of years ago, Borat is from the school of "well, if it was funny once, it will be hilarious by the 15th time we do the same shtick" writing that passes for comedies today.

[sportutegrl]

Okay, drunk college students and cowboys, then.

[raybbr]

Exactly. Many are saying some just don't "get" Borat's humor. What's not to "get"? I got that kind of young, trashy humor in high school.

It's astounding how many adults still live in the locker room. The guys I work with will literally sit and talk about farts for half an hour. Laughing the whole time. What's truly funny is that they are talking about yesterday's farts most of the time. I just walk out of the room.

[ssaftler]

I was thinking more of the old lady in town that says "Up yours, ni***r!"

[sarasota]

Each time I see a rerun I find comedic gems I missed the time before. Where did those writers go....?

[AmishDude]

The rest are Southerners who are too polite to tell him to his face what they think of his anti-semitic comments.

In particular, too polite to tell who they believe is a sheltered and uneducated foreigner with a poor grasp of the English language those things to his face.

[Peter Libra]

Thanks for the post

I had posted much less but negative criticisms of BORAT. Still, I did not see it, to be honest. I drew on my experiences of English "humour". This when I lived there. The ultimate "joker" was a known part of the scene.

People were easily intimidated by the view that "can't you take a joke?". In the same vein, "you have to be broad minded". People seemed mesmerized into not taking umbrage. In this way the "joker" could embarrass women, could even lightly "jokingly" fondle women. This kind of guy often got away with "murder".

The acid test was that person's reaction IF THEY WERE THE BUTT OF A SO-CALLED JOKE. Nasty is the word.

The man is cruel, sick, twisted inside. Somebody handed him a technical knockout in New York City. Good on you Charlie Fasthands- or whatever you fight under. LOL

[Joe 6-pack]

I see very few movies in the theater, and only go to those that come highly recommended from a trusted source. Many of my friends told me Borat would have me laughing so hard I shouldn't even bother buying popcorn. Even talk show host Larry Elder endorsed the movie, and I tend to be very simpatico with his sense of humor. I went to see the movie over Thanksgiving, and while I admit there were a handful of scenes that had me rolling, I was unimpressed. I did get the impression that he was skewering anti-Semites with some very over-the-top satire...apart from that, I left the movie highly disappointed. The movie tried to rely on the 'Russian rube lost in America,' schtick that was pioneered over 20 years ago by Yakov Smirnov...who was not only a real Russian, but pulled it off a thousand times better than Borat/Cohen...

"I LOVE this country!"

[netmilsmom]

>>Like the racist jokes in Blazing Saddles.<<

Nope, not at all.
The point of the jokes in Blazing Saddles was to make those stating racist remarks look as stupid as possible while Black Bart and his chaingang friends were make out to be the intelligent ones.

Is that what happens in Borat?
Correct me if I'm wrong.

[The_Media_never_lie]

Agreed. What ever happened to Yakov Smirnov? Did he become Americanized?

[Steve_Seattle]

"intellectual humor (Frazier)"

There was some of that in Frazier, but a lot of it was a (funny) re-hash of old themes : mixed messages in romantic situations, misunderstandings that lead to absurd consequences, talking birds repeating embarrassing things, vanity and pomposity, etc. A lot of Frazier was making fun of over-intellectualized people and pretentious artsy-fartsy people, not the least of which was Frazier himself. I love the scene where he's dating several women, and two show up at his condo at the same time. Indignant, the women bond and are leaving on the elevator. As the elevator door is closing, Frazier pleads: "Please, come back! Either one of you!" Of course, that seals his doom as far as those two women are concerned.

[kawaii]

Borat sleeps with his sister, and men under some bizzare rules regarding why and when, he washes his face in a toilet, and craps in a hotel flower bed.

Could the character seem any less intelligent?

[Quilla]

I see very few movies in the theater, and only go to those that come highly recommended from a trusted source.

Same here. However, Charles Krauthammer is solely responsible for the two hours I wasted on Sideways.

[zek157]

kind of like Jimmy Carter's jokes?

I'll take a pass.

[dogbyte12]

Sasha Cohen is fluent in Hebrew and lived in Israel for a time. He is actually speaking in Hebrew. Jews in Israel who have been watching the movie have been chuckling over him using hebrew idiomatic language with his character. They get the irony. Ben Stein doesn't. I am not going to the theater to watch this movie, but some people need to get a grip. A jewish pro israel guy is making a movie mocking anti-semitism by playing a boorish anti semite. Some people find it funny, some don't. Move on.

[BenLurkin]

ditto

[Dominic Harr]

Not sure if you've seen the movie, but his 'humor' is mostly saying outrageous things and getting a reaction out of people. Watching how people *try* and be nice, putting up with him -- to a point. Then watching them finally get fed up and throw him out.

Imagine if you met some guy, were having a normal conversation, and the guy said something like, "My sister is number 3 prostitute in my country! And believe me, I know, she's good!"

A lot of it is funny, some isn't.