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Sacha Baron Cohen - The Real Borat - Finally Speaks
The Rolling Stone ^
| 11/16/06
| NEIL STRAUSS
Posted on 11/16/2006 11:36:37 AM PST by SirJohnBarleycorn
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To: MeanWestTexan
Sabbath observant "if it fits your schedule" is not how it works. But that's how Joe Lieberman and Dr. Laura thought it worked.
I have no problem with people making an honest effort, only with those who brag about it.
21
posted on
11/16/2006 11:50:44 AM PST
by
Alouette
(Psalms of the Day: 119: 1-96)
To: BunnySlippers
"racism, classism and anti-Semitism"
The credo of the Democrats?
To: SirJohnBarleycorn
23
posted on
11/16/2006 11:53:13 AM PST
by
karnage
To: Ghengis
"Cohen appears to strive for accuracy in the same way as Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock."
He doesn't 'strive for accuracy' in anyway at all or claim to. Did you think it was a documentary?!
24
posted on
11/16/2006 11:53:13 AM PST
by
Canard
To: Alouette
"I have no problem with people making an honest effort, only with those who brag about it."
Ditto.
25
posted on
11/16/2006 11:53:14 AM PST
by
MeanWestTexan
(Kol Hakavod Lezahal)
To: BunnySlippers
I agree. But Cohen seems to find jackasses in America ... and nowhere else. Not even his native Britain.You're wrong. He made his career finding jackasses in the UK. He just got much more famous in America when he brought his act here.
26
posted on
11/16/2006 11:54:04 AM PST
by
dead
(I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
To: SirJohnBarleycorn
In actuality, it turns out that Borat is a far more damning critique of America than it is of Kazakhstan.Please note: this is Neil Strauss saying this, not Borat
To: BunnySlippers
I guess you've never seen his material of Borat in England - where he sends up lawn bowling clubs, rowing, fox hunting, the British class system, etc. Hilarious. The Brits come off every bit as bigoted and dorky as the Americans he duped in the movie. The scene where he gets British aristocrats to gleefully admit that there is nothing more fun than killing small animals is just priceless.
28
posted on
11/16/2006 11:55:41 AM PST
by
karnage
To: SirJohnBarleycorn
"I was surprised, because I always had faith in the audience that they would realize 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
Very parochial. Just because Cohen hasn't heard anything about Kazakhstan doesn't mean the rest of the world hasn't. If he was trying for a fictitious country, he should have used a fictitious name. Obviously he never even considered what the reaction of the people of Kazakhstan to his misrepresentations might be - obviously he never considered anything about them. Incredibly elitist attitude.
In actuality, it turns out that Borat is a far more damning critique of America than it is of Kazakhstan. The jokes that Baron Cohen mentions above -- and all the rest about beating gypsies, throwing Jews down wells, exporting pubic hair and making monkey porn -- are clearly parody. But the America that Borat discovers on his cross-country trek here -- rife with homophobia, xenophobia, racism, classism and anti-Semitism -- is all too real.
Try hard enough and you'll find homophobia, xenophobia, racism, classism, and anti-Semitism everywhere. Lord knows you won't have to try as hard in England as you will in most of the US. The idea of someone from the UK presuming to mock Americans for classism and anti-Semitism is preposterous. How many fake interviews and takes did it get to find the people who eventually made the final cut? More than it would have taken anywhere in Western Europe.
To: SirJohnBarleycorn
It's okay though, because it's genuinely witty and funny and at times hilarious? Yeah, I think so.
To: SirJohnBarleycorn
I thought the movie was hysterical. And like it or not, there are racists and bigots out there. Is it a significant cause of poverty like the
breakdown of the family? No.
But does it exist and is it something that we should expose to public shame? Yes.
31
posted on
11/16/2006 11:57:20 AM PST
by
Jibaholic
(Whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets)
To: TommyDale
I may have to go out and see that stupid movie after all...
32
posted on
11/16/2006 11:58:00 AM PST
by
bondjamesbond
(Does it have to be McCain or Giuliani? Are we that pathetic?)
To: BunnySlippers
Really?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVtPuRTwGo4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txfHVG3ioAs
He started this routine in Britain. The same jokes work there as here. Borat's comedy in my opinion does not expose prejudice as much as it exposes the willingness of people to not offend someone or create confrontation to the point of agreeing with things that are not part of their character. Sure at times it may, but many more times I see clever editing or social facilitation as what is actually on display. Fact is, you could get the same footage in Kazakhstan.
-- lates
-- jrawk
P.S. it is hysterically funny.
33
posted on
11/16/2006 11:59:56 AM PST
by
jrawk
(RAWK)
To: SirJohnBarleycorn
When he attends a dinner party, it's at a home on SUCCESSION drive.
When he mocks frats boys, they're from the University of NORTH CAROLINA.
When he smashes up stuff in an antique shop, it's one that sells CONFEDERATE STUFF.
When he mocks a politician, it's ALAN KEYES --an "uppity" black man who has gotten in his head that he's a conservative. Later, he gets Bork.
When he invades a place of worship, it's an evangelical CHURCH.
Virtually the only time in the movie that he's really unPC is when he calls a feminist "pussycat" --that is COVER for his core agenda, which is attacking traditional values.
When Cohen markets a movie where he vigorously insults muslims, THEN I will consider him edgy.
34
posted on
11/16/2006 12:00:13 PM PST
by
gaijin
To: caver
>"He looks like Frank Zappa to me."Tengo na minchia tanta
Cool tune till you find out what the lyrics REALLY mean! I suspect the same of BoreRat!
35
posted on
11/16/2006 12:00:59 PM PST
by
rawcatslyentist
(When true genius appears, know him by this sign: all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.)
To: SirJohnBarleycorn
SOrry, but the Brits do a damn well good job finding the worst stereotypes of British Jews ad running with it in entertainment media. Have you seen "Lock, Stock, and 2 Smoking Barrels"?
To: SirJohnBarleycorn
"What would the reaction be if an American went to England, found a few examples of English Jews who would reinforce the worst stereotypes of Jews imaginable, and deceived and then mocked them on camera in a way that was genuinely witty and funny?"
Why don't they just do it?
37
posted on
11/16/2006 12:03:57 PM PST
by
Mac1
To: bondjamesbond
Sasha Cohen the ice skater co-wrote a book "FIRE ON ICE".
Photography done by MY NIECE KATHY GOEDEKEN!
GO KATHY!
Sasha Cohen: Fire on Ice: Autobiography of a Champion Figure Skater by Sasha Cohen, Amanda Maciel, Kathy Goedeken (Illustrator) Kathy used to be an olympics photographer. She is no longer doing that. She had a great time traveling for years, doing photography!
38
posted on
11/16/2006 12:04:13 PM PST
by
buffyt
(America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our people. Pres. George Bush)
To: dead
"Every nation has jackasses, and laughing at them is the appropriate response."
39
posted on
11/16/2006 12:04:57 PM PST
by
Enterprise
(Let's not enforce laws that are already on the books, let's just write new laws we won't enforce.)
To: BunnySlippers
But the America that Borat discovers on his cross-country trek here -- rife with homophobia, xenophobia, racism, classism and anti-Semitism -- is all too real. It's true. Really. They're called Democrats. Honest!
40
posted on
11/16/2006 12:06:23 PM PST
by
Enterprise
(Let's not enforce laws that are already on the books, let's just write new laws we won't enforce.)
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