Another Victim of Dread Urine-Going Borat

It's not just drunken University of South Carolina frat boys (hey, isn't that why they're called the Gamecocks?) what is upset at Baron Sacha Cohen's Borat:

The gag wasn't funny to former TV producer Dharma Arthur, who claims she was duped into giving Cohen airtime on a morning-show segment in Jackson, Miss. Cohen's live appearance, in which he said he had to go "urine" and hugged a weatherman, led her life into a downward spiral, Arthur said, and she wants an apology.

There is this small detail in the Arthur case: "Although Arthur has said she was fired from the show, she later said she left the station."

More tales of anti-Borat sentiment here.

Comments

[Top Secret Santa]

I wonder if America would find a character's antics so uproarious and newsworthy if it were an Arab comedian calling himself Schlomo and spoofing stereotypical Jewish culture.

[Mark VIII]

Hhhmmmm.

Have to say, saw Borat yesterday and was disappointed. Just a rehash of his TV show. And I say this as a person who rates Smokey and the Bandit and Police Academy 1 has his two favourite films of all time.

I dunno, it was just kinda average.

[Qbryzan]

I wonder if America would find a character's antics so uproarious and newsworthy if it were an Arab comedian calling himself Schlomo and spoofing stereotypical Jewish culture.

So would this "Schlomo" character be played by someone who is an Arab, who then talks to Jews and says bigoted things about Arabs, to which the Jews would then agree? Would he get them to join in a sing-along about the destruction of all the Arabs? That would also be fucking hilarious, assuming it were done with the same comic sensibilities as Mr Cohen.

[James]

I don't really get the point TSS is trying to make? Are you implying Cohen is making fun of stereotypical Arab culture? Have you seen anything related to Borat? 1) Cohen is playing a Slav from Kazakhstan (majority Muslim, with a large Russian minority) 2) There's nothing really stereotypical about the portrayal other than how Americans view outsiders. Much of the point is making us feel uncomfortable.

I do agree w/ Mark that it is a rehash of the show, and a largely inferior one. But I still laughed my ass off.

Somewhat more on topic? Are being fired and leaving somewhere mutually exclusive actions?

[Omar]

He's not so much making fun of people from Kazakhstan, he's making fun of Americans. The gag is that Americans believe he's for real and go along with all the awful things he says.

And no, Schlomo would probably not cut it. Neither would it cut it if Baron-Cohen dressed up as Ahmed the Arab. As a country, we are sensitive about those two particular cultures at the moment. We don't have anything for or against Kazakhstan. Nor do we really know what to expect from a natave. It's be the difference between a Mexican Borat and one from Bolivia.

That all aside though, for sure, the joke is on us.

[madpad]

If you've seen one or two Ali G episodes, you've pretty much seen them all.

Frankly, I'm enjoying seeing Cohen get nailed. For all his "genius" and ironic sendups of anti-semitism, Cohen is one genuine, hate-filled sicko with a limited range.

This guy isn't Jamie Kennedy 'X'ing people. This is a guy that really objectifies people - many of who'm are simply trying to genuinely be nice, polite and helpful - and holds them out for ridicule.

Cohen's whole schtic is based around innocent reactions to deadpans about prostitution, defacation and hating jews. Now the whole world is wise to him. IMHO, Cohen/Borat is vastly overrated with a concept that has nowhere left to go.

[Johncjackson]

This complaint was the first one I heard about, probably before the movie was released.

[Mark VIII]

The gag is that Americans believe he's for real and go along with all the awful things he says.

Nnnaaaahh - I call Bullshit on that. Borat does the same thing as Michael Moore except is far funnier, sillier and, as point of fact, kinder. The people don't agree with him they just don't know what the fuck he's talking about and end up looking stupid.

I don't agree with the people who say it's racist bilge. But I also don't side with the people who say it's a genius commentary on our times. It's just a dumbass movie - and all the better for it.

[madpad]

Yeah, Mark VIII...good point. Even I don't think Cohen's genuinely racist. And I obviously don't think he's a genius. Though I don't think he's kinder than Michael Moore. But Borat is, in the end, just a stupid movie.

The news out today is about him getting his ass beat in New York for trying his bit without a camera and pissing off his mark who though it was a sexual advance. Classic.

[Russell]

Is Borat maybe plagiarist of glorious Qazaq culture informative sites which are in parts reading :

"Andron Borqat tradition is first recorded in comedy diety of Begazy-Dandybay culture who on the surfaces of black cliffs burnt with the sun people would chisel out scenes of dances, images of sun-headed deities, mighty camels and bulls as impersonations of ancient gods who handled combat chariots marvellously. To this day we can see images where with the firmament as their natural cover are known for magnificient size of mounds and burial vaults proper of noble warriors scattered all throughout Qazaq steppes .

Particularly famous are such necropoles who initiated development of skilled metallurgists that would take bronze and manufacture axes, knives, daggers and various decorations thereof lived in large settlements surrounded with walls and fosses. These towns were inhabited with warriors and craftsmen priests. Later on they were ousted by Saks.The Chinese called them "se" whereas Greeks chose to call them Scythians. In fact Saks were the first ever horsemen in the world to master arrow-shooting at full tilt.

Qazaq Saks set up their first state with its centre in the Zhetysu (Semirechje). Kings of Saks were at the same time high priests had written language and were known for their well developed art of world standard labelled in research papers as represented by predators and herbivourous animals and the struggle therebetween.

Linguistic situation was just as complicated. As is traditionally believed tribes that spoke prothoturkic languages .They have found a silver bowl whose bottom bore an incription consisting of 26 characters. They have failed to read it Anyway, this must be the very period that highlighted formation of the cast of Qazaq mind and the language of their phychological stereotypes marked with manifest changes in ethnic media: Written sources of the VIth century register the term "Tyurk" which is pronounced as "Tutszyue" by the Chinese and as "Turk" by Sogdians. which might well be likened to early Kyrghyzes, early Kypchaks or early Oguzes.

In the course of not infrequent intestine wars, Turkic tribes ( say, Tyurgeshes, Karluks, Kypchaks, Uzbeks, Oguzes, Turkmens-Seldzhuks),moved to Eastern Europe (Kangars and Pechenegs, Kypchaks-and-Polovtsians, Torks-and-Oguzes, black Klobuks and Karakalpakians) All of them successively replaced one another up to the very Mongol invasion. After the invasion, there have shaped up uluses which later gave birth to Mongolistan and finally to Qazaq . Such cities as Taraz, Otrar, Ispijab, Talkhir were set up right in the way of the Grand Silk Route which served as a reliable link joining antiquity and Middle Ages, the West and the East: Japan, Korea and China with France and Italy. It is through the Grand Silk Route they would avidly absorb and assimilate all the ideas and achievements of various civilizations making -in its turn , its own contribution to the treasury of world culture one may name a mobile dwelling "yurta", saddle and stirrups for a horse, combat arts on horse-back, carpet ornaments and music reminding of an impetuous gallop of steppe horses....

[Russ 2000]

Qazaq? Please, let's use Cossack like we always did and stop the pseudo-intellectual bullshit with the obsessive use of the letter "Q".

[de stijl]

"led her life into a downward spiral"

Borat is the new Meth!

[mike in ftw]

I thought the movie had some really funny laugh out loud moments, but I don't get why some people are calling this a great movie that reveals so much about ourselves as Americans. What does it reveal? Drunk Southern 21 year old boys have immature sexist and racist views. Didn't need Borat to tell me that. Old good ole boys hate the entire Muslim world. I've known that since at least 1979 when my uncle had a bumpersticker that said "I would fly 5000 miles to smoke a camel" and had a picture of an F14 launching some missles at an Arab caricacture riding a camel. Pentecostals are pretty extreme?, yeah knew that too.

Cohen is poking fun at us, and did a good job of making me laugh, but I sure don't see anything in this movie that is much more "groundbreaking" than Talledegha Nights.

[mediageek]

That wacky Dharma.

How do you think Greg will get her out of this one?

[dhex]

there are some really good bruno clips out there as well. usually ending with "why don't you stop being such a fucking fag?"

[cynical bastard]

"Qazaq? Please, let's use Cossack..."

It is amazing how people this side of the pond can't make a distinction between "Kazakh" ("Qazakh"?) and "Cossack". Break out your goddamn dictionary, will ya?

[\"Q\" [aka Aresen]]

"pseudo-intellectual bullshit with the obsessive use of the letter "Q"."

Russ 2000

The Continuum is not pleased.

[M]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=7&entry_id=10918

[E&]

Sonoma State University in Cali was forced to change their name from the 'Cossacks' cause it offended somebody. Isn't that wierd?

[smerkin]

what'd they change it to? the cocksacks?

[Stevo Darkly]

They changed it to "the Steppe Ni&&az."