I thought it was funny up until the part where he “realizes” Jon is Jewish, and starts backing away. I know it’s part of the shtick but it felt creepy to see something so blatant, even in jest.
You know that the guy who plays Borat is also Jewish, right?
Hmm, you may want to avoid the movie. He does waaay worse when he realizes the adorable couple renting him a room at their bed and breakfast is Jewish.
You really can’t blame Borat for being wary of the Jew. In his country, there is problem…
Yeah, they refused to release his film in his home country because of the anti-Semitism.
Once he put a bunch more in, though, they agree to let it be shown.
I’m afraid I’m just getting a sort of Andy Kaufmanesque or “Peter Sellers when he was just being a really really weird self absorbed guy rather than a comedic genius” vibe from the whole thing. Personally I don’t find the clips I’ve seen or especially the personal appearances at all funny, but I’ll respect the rights of others to disagree until I’m in power.
Yes, the Andy Kaufman angle hit me during his walk out onto the stage.
I know my discomfort was kind of silly, and I think I would enjoy the movie more, because it’s deliberate and a fake medium. I know, I know, TDS is fake too, but Jon seems more real and not someone who signed up to play that part in the routine. That doesn’t explain it very well either. :smack:
Out of curiosity, Sampiro — have you seen the Ali G show? Because as a huge fan, I’m definitely in the camp of Sacha Baron Cohen being a genius. I’ve never known anybody or seen anybody who could stay in character like he can. It’s amazing. Sure, he only does three characters, but he becomes them. And despite the fact they are characatures (sp?!), he makes them believeable enough for people to think he’s legitimate. I don’t think there’s anybody out there as good at what he does as SBC.
On the other hand, I don’t know if I’ll catch Borat in the theater. I think it will suffer from the same-old same-old too long skit problem that affects most “let’s turn this character into a movie!” YMMV.
Also re: the Andy Kaufman thing - I don’t really agree with that angle. I certainly see the parallel with SBC’s willingness to let the audience/subject flounder while he’s staying in character. But I find SBC’s humor FROM THE OUTSIDE to be much more accessible than Andy Kaufman’s. As an example - giving the entire audience milk & cookies a la Kaufman — that’s just avant garde. I find it amusing, but it’s very odd. SBC pretending to interview Pat Buchannan as Ali G, and getting him to say that Saddam Hussein used BLT’s on his own people is funny from the outside. Not just funny to the comic. I don’t know if that made sense, but it’s my personal take on the matter.
If that isn’t a great sig line I don’t know what is. 
And it is transport?
It can’t be as bad as his Ali G movie. That one sucked. My guess is this will be dramatically better as it appears it follows the style of the show in that people are not aware he is an actor. The Ali G movie was scripted and used only actors in the know.
Well, that’s a bit naive. It wasn’t banned due to some overzealous political correctnes; they refused to release the film in Kazakhstan (if that’s what you’re saying; Cohen is from England) because quasi-president-for-life Nazarbayev is a big fan of censorship, especially when the Kazakh government is a target of the censored speech.
From what I understand, the story of the Kazakh government’s censorship of the film was actually a filthy lie perpetuated by the evil nitwits of Uzbekistan, who are rumored to be a very nosey people with a bone in the middle of their brain.
The only reason that bothered me was that it was so obviously set up, while the first part seemed more spontaneous. I loved his line about Bush’s father Barbara. I nearly hurt myself laughing at that one.
And the idea of hanging a carburator from your testicle-satchel.
I’m guessing fuel-injector technology has not yet reached Kazakhstan.
No, I’m pretty sure it was anti-semitism. Not enough anti-semitism.
Haven’t seen the movie, but I was under the impression that a lot of it was shot with real people not in on the joke, and that might make it even more uncomfortable for you if I’m correct.
I saw this the other way around - I enjoyed the backing-away bit a lot more because it was fresh. I’ve seen and heard the Barbara Bush (although the faces and noises were new, and hilarious) bit and the hanging-car-battery-from-testicle-satchel bit over and over and over again, and without the freshness, it gets rather dull. But watching the faces he made as he realized Jon was a jew was priceless. I don’t think it was a set-up, as SBC is notorious for absolutely refusing to break character while on this publicity tour (which must be exhausting!). I thought it was brilliant of Jon to use this angle to get a fresh interview out of him, and of course SBC did not disappoint in his reaction.
As Larry Borgia points out, I was actually relating one of Borat’s lines.
You know, in Kazakh, Bush means “pubic hair” and Barbara means “to eat.” So “Barbara Bush” actually means “to eat pubic hair!”