Borat...right or wrong?

DublinWriter

I grew up in the 1970's where 'thick paddy', 'Irish', 'paki' and 'nig-nog'/'darkie' jokes were a part of the staple diet of mainstream British TV comedy beamed over here.

Thankfully, the whole alternative-comedy movement blew apart most of this dross and made British comedy reinvent itself into a more intelligent, sharper and less racist shape.

As much as I admire Sasha Baron-Cohen and find him an incredibly gifted satirist, I still am very uneasy about how he hijacked Kazakhstan and its culture to pass-off his Borat character.

I found his recent movie to be hilarious, but still, to me, it was part of a guilty pleasure.

Surely he could have made up some central European state and pretended the Borat character came from there? Most of the American numb-nuts he interviewed/parodied wouldn't have known the difference.

I speak as someone old enough to remember how the UK ridiculed the Irish culture and feel that for all of SBC's intelligence that maybe it's just a more intelligent form of what you'd see on 'The Comedians' of a Saturday evening on ITV in the mid-1970's?

AlmightyCushion

I thisk he's right. As far as I'm concerned if it's funny, it's funny. I laugh at all those paddy irish man jokes that make us irish out to be a bunch of drunken buffons, why shouldn't I laugh when someone jokes about another country and it's people. It's not racism it's just comedy. Simple as that.

Hagar

A serious thread in Humour?

Let's hear your views.

311

I never seen the borat film ,but I'm sure the bloke is as intelligent as he is funny.

6th

Sasha Baron-Cohen > Jim Davison

Creamy Goodness

what's not to like tbh.

*kazak translation*
"the jews are shapeshifting, quick throw them money!"

Oriel

Humour is like crime - there's always a victim, now matter how small.

humbert

does he not use the character to highlight all the prejudices in american/western society.

dulpit

humbert wrote:

does he not use the character to highlight all the prejudices in american/western society.

Ya, like in the film when he was down in the southern states talking to that guy who said that all the gays (or blacks, i can't remember) should be hung... Admittedly he is taking the piss out of the kazachks (sp???) but it's comedy adn it makes the yanks look stoopid...

petes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIGyE8uPYvE

mickrourke

I don't know how you can compare Borat to Jim Davidson? Jim Davidson jokes were racist/sexist and Borat exposes racists/sexists by pretending to be like his interviewees and the funny thing is there are actually people out there who believe he is like them with his outrageous statements. There is also the fact that Cohen himself is a Jew. Is it not like one of us telling paddy Irishman jokes? . And anyway you can't tell me that the funniest thing you have ever seen wasn't the naked wrestling - I was sore with laughing....

dil999

mickrourke wrote:

I don't know how you can compare Borat to Jim Davidson? Jim Davidson jokes were racist/sexist and Borat exposes racists/sexists by pretending to be like his interviewees and the funny thing is there are actually people out there who believe he is like them with his outrageous statements. There is also the fact that Cohen himself is a Jew. Is it not like one of us telling paddy Irishman jokes? . And anyway you can't tell me that the funniest thing you have ever seen wasn't the naked wrestling - I was sore with laughing....

Have you watched it a number of times:)

6th

mickrourke wrote:

I don't know how you can compare Borat to Jim Davidson? Jim Davidson jokes were racist/sexist and Borat exposes racists/sexists by pretending to be like his interviewees and the funny thing is there are actually people out there who believe he is like them with his outrageous statements. There is also the fact that Cohen himself is a Jew. Is it not like one of us telling paddy Irishman jokes? . And anyway you can't tell me that the funniest thing you have ever seen wasn't the naked wrestling - I was sore with laughing....

Mate can you read? I said Sasha Baron-Cohen > Jim Davison as in he is greater than. The OP was making out that Baron-Cohen was a racist, I was saying that he's not exactly Davison.

Seriously, do you see an equals sign in my post?

311

I thought there was a silimarity meant by your post aswell 6th:(

mickrourke

6th wrote:

Mate can you read? I said Sasha Baron-Cohen > Jim Davison as in he is greater than. The OP was making out that Baron-Cohen was a racist, I was saying that he's not exactly Davison.

Seriously, do you see an equals sign in my post?

Sorry didn't see the greater than sign but i'm not the only one who picked it up wrong. Would a not equals sign (≠) have been
clearer than greater than? But then i suppose
cohen is the greater comedian.

6th

I forgive you all ... and the ≠ is gay.

mickrourke

6th wrote:

I forgive you all ... and the ≠ is gay.

Thank you oh great wise one. I will sleep easy tonight knowing I have your forgiveness.....

Blackhorse Slim

mickrourke wrote:

There is also the fact that Cohen himself is a Jew. Is it not like one of us telling paddy Irishman jokes? .

No. You're completely missing the point. Cohen is not taking the piss out of Jews, he's taking the piss out of Muslim tradition and culture. It's more like a Unionist pretending to be a thick 'Oirish' paddy telling unfunny anti-Brit jokes.

Tar.Aldarion

He is hilarious. Somebody takes the piss out of you? So? Lighten up.

Maximilian

If someone posed as a thick irish stereotype in order to make fools of say, prejudiced brits, I would never have a problem. In fact if its a funny joke, I couldn't care less who the butt of it is.

Surely the uneasiness circuits in your brain are missing the point. The joke is on the Americans not on the Kazaks. In a broader sense, the joke is on ignorant people as a whole. Now its ok to laugh at them.