In a time of overwhelming political correctness, when gender neutrality is king and you can hardly make reference to any religious affiliation without being thrown to the hounds, it seems strange that a movie focused on doing just the opposite would get very far at all.
Seems strange. but it’s true. Tickets for a screening of “The Borat Movie,” the latest creation of Britain’s well-known comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, sold out in less than three minutes. In case you’ve been dwelling in a cave for the past few years, Cohen is the creator of Da Ali G Show, a deliciously offensive British comedy show in which he portrays three separate characters who interview various people.
One of his characters is Borat, a native of Kazakhstan with little idea of what acting politely in foreign cultures means. The movie has Borat, still completely unversed in American customs, coming to America as a journalist to make a documentary. The opening scene shows a “lustful” goodbye kiss between he and his sister . and it goes down a continuously more offensive slope from there.
Tickets for the screening of Cohen’s genius may have sold out in an incredibly short period of time, but does that mean that the film has been welcomed with open arms?
No, of course not. The media immediately took this chance to point out how Cohen’s character is “racist,” “sexist,” “crude,” and countless other equally angry terms. Rumors sprung up that President George W. Bush would be hosting talks with the president of Kazakhstan about Americans’ views of Borat’s “home” country-and this is all before the movie’s even officially been released.
Now, I’ll be honest. There’s no denying that Borat is a racist, bigoted character with a penchant for insensitive remarks. That’s part of what made him so famous-the fact that he says aloud what everyone else will barely admit to thinking.
So the question many ask is: is that okay? Is it okay for Cohen to make crude, crass, and even anti-Semitic remarks, relying on his character’s stupidity to make it humorous and not racist?
The answer is as plain as Borat’s overly emphasized accent: yes. Cohen’s comedy is obviously satirical, a deliberate means of making serious issues lighter, easier to take, and generally just amusing. Much like the show “All in the Family” years ago, Cohen is using his treatment of the material to poke fun at people who are actually prejudiced.
If that’s not enough to convince you, chew on this. Cohen himself is devoutly Jewish-he wrote his college thesis on Jewish involvement in the civil rights movement. Even Kazakhstan has, albeit reluctantly, admitted that they may not like his comedy, but they realize it’s satire. It seems that it’s only America that is still getting its metaphorical undies in a bunch over this.
And you know, that’s fine by me. Much like “Family Guy” and any other satirical comedy, people’s uptight reactions are what feed the flame. Without the angry responses of the offended, no satire would be complete.
When the Borat movie comes out, Kazakhstan can grumble and groan all they want; the media can scold and scold, and the politically correct can gnash their teeth and seethe, but that won’t stop the millions of people worldwide who can appreciate Cohen’s humor from spending their money on two hours of shameless, beautifully offensive fun.and you can be sure that I’ll be right there with them.