Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat

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Borat

Borat Sagdiyev is a satirical Kazakhstani journalist caricature invented and played by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. Borat evolved from a previous character that Cohen portayed, an Albanian TV reporter called Kristo and was also possibly influenced by internet celebrity Mahir Çağrı.

He appeared regularly on Da Ali G Show, with skits featuring him often relying on Borat's outrageous behavior and actions, and the reactions of uninformed individuals around him. In some cases, Borat's guests embrace his outrageous anti-Semitism and misogyny by agreeing with him, while other guests attempt to explain Western values to him.

Background and technique: Based on a doctor that actor Sacha Baron Cohen met in southern Russia, Borat is featured in each episode of Da Ali G Show, doing satirical interviews with various people who apparently do not realize the show's nature. He has visited Britain and the United States.

Borat often finds himself in ridiculous situations that involve painfully funny physical comedy. Some have compared Cohen's Borat character with some of Peter Sellers' work. However, it is not clear whether one of Sellers' characters would have told a female member of the Oklahoma City Council that he wishes to "make romance inside of you", followed by the exclamation "all day I think of you, no clothes, wa-wa-wee-wa. That is very wonderful."

The character's supposed Kazakh origins are purely a plot device, and almost all of his statements about that nation are false. However, the almost complete lack of knowledge about Kazakhstan and its culture among typical Westerners gives Borat's character license to do whatever he wants; the people Borat interacts with are often extremely afraid of offending him by being intolerant of what they perceive to be cultural differences. Most people in Kazakhstan have never heard of Borat.

In order to pass himself off as foreign, Sacha writes his alleged notes in Hebrew, and uses occasional Polish words (Dziękuję thank you, Jak się masz how are you, Dzień Dobry good day, Przepraszam sorry) when speaking to people—not using Kazakh or Russian (the state and official languages of Kazakhstan). This has nearly had Sacha exposed as a fake in midfilming.

He has also lapsed into Hebrew while purporting to sing the Kazakhstani national anthem (in fact a simple reciting of major Kazakhstani cities) at a Savannah Sand Gnats game. In Hebrew, he kept on repeating, "I've got no job[...]give me a job", ("ein li avoda [...] ten li avoda"), and also called Kazakhstan a "hole".

The hair and mustache are real, and it takes Sacha six weeks to grow them; some women find Borat to be attractive, and ask for dates after filming. Borat's suit has also never been washed, which may cause him to smell "foreign" to those he encounters, adding to the apparent authenticity of his character.

On November 3, 2005, Borat was the host of the MTV Europe Music.

Controversy: Borat has been the cause of some controversy, mostly related to his frequent displays of anti-Semitism but also notably for his portrayal of Kazakh culture. Awards 2005 show in Lisbon.

Sacha Baron Cohen, who plays Borat, is himself Jewish. This justifies his character's racist nature, stating that the segments are a "dramatic demonstration of how racism feeds on dumb conformity, as much as rabid bigotry," rather than a display of racism by Cohen himself.

However, the Anti-Defamation League, a prominent Jewish anti-racism group, complained to HBO after Borat performed a Country and Western song that called on people to 'throw the Jew down the well', warning them that 'you must be careful of his teeth' and that 'you must grab him by the horns', to applause and participation from an audience in Tucson, Arizona.

An interview with James Broadwater, a Republican candidate for U.S. Congress, caused Broadwater to receive some hateful emails after an episode of Da Ali G Show aired in which he stated that Jews will go to Hell. He was told that the interview would be played in foreign countries to teach others about the American political system.

Broadwater later posted a letter on his website denouncing Da Ali G Show, explaining that his statement referred to a theological belief that anyone that "accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will spend eternity in Heaven, while everyone who rejects Him will spend eternity in Hell." Broadwater did not apologize for his comments, which some saw as insensitive and inflammatory. Instead, he insisted that "the liberal, anti-God media needs to be brought under the strict control of the FCC, and that as soon as possible."

Conflicts with Kazakh Government: In November 2005, following Borat's hosting of the MTV Europe Music Awards in Lisbon, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry voiced their concerns about the character. Foreign Ministry spokesman Yerzhan Ashykbayev told a news conference "We view Mr. Cohen's behaviour at the MTV Europe Music Awards as utterly unacceptable, being a concoction of bad taste and ill manners which is completely incompatible with ethics and civilised behaviour", concluding "We reserve the right to any legal action to prevent new pranks of the kind".

Baron Cohen has since posted a video on the "Official Borat Homesite" where Borat responds to Ashykbayev in character. In the video, Borat states, in part, "In response to Mr. Ashykbayev's comments, I'd like to state I have no connection with Mr. Cohen and fully support my Government's decision to sue this Jew. Since the 2003 Tuleyakiv reforms, Kazakhstan is as civilized as any other country in the world. Women can now travel on inside of bus, homosexuals no longer have to wear the blue hats, and the age of consent has been raised to eight years old."

Reuters has quoted an unnamed Western diplomat as saying "They (the Kazakh Government) are damned if they do (respond) and damned if they don't," he said. "It's sort of unfortunate that he hit upon Kazakhstan."

The next week, the government hired two Western public relations firms to counter Borat's claims, and ran a four-page advertisement in the New York Times. The ad carries testimonials about the nation’s democracy, education system and the power and influence enjoyed by women. On a previous occasion, Borat responded to official Kazakh complaints by issuing his own press release, which consisted of random Cyrillic characters.

Borat's conflict with Kazakh authorities has recently come to a head. On December 13, 2005 www.borat.kz was suspended: "We've done this so he can't badmouth Kazakhstan under the .kz domain name," Nurlan Isin, President of the Association of Kazakh IT Companies, told Reuters. "He can go and do whatever he wants at other domains."

Reporters Without Borders has petitioned the ICANN ombudsman to intervene and reverse this decision. Meanwhile, the "Official Borat Homesite" has been moved to the .tv domain.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors, This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Borat".