Borat - offensive??

[niceglasses]

My dh is Irish and said if there were a sort of Irish Borat he'd be annoyed too. I really think if there was an English one I wouldn't be. What d'ya think of Borat?

(Sacha Baron Cohen must be loving all this free pub)

he's funny! what's the problem with him? (have i missed something)

I think the Irish have been mocked and persecuted through history, haven't they? I don't think I would find it funny either.

very very irritating and embarrasing. I detest Borat (Ali G did have his moments).

I have laughed out loud at the occsional one-liner and bits of his physical performance, but as a whole thing about Kazakhstan I am apalled. I couldn't watch the bit where he pretended to seek self-defence advice for dealing with a 'jew attacking my wife' and the whole 'claw' thing, it made me feel sick....It's a fine line - when he managed to get some county officials running a gun club in Souhtern texas somewhere to admit that they regretted the abolition of slavery, it's pertinent, satirical and a great expose of bigotry - but his portrayal of a Khazakstani muslim completely undermines that.

I think the ambassador from Kazakstan was very diplomoatic when he said 'we see Borat as coming from fictional place which is Boratstan'.

I feel ambiguous about Borat too. Don't mind Baron Cohen revealing redneck attitudes in the developed world where we should all in theory know better, but lampooning a country where there is a lot of poverty and underdevelopment is a cheap way of doing it IMO.
Blu has put it better than me. A clever and instinctively funny man like Baron Cohen could do better than this I think.

I'm biased as I'm adopting my child from Kazakhstan so it sets my teeth on edge as mostly he's not exaggerating characteristics but actually making them up.

I agree that I don't get so wound up about people taking the piss out of the English on the whole but theres a whole raft of films and literature and news about England which give people a much more balanced view of us. This is probably the only exposure anyone will get to kazkahstan.

I suspect he picked Kazakhstan because the name sounds slightly "funny" and no-one knows anything about it so he can make up what he likes with impunity.

Would it have been so funny if he'd called the country "Pakistan" (insert country name of your own choice at this point) and made a film about how funny it was that they were a jew hating, racist, woman hating, backward country?

get a grip it's just comedy and funny too, they're not taking it offensively

Well quite Sue. We used to have a poster called Steppemum and I wonder if she was living (temporarily, I think her other half was an aid/development worker) in Kazakhstan, and what she and the people who made her family welcome there would make of all this

Well they are, actually - the Kazakhsatn gvt are very very upset - and for the reasons SueJonez and niceglasses dh cite, I'm not surprised!

My mother is Irish too and very prickly indeed about the stereotyping of her home country. She doesn't even like Fr Ted

Here's an interesting Sydney Herald opinion column on the topic.

southeastastralplain - they are indeed very offended although publically the Ambassador to the UK is putting a brave face on, a lot of Kazakhs are bemused about why they have been singled out on the world stage to be called bigots.

I haven't seen it so no idea about how funny it is but it strikes me (for reports) as being the kind of comedy which laughs at misfortune/disadvantage which has never really been my thing.

Just to correct the Syney Herald - KAzakhstan is NOT in Eatsern Europe - its in Central Asia.

not seen it but just generally don't get Sacha Baron Cohen.. never really got Ali G either...

And the Daily Mail jumped on the band wagon last week with a double page spread on sending a journalist to KAzakhstan who spent most of the article making fun of the fact that the national dish is a sheeps head.

a - my grandmother used to cook pigs head/cheek trotters etc which wasn;t so very long ago
b - what do you think other countries would make of our strange habit of turning pigs blood and fat into a sausage and eating it for breakfast?!

I really dislike this kind of sneery laughing at other cultures, like we're so superior. But don;t get me started on the Daily Mail

but what about avid merrion (he's meant to be from romania i think) where do you draw the line. it's comedy and funny.

If the Irish are incapable of laughing at themselves, how come RTE commissioned Father Ted?

Is Avid Merrion the same one who does a sort of Michael Jackson parody? If so, yeah, I find him offensive, more so than Borat probably.

I'm afraid I have found the embassy etc getting wound up, pretty funny. But I probably shouldn't. Is Kazakhstan the same one with a national leader who's renamed all the months and is obsessed with chess? Or is that Tajikstan?

I bet there are actual Irish people involved in the making of Father Ted. In which case, yes, the Irish are laughing at themselves, which is fine. That's not what Borat is about though, is it ...

Interestingly dh said he had 'got over' Irish jokes, but he thought an Irish Borat would just be too much probably for the reasons F&Z stated. It just got me thinking as to why I wouldn't find and English Borat in anyway offensive (I think) and the reasons for this. Maybe cos I find some aspects of our culture funny and don't mind pple taking the piss out of it. I haven't totally made my mind up about Borat - I admit I find him funny but probably shouldn't. I wouldn't go and see the film - dire I should imagine.

Regardless of nationality I think Avid Merrion is totally unfunny but I know plenty who find him amusing.
I used Fr Ted as an example of how touchy my mum is about Irish humour - her family home was turned over by the Black and Tans though
It is cram-ful of Irish writers and actors so maybe not really a good comparison with Borat.

Wonder if Harry Enfield and Loadsamoney/Wayne Slob is the nearest we have been to an English Borat?

Also much of Little Britain...

NotQuiteCockney - no no Kazakhstan, either Kyrgystan or Tajikistan

Embassy have been quite restrained in their response form what I read (which bit of their response did you find funny?) Only the Guardian printed the Embassy response in full ...

Press release

"?The comic antics of Sacha Baron Cohen and his fictional personality Borat, supposedly from Kazakhstan, are obviously not a matter for the government of Kazakhstan, and despite many reports to the contrary I would like to make it clear, first of all, that the Kazakh government is not engaging in any litigation or ?PR campaign? against Mr Cohen or his film.

?However offensive many individual Kazakhs may find Mr Cohen?s references to anti-semitism, child sex, misogyny and other repellent activities as being essential features of the Kazakh character, I would point out that the government of Kazakhstan, like in any civilised country, is committed to free speech and we uphold the right of any satirist to say what he wishes, however unfounded or tasteless the material.

?Second, as many of our British friends know from personal experience, Kazakhstanis are a tolerant, decent and welcoming people from more than 100 different faiths and ethnic backgrounds. Given the astonishing diversity of our culture and ethnicity, I believe it is a shame that our character should be traduced in this way for commercial benefit and a laugh.

?Finally, it is apparent to me that the public both here and in Kazakhstan are split between those who find Mr Cohen very funny and those who think he is deeply offensive. I believe the public are able to make up their own mind as to whether this sort of comedy is tasteful or appropriate in this day and age, or whether it merely exploits ordinary people?s ignorance. Whatever the verdict of the public, my sincere personal wish is that out of this bizarre affair there may emerge a truer understanding of Kazakhstan, and greater opportunities for the British and Kazakh people to get to know each other as friends.?