The Genius that is Borat

“The movie was kind of funny, but it was so stupid. All the jokes were stupid,” said a teenage girl walking out of the opening night for Borat’s movie premiere. This sentiment is shared amongst many who recently found out about the sometimes impertinent fictional Kazakh journalist. Borat, as we’ve all come to glimpse with through the popular media, is not stupid. In fact, I can argue that Sacha Baron Cohen’s character is arguably one of the most thoughtful, clever, and ingenious ideas in the history of popular culture and entertainment.

One the surface, many pass Borat as simply a silly character who makes fun of modern American and British society, but a more contextual and deeper look will prove otherwise. Upon placing a large background desktop image of Borat on my school’s classroom computer, many of the students – high school sophomores – were quick to laugh at his mustache while making Middle-Eastern jokes. Clearly, those who didn’t know Borat’s character too well didn’t understand the character’s intent.

Although Borat’s jokes come off as stupid, inane, and frivolous, one cannot dismiss the fact that they are some of the funniest things ever thought up. This only proves to reinforce the notion that simplicity is better. “How can women be equal to men if their brains are smaller than men? My hobbies include table tennis, disco dance, and rape. I am good at sniffing out traitors in the company, and if I do, I can crush them. Walking into an antique store: Why are you trying to sell me old things. You think I’m stupid?” The jokes go on and the insults deepen.

As funny or silly as the jokes may be, however, it is not the reason I admire Borat. Evolving from previous characters that Sacha Baron Cohen had developed over a decade ago – a Moldovan TV reporter and an Albanian TV reporter – Borat has come to be appreciated as the true archetype for real Middle-Eastern and Eastern European people who wish to venture off to United States or British society while making a fool out of themselves in the first few years of residence. In fact, we all know at least one Borat-esque person in and around our network of friends and families. At least I do. Living in Glendale, California, a hotbed for many immigrants from the Middle-East and Eastern Europe, I frequently witness new family members coming to America – coincidentally dressed in identical Borat fashion and mustache – while trying to achieve the American dream. Just watching them trying to blend in the first year is reason to laugh out loud.

Borat has created a new dialogue for these types of people. A new archetype of reference when referring to immigrants who come to America with joy and anticipation. It is this sentiment that I find hilarious and it is this sentiment that makes Borat and all his acts a masterpiece. I could care less which country the character Borat is from. He could have very well been from Romania, Lebanon, Armenia, Uzbekistan, or any other nation that is not the United States. The fact that it is a non-American, retro grey-suit wearing, mustache sporting, primitive television reporter roaming the streets of America is reason to laugh.

Of course, Borat has been the cause of much controversy because of his uncanny ability to insult a wide variety of groups: Jews, Southern Christians, Blacks, women, the mentally ill, homosexuals, and of course the entire country of Kazakhistan (and Romanian villagers since the village scenes were filmed there). In fact, the country recently aired a series of travel-friendly promotional advertisments (aired on CNN, among other notable netoworks in the United States) dedicated to the wonderful nation of Kazakhistan in an effort to undo much of Borat’s fallacies and promote the tourist industry. In retaliation, Borat wrote back to the Kazakh Prime Minister (which can be viewed on Borat’s MySpace blog online) regarding the notion that women are treated equally and that Borat is just a false character who is not actually from Kazakhistan:

“My name Borat Sagdiyev. I would like comment on recent advertisements on television and in media about my nation of Kazakhstan, saying that women are treated equally, and that all religions are tolerated – these are disgusting fabrications. These claims are part of a propaganda campaign against our country by evil nitwits Uzbekistan – who as we all know are a very nosey people, with a bone in the middle of their brain.”

By now, almost everybody knows the controversy that is Borat and his ability to disgrace and insult many large factions of society. Yet, it is appalling to me to hear that many people were disgusted after watching his movie or wanted to shout obscenities to the theater audience during the middle of the film screening. I ask, why in the world would one buy tickets for Borat knowing they cannot handle a joke?

What makes the situation even more intriguing is knowing the fact that Sacha Baron Cohen comes from a relatively wealthy and educated background. With Cohen’s father being a native of Wales and his mother from an Israeli-Persian heritage, his Jewish background cannot be forgotten. He attended the University of Cambridge where he studied history and wrote his dissertation on Jewish involvement in the American Civil Rights movement. Clearly Cohen has the intellectual ability and the fact that he created a 17 million dollar film which grossed over 30 million dollars as of late November can reinforce the fact that he is a living genius in constructing the character of Borat and causing controversy all over the world.

So what Borat spoke about the Jews being responsible for taking down the World Trade Center Towers? So what if Borat spoke about having a man’s fist up his anus? So what if Borat spoke about locking up women in a cage? So what if Borat spoke about not allowing women to roam free in society? So what if Borat spoke about making love to his prostitute sister? And so what if Borat was shown with a disgustingly overweight character named Azamat, both fully nude and hairy, in a sexual 69-position fighting in bed over a Pamela Anderson magazine? Considering how bad and mischievous our own government representatives in the United States have acted during the past few years (seducing 16-year-old boys, terrorizing Iraqi and Afghani citizens, performing fraudulent monetary activities, drinking and driving), I see no reason to stir havoc on a bright and clever comedian whose jokes happen to be some of the funniest, riskiest, and most cutting-edge material I have ever come across my entire life.

In a recent interview with a popular entertainment magazine, Sacha Baron Cohen said that the character of Borat is intended to bring out the prejudice from everyone. He mentioned that the joke is not on Kazakhstan. The joke is on people who actually think the fictitious claims made by Borat are real. Cohen later noted that the reason he chose Kazakhstan as the home for Borat is the simple fact that not too many people know about Kazakhstan. It was a clean slate.

Borat’s third-world wit, ignorant humor, outlandishly silly remarks, and of course his signature mustache and grey-suit has made him one of the funniest and original characters in all of popular culture and entertainment. He has found a way to get under the skin of various ethnic groups, cultures, and organizations which think he has gone too far. The beautiful part of all this is that the more these people sue and complain, the more they realize that the joke gets funnier – not forget the millions of dollars he has made.

After all, wouldn’t the world be such as uninteresting and colorless place if everybody was deprived from being able to speak out their prejudice thinking? I am all for making fun of the Jews, the Blacks, the Christians, the Muslims, the feminists, the homosexuals, and even myself, my culture, and my friends. It is amazing how we continuously prejudge in our daily lives, but when a comedian does it on the big-screen, people lash out. Those who find his material offensive should not consider resulting to comedy when in need of entertainment.