Borat: Funniest Movie of the 21st Century

[YSSMAN]

On the funny scale, I'd put Borat at a solid eight, as it is really funny to some people, and it just isn't to others. I really hadn't laughed that hard in a movie, well, since Jackass Two, so you can get a good idea of what my sense of humor is like.

...I think with Borat, you get a good feeling for subtle humor. If you aren't paying attention you aren't going to get, much less see a lot of the jokes in the movie, and some people don't like that.

I thought one of the best little jokes of the movie was when he dropped his bag on the side of the road and the chicken inside of it squawked. I laughed pretty hard at a pretty stupid thing, but it gets me every time.

...And for the record, I hated Napoleon Dynamite...

 

[McLaren]

...And for the record, I hated Napoleon Dynamite...

I'm surprised more at the fact that that idiotic movie somehow managed to kick of Jon's "career."

Except for the fact his only good movie has been School for Scoundrels, and that was only good due to Billy Bob Thorton.
Maybe his new movie with Farrell will change my mind though Will isn't one of my favorite comedians.

As for Sasha, he wasn't that funny in "Da Ali G Show", and he certainly wasn't funny in Borat. In fact, he hasn't been really funny in anything.

 

[YSSMAN]

I dunno. I liked him as Jean Girard in Talladega Nights...

 

[Silverzone]

If it is a popular movie that recently came out there will sometimes be a wait to get it, so they send you your next movie or delay delivery a day or two in hopes that it comes in for you.

It's only happened to me once, and that was through Gamefly for Wii games. Once in two years isn't bad.

It finally arrived 3 days after shipping, I guess USPS lost it.

and on to the movie:

I liked it quite a bit, I laughed extremely hard at parts, and some of it flat out made me cringe. Overall a great movie. Loved that the disc looked like a bootleg. at first I was kind of worried.

 

[OZZYGT]

I liked it quite a bit, I laughed extremely hard at parts, and some of it flat out made me cringe. Overall a great movie. Loved that the disc looked like a bootleg. at first I was kind of worried.

Me too! I bought it from Blockbuster and I was saying : "Nahh this can't be possible, I hope it's not in Russian!"

 

[a6m5]

That bootleg looking disc got me too.

I'd give this one slight thumbs up. It definitely has enough funny parts to keep it going, but it felt like something that should been broadcasted on FOX, maybe on youtube for cheap laughs.

Just one thing that bugged me, not counting the wrestling scene: I've heard some people, not necessarily here at GTP, say that they make fun of Americans in this film. That would totally kill the comedy for me, since the people who are making this film are far stupider and weirder than the Americans who might be being made fun of.

Check out Beerfest. That is Broken Lizard's best movie so far in my opinion. I also think it is the best comedy from last year.

U R KRAZY! But I respect your opinion, I thought it was OK.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

I watched it the other night and I didn't find it that funny. Sure, there were a few parts that occasioned a half-chuckle, half-laugh, but it wasn't as funny as everyone made it out to be. It was mostly cringe-worthy, really.

 

[Flerbizky]

I didn't get offended by it - But I found it to be a complete waste of time...

 

[Duke]

Napolean Dynamite stinks like a three-day old corpse.

You have to be American, rural, white, and under 45 to get Napoleon Dynamite. If you meet all those criteria, then it is funny. Truly funny.

Borat is hilarious.

Please tell me you're kidding. And I used to think so highly of you.

A Middle-Eastern-looking guy pretends to be stupid, racist, and from a semi-defined area of the (largely Muslim) hinterlands.

He deliberately puts himself among the most parochial, white-bread middle Americans he can possibly find, and acts like a stupid racist ass.

We Americans have spent the last 15 years - and the last 5 in particular - being told we're insensitive boors and getting spanked pink for not being tolerant of the opinions, culture, and beliefs of every non-white-bread-non-middle-American on the face of the planet.

So when these poor, well-intentioned people try to be tolerant of this obviously opinionated non-American nutjob's culture and beliefs, it somehow reflects badly on US?! We're the racist asses... for trying to be sensitive to the alleged beliefs of a racist ass?

Damned if you do and damned if you don't. I guess I should be used to it by now, but it still stings to see this crap hyped to the moon as 'comedy' or even 'biting political satire'.

Of course, this also only works if you edit out all the footage where the people do not tolerate the racist ass and send him packing or object to his alleged 'cultural views'. Just like it only works when you edit out all the hundreds of Americans who can point to Iraq on a map, in between the dozen or so who can't.

 

[Famine]

Americans

It's not about that in the slightest. It could have been filmed in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or any other English-speaking country. Well, not the UK - we recognise Sacha Baron Cohen and indeed Borat.

A lot of the Americans in the film come off quite well - they tolerate the stranger and his unusual ways, even as far as the first few bars of him raping their national anthem. In fact, I can only think of three Americans that come off badly, and that's because they're pig-ignorant charmless tossholes and not because they're Americans - they chose to express a number of -ist views in front of a camera. And even Pammy was fun - though she was in on it.


We used to have a series in the UK called "Beadle's About" (it'll be very familiar to anyone who has seen "Candid Camera"). A funny looking bloke used to dress up and pratt around in public, filming (albeit secretly) the reactions of the public. It wasn't an anti-British comedy show - it was shown in the UK - nor was it specifically an anti-the-people-who-had-appeared-on-the-programme comedy show. It was just a case of filming public reaction to something that they don't see every day. We don't necessarily react by laughing at the idiots, because we know that we might be very much the same in the same situation. I treated Borat in the same vein - though Beadle's About was always rubbish because Jeremy Beadle was abhorrent.

Cohen had great success doing similar things before as "Ali G" - 5 minutes (screened) of interviews with famous people, both in the UK and the US (and, memorably, Northern Ireland). The gag wasn't racist (Ali G was "black"), nor was it on the interviewee (who was often asked the MOST bizarre questions ever) - it was that if we weren't in on the joke, we'd probably behave in exactly the same way.


If you go into Borat thinking "This guy's making fun of Americans", that's the thought that'll stick with you. And he does make fun of some Americans - but it's important to recognise that it's people who are American and not ALL Americans, America or for the sole reason that they are American. And given that he's seemingly trying to launch himself a film career in the US, why would he? Talk about biting the hand that hasn't even opened the fridge yet!


But I'll say again, nearly all of the Americans in the film come off well - they treat him nicely and kindly, they spend time trying to help him and they rarely lose their tempers with him - ALL of this is shown. The driving instructor is priceless.

 

[Jay]

But I'll say again, nearly all of the Americans in the film come off well - they treat him nicely and kindly, they spend time trying to help him and they rarely lose their tempers with him - ALL of this is shown. The driving instructor is priceless.

I agree, I was surprised how nicely the black guys on the steps took to him, going by the loads the 'gangster' movies foreigners would expect borat to be shot or beaten for approaching them. That was not the case.

As for the movie, overall I enjoyed it and got a few big laughs out of it, surprises me how good Cohen is with staying in character all the time.

 

[Omnis]

 

[Duke]

It's not about that in the slightest. It could have been filmed in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or any other English-speaking country. Well, not the UK - we recognise Sacha Baron Cohen and indeed Borat.

A lot of the Americans in the film come off quite well - they tolerate the stranger and his unusual ways, even as far as the first few bars of him raping their national anthem. In fact, I can only think of three Americans that come off badly, and that's because they're pig-ignorant charmless tossholes and not because they're Americans - they chose to express a number of -ist views in front of a camera.

Well, I'll have to take your word for it. I admit I have not seen the whole movie, though I have seen clips. But LOTS of the buzz and hype that I hear puts Borat squarely between Michael Moore and Jackass - setting people up in an impossible situation and then exploiting their reactions to show how stupid/racist/evil they are.

 

[TenEightyOne]

Just watched the new Borat Subsequent Movie, very clever and very well done. A lot of @Famine's comments about the previous film could apply to this one too.

 

[TB]

I made it 15 or 20 minutes in and turned it off and finally watched The Professional. Borat just isn't my thing, I guess.

 

[Michael88]

I made it 15 or 20 minutes in and turned it off and finally watched The Professional. Borat just isn't my thing, I guess.

I feel the same way about most ''modern'' comedy. If I want to laugh, I watch Mr. Bean or Charlie Chaplin.

 

[TenEightyOne]

I made it 15 or 20 minutes in and turned it off and finally watched The Professional. Borat just isn't my thing, I guess.

I found that it has less of an initial "kick" than the first and I wasn't sure I was going to make it through the film. Everything comes together later and it all makes much more sense.

I'm surprised there hasn't been more fallout from the Giuliani scene, although at the moment attention is concentrated on one of the interviewees in the synagogue where Borat tries to commit suicide by waiting for the next mass shooting. I found that scene difficult but strangely dignified and moving. In fact, to me it's the most Jewish part of either of the Borat films.

 

[TexRex]

I'm not in a hurry to see it.

I saw the first one and it seemed like everything funny had already been shown to me in ads. It probably didn't help that I waited as long as I did and everyone was talking like him, but by that time I'd also seen and grown tired of Ali G. There was plenty of cringeworthy stuff but nothing really bothered me, it just wasn't a particularly funny movie. Were there funny parts? Sure. There were also funny parts in Falling Down.

I don't get the sense that they're pushing the funny parts in ads for the new one, though it doesn't bode well if they are. The biggest laugh I've gotten from them is the deadpan American voiceover repeating the name of the movie, as it's a very "Borat" name.

I made it 15 or 20 minutes in and turned it off and finally watched The Professional.

Yeesh, that had to be quite the transition.

 

[TB]

Yeesh, that had to be quite the transition.

Much like my taste in music, I'm all over the place so this is pretty standard fare for me.