Absurd, grotesque and hilarious, those of a sensitive disposition may well find fault with Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, to give it its full glorious title. The president of Kazakhstan was certainly not amused. He even complained to George W. Bush about scenes depicting Borat leaving his village in a horse-drawn Lada after kissing his sister – “the best prostitute in all Kazakhstan” – goodbye.
Oh well. At least this is an equal opportunities bashing. As Borat journeys across America in search of the World’s Most Beautiful Woman (Pamela Anderson) he manages to offend feminists with ‘proven’ theories about the inferior size of the female brain. He hands a dinner party hostess a bag of freshly produced fecal matter. He even throws money at cockroaches, believing them to be Jews in insect form.
Happily, Sacha Baron Cohen seems to have learned from the debacle that was Ali G In Da House. Rather than forcing Borat into a conventional three-act structure, he opts for freewheeling mockumentary in keeping with the style of the original television creation. Much of the ensuing humour is derived from the folks he encounters. “Which gun is best for killing Jew?” he asks a salesman. “That’d be a 9mm or .38” comes the decidedly unhesitant response. Another elderly Texan advises him to shave his moustache on the grounds that it makes him look too much like a Muslim. He need not have worried. In Kazakhstan, as Borat explains, they worship the hawk.
More surreal interludes include naked wrestling, the acquisition of a bear and a search for a jar of gypsy tears to keep the Jews away. You have to think that if the creator’s surname wasn’t Cohen, there’d be an international incident. As things stand though, if Borat was any funnier your head would explode.