Is gooood yeaaah?

Call me crazy, but I can’t wait to see Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

My previous boyfriend was a huge Ali G (or more accurately Sacha Baron Cohen) fan. He owned both seasons of Da Ali G Show on DVD and laughed hysterically every time he watched. In the beginning I didn’t find the show nearly as amusing as he did. Generally I’m not a huge fan of, what I call, awkward humor. Humor based on making other people feel completely uncomfortable, I used think this was not-so-funny. This, however, is no longer the case. Now it’s just plain funny.

For those of you who may not be acquainted with Cohen, he’s a British actor who portrays three roles on his TV show. Ali G is a Jamaican-English “gansta”, Bruno, the gay, Austrian fashion show presenter and Borat, a Kazakhstani reporter. Those who interact or who are interviewed by any of Cohen’s personalities have no idea they’re being played. This is perhaps the most remarkable thing about the show. Ali G manages to score interviews with people like Gore Vidal, Donald Trump, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, and Andy Rooney. The guy freakin’ asks the Secretary General of the UN (after introducing him as Boutros Boutros Boutros Boutros-Ghali) if Disneyland is part of the UN, and he calls Buzz Aldrin, Buzz Lightyear. Once I got past the awkwardness of all these interviews I just had to wonder, how did Ali G get past all of these peoples’ agents? Do your research people!

So, eventually I could watch the shows and not feel uncomfortable about each interview or encounter Cohen’s characters have with various cross sections of the world. Once I crossed that hurdle I realized that Da Ali G Show is more of a sociological experiment than a comedy sketch show. The most interesting aspect being the different ways people reacted to each individual. People got downright bitchy with Ali G; people were a little more tolerant of Borat’s antics, but still many became thoroughly offended when they figured out his not-so-hidden sexual innuendo driven requests. It seems that people are most tolerant and patient with Borat. He says things that are, most times, patently offensive, but it’s as if people merely brush it off because he’s that clueless foreigner; it’s okay because he doesn’t know any better. He’s not trying to be offensive, so they let it pass.

And that is why I’m so excited to see a whole film about him interacting with us clueless Americans. Maybe it’s that anthropological geek in me, but this movie is going to be hilarious. Watching people deal (I’m guessing not so gracefully) with the cultural “other” because they’re just as ignorant about it as the supposed foreigner will be funny and fascinating on so many levels, I’m so forking out $10 to see this one.