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Fearless British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen (Da Ali G Show) suits up as Borat, the Kazakhstani television commentator, who leaves his woefully backward land (fake but funny) for a journey across America. In a genius move surely never to be repeated, Cohen tricked hundreds of gullible and self-righteous Americans into believing he was a genuine foreign journalist shooting a documentary. Cohen’s deadpan routine as the clueless Borat is hilarious — but what a giddy, heady match when combined with actual humorless feminists, a befuddled Hummer salesman, drunk frat boys and a whole freakin’ rodeo. Borat is wildly offensive, but he has his cultural naiveté as a loophole. Not so the dozens of Americans who get caught up in Cohen’s prank, revealing succinctly that we don’t need any outside help to be narrow-minded, idiotic and derogatory. Borat is a dazzlingly dose of rude, smart satire that’s a gut-buster even as it kicks us squarely in the ass. (AH)
This article appears in Nov 2-8, 2006.
