Borat Sagdiyev is a fictional Kazakhstani media figure, created as satire and played by Sacha Baron Cohen. He is featured in each episode of Da Ali G Show, doing satirical interviews with various people who do not realize the show is fake. He has visited Britain and the USA. The character's supposed Kazakhstani origins are purely a plot device; the relative lack of knowledge of the country among westerners enables the show's writers to create outrageous dialogue while preserving a semblance of credibility with the interviewee. Turkish Internet phenomenon Mahir Cagri is believed to be one of the inspirations for Borat.
Background
Borat claims to be Kazakhstan's sixth most famous man. He is a top journalist for television station, and visits foreign countries to record segments on their political systems and activities.
His hobbies include table tennis, wrestling, and shooting dogs . He can carry a woman against her will for one mile, and hit a gypsy with a rock from fifteen metres away—ten if the gypsy isn't tied up.
Family
Borat often discusses his family members with the people he interviews. Borat's sister is a prostitute, and his brother is mentally ill and must be locked behind a metal door. His relationship with his mother seems to be unpleasant, and Borat has commented that "she wishes she was raped by someone else."
In one episode Borat reveals that he suffered a "very bad gypsy attack," in which his wife's plough was stolen and "they touch his horse in very bad way, it was depressed". He has also told stories of his wife dying in a field due to an accident. Borat has numerous wives.
Beliefs
Borat strongly dislikes Jews, and was shocked to discover that American women have the right to vote, reciting the chain of importance as "God, Man, horse, dog, woman, then rat, then small 'krutzouli'" while talking with a female voter. He has visited a bar in Arizona where he sang a song about problems in his country. The subject quickly changed from transportation to Jews, with the lyrics "Throw the Jew down the well/so my country can be free/you must grab him by his horns/then we have a big party." While taking a self-defense class, Borat asked the instructor to teach him how to defend against the "Jew claw," and then made a claw with his hand and had the instructor defend himself against it.
In some cases, Borat's guests embrace his anti-Semitism and misogyny by agreeing with him. Other guests attempt to explain American values instead.
Borat also exhibits a tendency to breach sexual privacy, giving naked pictures of his wife to a female passerby, and asking men about the size of their "hrum" (penis or testicles).
Controversy
Borat has been the cause of some controversy, mostly related to his frequent displays of anti-Semitism. Sacha Baron Cohen, who plays Borat, is himself Jewish. Defenders use this to justify his character's racist nature, stating that the segments are a "dramatic demonstration of how racism feeds on dumb conformity, as much as rabid bigotry," rather than a display of racism by Cohen himself. [1]
However, the Anti-Defamation League, a prominent Jewish lobby group, complained to HBO after Borat performed a country and western song that called on people to 'throw the Jew down the well', warning them that 'you must be careful of his teeth' and that 'you must grab him by the horns', to applause from an audience in Tucson, Arizona.
An interview with James Broadwater , a Republican candidate for U.S. Congress, caused Broadwater to receive some hateful emails after an episode of Da Ali G Show aired in which he stated that Jews will go to Hell. He was told that the interview would be played in foreign countries to teach others about the American political system. Broadwater later posted a letter on his website denouncing Da Ali G Show. [2]
Everything that Borat has said about Kazakhstan is incorrect. Borat is not even a Kazakh name and multiple marriages are illegal in Kazakhstan. Most people in Kazakhstan have never heard of him, but the Kazakhstani embassy in the United States has made a formal complaint to HBO to remove Borat. [3]
See also: Da Ali G Show
See also
External links
Last updated: 08-14-2005 02:13:27
Last updated: 08-30-2005 22:36:21
