Borat Sagdiyev

Template:Two other uses

Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat.

Borat Sagdiyev (born July 30, 1972) (Kazakh Cyrillic: Борат Сагдійев) is a fictional Kazakhstani journalist played by British-Jewish comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. He is the main character portrayed in the controversial and successful film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Borat appears in Cohen's other film, Ali G Indahouse.

Borat evolved from previous characters that Sacha Baron Cohen had developed: An unnamed Moldovan TV reporter (for LWT/Granada TV and the BBC's Comedy Nation) and an Albanian TV reporter called Kristo (for HBO). Baron Cohen first presented his foreign reporter concept to Channel 4 in 1994, and by late 2000 Borat was, in his own words, a "great success". The quick rise to fame and recognition of the character has caused speculation that a resurgence of Borat as an unscripted character is extremely unlikely. 20th Century Fox has stated that a sequel is currently being considered, but there is no confirmation on what, or if anything, is in store for Baron Cohen's character in the future.

Fictional background

According to Rasool, Borat Sagdiyev was born to Asimbala Sagdiyev and Boltok the Rapist (also his maternal grandfather) on July 30, 1972 in the village of Kuczek, Kazakhstan, thus making him 34 years old as of today. His mother is a ripe old 43 year old, which according to Borat is the oldest woman in Kuczek. His current relationship with his mother seems to be unpleasant, and he has commented "she wishes she was raped by another man." Other comments he made were "She never hugged me, she doesn't love me," at a Southern gentleman's wine tasting while drunk, implying he is estranged from her. He has a younger sister. In addition to his sister, he has two wives, a mistress, a girlfriend, and a prostitute that he had affairs with on several occasions. Another family member of note is his younger brother Bilo, who is "a retard" has verrry retardation and must live in a cage. Bilo apparently has 204 teeth (193 in mouth, 11 in nose) and enjoys looking at porno, which leads to "rub rub rub!"

He has been married several times in his life, once being betrothed to his half-sister's plough while in his teens. His first wife Oksana Sagdiyev, who was another half-sister and was the daughter of Mariam Tuyakbay and Boltok the Rapist, was reported to have been violated (raped) by a wild bear while taking Bilo for a walk in the forest. However, on the Ali G show, he states that it was a hunter who mistook her for a bear. Borat was not affected by this tragedy; he even celebrated it and later bought a new wife who he claimed was "not boring." He is the proud father to 13-year old Hooeylewis (who is his favourite child) and 12-year old twins Biram and Bilak, whose mother is his sister Natalya, and has seventeen grandchildren. He once brought Hooeylewis to England, in an effort to sell him to "freak transvestite singer Madonna". He is also always happy to show pictures of his son's large "khram."

Borat attended the Astana University and majored in English, journalism, and plague research. During this time, he created two new plagues that were launched on "those assholes Uzbekistan." In his youth, he once owned a pet pig named Igor, whom he claimed to love, but later ate him with his family, including the eyes. He currently keeps a bull named Pavel in his bedroom, for fear that Johnny Breenski, the town criminal, will kill him. During the movie, he acquired a bear whom he named Oxanna after his deceased wife to protect him from Jews, because a Texan gunshop owner refused to sell him a Desert Eagle pistol. Later, Azamat tells him the bear ran off, but when he opens the refrigerator, the bear's head can be clearly seen. Borat greatly admires the political views of Joseph Stalin, saying that both of them are strong and have powerful "khram" (Penis). He is strongly against women's rights, especially stunned upon learning of Women's suffrage. In his spare time, he enjoys playing ping pong, sunbathing in a green slingshot thong, disco dancing, spitting, sitting on comfortable chairs, and taking pictures of unsuspecting women when they are "making a toilet." Borat has made several mixed claims about his religion. On Da Ali G show he asked a congressional runner how to get into Heaven, implying agnosticism. In the movie has claimed to a pet shop owner and a Rodeo owner that his people worship a "Great Hawk". In a chapter of the movie titled "Mr. Jesus", he met with a group of Christians at a Church. When returning to his country he converted the Kazakh people to Christianity. Now instead of the "Run of the Jew" they merely crucify someone in Jewish attire.

Language

According to interviews with Baron Cohen, most of the "Kazakh" dialogue in the film is actually a mixture of Romanian, Armenian, Polish and Hebrew, as Baron Cohen speaks Hebrew nearly fluently with a faux-Russian accent and uses the language around unfamiliar Americans when keeping up his character's foreignness. This is a list of common Borat vocabulary, with definitions:

Greetings

• Dzienkuje (sounds like "jen-koo-yeh") - "thank you" (from the Polish "Dziękuję"). Sometimes used as a greeting in the opening of the Borat segments of Da Ali G Show . Also spelled as "Chenquieh" when written by Borat, e.g., his speech on the Kazakhstan embassy.
• Jagshemash - "how are you?" (from the Polish "Jak się masz?", the Czech "Jak se máš?"). Returning to Central Asia, the Uyghur greeting "yahşimusiz" means "are you well?", and in Uzbek it's "yaxshimisiz". Perhaps ironically, especially in light of Borat's views on Uzbeks, "yaxshi emas" means "not good/well" in Uzbek. Also a common term of greeting in several slavic languages.
• Dzien Dobre! (sounds like "jen-doh-breh") - "Good Day!" (from the Polish "Dzień dobry!"). Sometimes used by Borat in place of "Dzienkuje". It is also the greeting of Baron Cohen's Borat prototype character Kristo, as well as the greeting used by Borat as he opens the segment in his movie where he is about to meet Pamela.

Interjections

• Tishe - from Russian "тише" meaning "be quiet" or "stop it", depending on the tone on which it is used.
• Wa-wa-wee-wa - an Israeli exclamation equivalent to "wow", though commonly associated with vulgarity; it was invented by a popular Israeli comedian, Dov Glickman, on a variety TV show "Zehu Ze". Glickman has since threatened to sue Baron-Cohen for his appropriation of the phrase.

Sexual terminology

• Khram - testicles often mistakenly thought of as the word for penis however.
• Vazyïn - vagina, from the Romanian word vagin. Pronounced "vagine".
• Hand Party/Relief/Dirty - masturbation.
• Back Pussy - rectum
• Anoos - anus
• Mouth Party/Sex in Mouth - oral sex.
• Sexy Time - sexual intercourse.
• Liquid/Romance Explosion, Sexy Time Explosion, Happy Ending - ejaculation.
• Babraboosh - A compound of two words referring to pubic hair and oral sex. It also sounds like "Barbara Bush", who appears in the film in a portrait and Borat mistakes her for a man.
• Pubis - pubic hair, which is Kazhakstan's third largest export after potassium and apples and used in the manufacture of scouring pads and children's sweaters. Red pubic hair is considered to be as valuable as diamonds.

Fictional Kazakh culture

File:Korki Buchek.png

"Popular music superstar" Korki Buchek

• Korki Buchek - fictional "popular music superstar" and talk show host known for the song "Bing Bang".
• Billy Sexcrime- fictional pop-musician.
• Lily Utmarkan- former Kazakh Olympian/current circus performer.
• Josh Derushe- Child pedophile, a mentally retarded dumb blonde.
• Viktor Hotelier -fictional actor; Star of "Almaty Nights"
• Krutzouli - fictional small or insignificant animal of ambiguous identity, placed not too far below women in the fictional Kazakhstan caste system, enumerated as "God, man, horse, dog, woman, rat, and then a little krutzouli" ("Guide to Politics"). In Poland, "Krasula" ("Pretty Cow") is also a common name given to cows.
• Haraczak - fictional game where Kazakhis are allowed to throw potatoes at gypsies. The team who wins (although it is not clear how you win at Haraczak) are allowed to burn the losing team and keep their ashes.
• Running of the Jew - fictional annual traditional festival in which the 300 bravest men of Kazakhstan chase large papier-mâché caricatures of Jews on the streets, and chase them into wells, while spectators break the eggs they lay, and throw stones and potatoes at the Jewish caricatures. "It is for the childrens," said Borat in his interview on "Friday Night with Jonathan Ross." It's a parody of two Spanish festivals: The "Running of the Bulls" and the "Gigantes y cabezudos".
• Shurik, Festival/Feast of - fictional annual one-day festival when it is appropriate to have sexual intercourse with one's sister, animals, and minors; takes place the day following the "Running of the Jew." It is also mandatory to have intercourse with another of the same sex. In Russian, Shurik and Sasha (like in "Sasha Baron Cohen") are the same name.
• Shurik, Sport of - fictional sport similar to 'baseballs,' in which they take a dog and shoot it in a field, and then have a party; played during Festival of Shurik.
• Twelve years old - the figure the Kazakhstani age of consent has been recently raised to (sometimes listed as eight)
• Purple shirts - what Kazakhstanis committed for sex crimes wear
• Blue hats - what gay Kazakhstanis had to wear until recently
• Fifteen gallons of insecticide - the going rate for purchasing a Kazakh bride
• You find me woman with brain, I find you horse with wings - a 'famous' Kazakh saying
• Fermented horse urine - a fictional Kazakh wine; likely a reference to Kumis, a fermented drink made from horse's milk, which is popular in Kazakhstan
• Gypsy tears - a fictional medicinal cure for diseases as well as impotence, and protection against AIDS
• Throw the Jew down the well - a fictional Kazakh children song
• Dirty Jew - a fictional Kazakh film that Borat claimed he starred in
• Size of squirrel['s brain] - the size of a woman's brain according to a leading Kazakh government scientist
• when the snake eat the pig - a game where you put cheese in the hole of your penis and let a baby mouse eat it out
• the hawk: fictional Kazakh religion, presumably referring to the bird on the Flag of Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan National anthem:

Kazakhstan greatest country in the world;
All other countries are run by little girls.
Kazakhstan number one exporter of potassium,
All other countries have inferior potassium.

Kazakhstan home of Tinshein swimming pool.
It’s length thirty meter width six meter,
Filtration system a marvel to behold:
It remove 80 percent of human solid waste.

Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan you very nice place!
From Plains of Tarashek to Northern fence of Jew town,
Kazakhstan friend of all except Uzbekistan,
They very nosey people with bone in their brain.

Kazakhstan industry best in world.
We invented toffee and trouser belt.
Kazakhstan’s prostitutes cleanest in the region,
Except of course Turkmenistan’s...

Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan you very nice place!
From Plains of Tarashek to Northern fence of Jew town,
Come grasp the mighty phenis of our leader
From junction with the testes to tip of its face!

Genuine Kazakh references

• Tenge: the Kazakhstani monetary unit
• Premier Nazarbayev: the head of Kazakhstan, actually titled "President". However, this may be due to Borat's poor English, as he also refers to George W. Bush as 'Premier Bush'.
• Transsibirskiy Express, Borat's favourite movie actually is one of Kazakhstan's all time classics directed by E. Urazbayev featuring Asanali Ashimov. It was produced by Kazakhfilm, national movie studio in 1977 and received number of awards in USSR and Eastern Europe. Some of the artists who contributed to the movie won international acclaim in later years. Soviet actor and director Nikita Mikhalkov, who co-wrote the script of the Express, received an Oscar for Burnt by the Sun (Best Foreign Movie) in 1994; his brother, Andron Mikhalkov Konchalovskiy, is best known internationally as the director of Hollywood blockbuster Tango and Cash (1989).
• Borat's insults towards Uzbekistan are humourous references to occasional rainy days in relations between Kazakhstan and its southern neighbour. The internal and external politics of the latter often raise controversy with various Central Asian neighbours and most recently with US and EU and often come in the spotlight of regional and international media.
• Locust, series to which Borat referred in the actor audition episode of Da Ali G in da US series, actually is a real Kazakh series, produced and shown on Khabar, Kazakh TV channel around 2001–2003. Ironically, the TV channel was then lead by Dariga Nazarbayeva, wife of Rakhat Aliyev, Kazakh Foreign Affairs Ministry official who invited Sacha Baron Cohen to visit Kazakhstan.

Partly genuine Kazakh references

• Nursultan Tuyakbay - Borat's unfriendly neighbor whose name is derived from Nursultan Nazarbayev, the president of Kazakstan, and Zharmakhan Tuyakbay, one of his opposing candidates in 2004.

• Mukhtar Shakhanov, Borat's neighbor whose name is that of a Kazakh writer, well-known and admired in the country.

Borat gestures and body language

• The sexy time gesture - when Borat says 'sexy time,' he usually precedes this by rubbing his outstretched palms together in a circular motion, and then in a sharp movement turns his palms towards the person he is speaking to.
• The promise gesture - when Borat wants to make a binding promise, he spits on his palm and holds his hand out to the person he is speaking to.
• The emphasis gesture - when speaking, Borat will often hold his hands with his palms facing towards himself with his fingers spread apart, but with each index finger touching its respective middle finger.
• The greeting gesture - when Borat meets a person for the first time, especially males, he almost always shakes their hand and kisses them on both their cheeks. On at least one occasion, he continued with a kiss on the lips. Characteristically, he only greets women verbally, if at all.
• The forgiveness gesture - Borat uses his nose to stroke the forehead of the one who is forgiven. He does this when forgiving Azamat for running away.

Da Ali G Show

Borat is shown in each episode of Da Ali G Show, doing satirical interviews with often-unwitting subjects in the United Kingdom and the United States. The segment was shot in low-quality video to keep a satirical feeling of poor quality television (similar to Chanel 9 segments on The Fast Show). Of Ali G, Borat says on his website, "I appear on Alee G shows — He idiot, but it give me lot of muney — I like ..."

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Borat in New York

In order to pass himself off as a foreigner, Baron Cohen writes his alleged notes in Hebrew, and uses occasional Polish words as explained (though rarely in the correct situations) when speaking to people—not using Kazakh or Russian (the state and official languages of Kazakhstan). He also lapsed into Hebrew while purporting to sing the Kazakh national anthem at a Savannah Sand Gnats game. He kept on repeating a famous Hebrew folk song: קום בחור עצל וצא לעבודה (kum bachur atzel ve'tze la'avoda - "get up lazy guy and go to work [...]" ) [...] קוקוריקו קוקוריקו התרנגול קרא (kookooriku kookooriku ha'tarnegol kara) ("cock a doodle do the cock has crowed"), and also called Kazakhstan a distant/desolate place (literally "hole" (חור)(hor)).

The hair and moustache are real, and it takes Baron Cohen six weeks to grow them. Borat has, however, made at least one public appearance with a fake moustache.

The Borat segments on Da Ali G show use the Russian folk tune, Korobeiniki, as their theme song.

Guide to Britain

Shown as part of a six part Ali G show originally on Channel 4 (UK) in March 2000.

Five Borat sketches were shown, guides to Etiquette, Hunting, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Henley. The guides to English Gentleman, Politics and Sport were also filmed at this time but released at a later date as part of Ali G DVDs.

Borat Special

A one off shown on the E4 launch night (UK) in January 2001. Highlights included the guide to Sport and a specially filmed introduction to his family and friends in Kazakhstan (actually Romania).

Guide to USA 1

Shown as part of a six part Ali G show originally on HBO (USA) in February 2003.

Six Borat sketches were shown, guides to Dating, Etiquette, Acting, Men, Baseball and The South. A guide to Animals was filmed but released at a later date as part of an Ali G DVD.

Guide to USA 2

Shown as part of a six part Ali G show originally on HBO (USA) in July 2004.C4 was the UK channel that Ali G & Borat orignaly appeared & the series for America was a HBO/C4 co-production.

Six Borat sketches were shown, guides to Wine Tasting, Politics, Country Music, Hobbies, Buying a House and Jobs. A guide to Hunting was filmed but only aired in the UK due to its controversial nature.

Ali G Indahouse

Borat had a small role in Baron Cohen's film Ali G Indahouse, in which he greets Baron Cohen's character Ali G with a hug and kiss, but is rebuffed.

The "Movie Film"

Borat, promoting his film at the 2006 ComicCon in San Diego, California.

Main article: Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

Subtitled Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, the film is a low-budget mockumentary comedy. Most appearances in the film are not paid, but are rather real people whom Borat met during his journey. The distributor of the film is 20th Century Fox, and the director is Larry Charles. It premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival, and was released across Europe and North America on November 3, 2006.

The film follows Borat in his travels across the United States, as he commits cultural solecisms and exposes a few American ones. Over the course of the film, Borat falls in love with Pamela Anderson after watching a re-run of Baywatch, and vows to make her his wife.

The film opened at # 1 in the U.S., taking in $26.4 million on a limited release of 837 screens during its first weekend, beating out Fahrenheit 9/11 as the biggest opening weekend for a film released in under 1,000 theatres. Sacha Baron Cohen celebrated the release of the film with a host of promotional 'in-character' interviews.

However, on November 9, 2006 the Russian Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography banned the movie, citing "it could offend viewers in relation to certain ethnic groups and religions."

The film expanded its release on the second weekend to 2,566 screens, where it took in an additional $29 million.

In 2007 the film won a Golden Globe for, "Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical Or Comedy"... Sacha Baron Cohen.

With a production budget of $18,000,000, the film has grossed $128,501,044 domestically and another $128,848,505 internationally, a total worldwide gross of $257,349,549.

Criticism and controversy

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Borat sings a song about "children" at the 2005 MTV Europe Music Awards.

See also Da Ali G Show: Controversy

Criticized as unfair smear against Kazakhstan

A number of commentators have argued that the film's portrayal of the people of Kazakhstan is unfair and unjustified.

Tony Karon has alleged that the film reinforces prejudice against Muslims and asserts that "Kazakhstan is one of the least anti-Semitic polities in the Muslim world today." Karon cites a U.S. State Department report suggesting that Jews are treated relatively well:

In August 2004, the Chief Rabbi of Kazakhstan, addressing an international religious conference in Brussels, stated that in 10 years in the country he had never faced a single case of anti-Semitism. He praised the Government of Kazakhstan for its pro-active protection of the Jewish community.

On October 19, Associated Press reported that Kazakhstan's Deputy Foreign Minister, Rakhat Aliyev, had invited Cohen to visit Kazakhstan and see how inaccurate his portrayals were. In an interview, Aliyev asserted that:

His trip could yield a lot of discoveries -- that women not only travel inside buses but also drive their own cars, that we make wine from grapes, that Jews can freely attend synagogues and so on.

Denigration of Roma (Gypsies)

Borat's movie has frequently been accused of promoting Antiziganism. The scenes supposedly filmed in Borat's Kazakhstani village were actually filmed in an impoverished Roma (also known as Gypsies, though many consider this term derogatory) village of Glod in Romania. USA Today reports that poverty-stricken villagers were offered between $3.30 and $5.50 (US dollars) to bring animals into their houses and perform other acts which ended up degrading them for the benefit of the amusement and profit of others. The studio contends that participants were paid double the rate recommended by the Romanian film office for extras.

Two villagers of Glod have hired the reparation attorney Ed Fagan to sue the makers of the Borat film for $30 million for human rights abuses. Fagan intends to submit lawsuits in New York and Florida state courts, as well as in Frankfurt, Germany

Denigration of Jews

Borat has elicited some controversy, mostly related to his frequent displays of antisemitism.

Baron Cohen is himself Jewish. He explained his character's racist nature by 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 Baron Cohen himself. "Borat essentially works a tool. By himself pretending to be anti-Semitic, he lets people lower their guard and expose their own prejudice," Cohen explains to Rolling Stone. Cohen, the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, says he wishes in particular to expose the role of indifference in that genocide:

When I was in university, there was this major historian of the Third Reich, Ian Kershaw, who said, 'The path to Auschwitz was paved with indifference.' I know it's not very funny being a comedian talking about the Holocaust, but it's an interesting idea that not everyone in Germany had to be a raving anti-Semite. They just had to be apathetic.

Regarding the enthusiastic response to his song "In My Country There is Problem" (detailed below), he says, "Did it reveal that they were anti-Semitic? Perhaps. But maybe it just revealed that they were indifferent to anti-Semitism."

However, the Anti-Defamation League, a U.S.-based group that “...combat[s] anti-Semitism and bigotry of all kinds”, complained to HBO after Borat performed a country western song titled "In My Country There is Problem" 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 his horns', to applause and participation from some members of an audience in Tucson, Arizona, USA. The full chorus goes: "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."

Another Borat scene involves his visiting the Serengeti Range ranch in Texas, where the owner of the ranch reveals himself to be so anti-Semitic as to believe that Hitler's 'Final Solution' was a necessity for Germany. He further implies that he would have no problem running a ranch where people can hunt, in Borat's words, "deer... then Jew."

Another Borat scene involves his decision to avoid flying while in America. Borat says that his colleague "insists we not fly in case the Jews repeated their attack of 9/11". This comment follows immediately after a Pearl Harbor reference.

An interview with James Broadwater, an evangelical Christian and Republican candidate for U.S. Congress from Mississippi, caused Broadwater to receive some hateful emails after an episode of Da Ali G Show aired in which Broadwater 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, explaining that his statement referred to a theological belief that anyone that "accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour will spend eternity in Heaven, while everyone who rejects Him will spend eternity in Hell." Broadwater did not apologise for his comments, which were widely seen as insensitive and inflammatory. Instead, he insisted that "the liberal, anti-God media needs to be brought under the strict control of the FCC, and that as soon as possible."

In the film, Borat continues his antisemitic stance, such as when he finds himself in a bed and breakfast run by an old Jewish couple, he tries to "escape", and throws money at two woodlice that have crawled into his room, apparently fearing that the Jewish owners have become the woodlice. Ironically, Borat is completely oblivious to his hosts' religious beliefs when he first encounters them, despite the immediate evidence: the man wears a kippah and the woman proudly displays her paintings of Jewish people all over the house, but Borat does not understand until the woman explicitly tells him "I'm Jewish." Perhaps more than any other example, this incident shows Borat's extreme ignorance regarding Jewish people and their customs, thus revealing how unfounded and irrational his hatred is.

Cohen later joked, upon receiving a British comedy award, that Borat was guest of honour at the Holocaust denial conference in Tehran.

Extreme Iraq war sarcasm

In January 2005, after convincing the authorities that he was shooting a documentary, Cohen managed to infuriate a crowd at a rodeo in Salem, Virginia, USA. The crowd first cheered his statements of "support" for the Iraq war, including statements like "We support your war of terror", "May George Bush drink the blood of every single man, woman, and child of Iraq". However, the applause softened when he exclaimed "May you destroy their country so that for the next thousand years, not even a single lizard will survive in their desert!" The crowd then got infuriated when he sang (the fictional) Kazakhstan national anthem to an off-key version of the US national anthem.

"If he had been out there a minute longer, I think somebody would have shot him," said one witness. "People were booing him, flipping him off." For his own safety, Cohen was escorted from the venue. Much of the event appears in the movie. A credulous news report about the incident, aired on a local television station, is included in the DVD extras.

Conflicts with Kazakhstan's government

Sacha Baron Cohen (who plays Borat) has also been accused of his character being a derogatory portrayal of Kazakhstanis.

In November 2005, following Borat's hosting of the MTV Europe Music Awards in Lisbon, Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry voiced its concerns about the character. Spokesman Yerzhan Ashykbayev told a news conference: "We view Mr Cohen's behaviour at the MTV Europe Music Awards as utterly unacceptable, being a concoction of bad taste and ill manners which is completely incompatible with the ethics and civilised behaviour of Kazakhstan's people", concluding "We reserve the right to any legal action to prevent new pranks of the kind."

Baron Cohen has since posted a video on the "Official Borat Homesite" where Borat responds to Ashykbayev in character. In the video, Borat states, in part:

In response to Mr Ashykbayev's comments, I'd like to state I have no connection with Mr Cohen and fully support my government's decision to sue this Jew. Since the 2003 Tuleyakiv reforms, Kazakhstan is as civilised as any other country in the world. Women can now travel on inside of bus, homosexuals no longer have to wear blue hats, and age of consent has been raised to eight years old. Please, captain of industry; I invite you to come to Kazakhstan where we have incredible natural resources, hardworking labour, and some of the cleanest prostitutes in whole of Central Asia. Goodbye! Dzienkuje!

Reuters quoted an unnamed Western diplomat as saying "They (the Government of Kazakhstan) are damned if they do [respond] and damned if they don't," he said. "It's sort of unfortunate that he hit upon Kazakhstan." Another unnamed source inside Kazakhstan's Washington embassy called Borat a "one-man diplomatic wrecking ball."

The next week, the government hired two Western public relations firms to counter Borat's claims, and ran a four-page advertisement in The New York Times. The advert carried testimonials about the nation's democracy, education system and the power and influence enjoyed by women. On a previous occasion, Borat responded to such official complaints by issuing his own "press release", which consisted of randomly arranged Cyrillic characters. He would make another response when promoting his movie in front of the Kazakhstani Embassy in Washington, roundly denouncing the advertisements as "Uzbek propaganda".

On December 13 2005, the right to use the domain name www.borat.kz was suspended, and the site attached to it was closed down. The domain-issuing body said that they took this action since false names were given for the site's administrators, and also because the site www.borat.kz was hosted outside Kazakhstan. However, the stated underlying cause of the action was in order to censor the content of the site: "We've done this so he can't badmouth Kazakhstan under the .kz domain name," Nurlan Isin, President of the Association of Kazakh IT Companies, told Reuters. "He can go and do whatever he wants at other domains."

Reporters Without Borders petitioned the ICANN ombudsman to intervene and reverse this decision. Meanwhile, the "Official Borat Homesite" was moved to the .tv domain, where it remains. (As of March 20, 2007, the former domain name was still suspended.) The 2006 annual human rights report released by the US State Department cited the loss of the .kz website as evidence of the Kazakh government's efforts to curb free speech.

Borat has, however, recently been defended by Dariga Nazarbayeva, a politician and daughter of Kazakhstan`s President Nursultan Nazarbayev. She stated on a national news programme Karavan that Baron Cohen's website "damaged our image much less than its closure, which was covered by all global news agencies," and "We should not be afraid of humour and we shouldn't try to control everything, I think."

White House "visit"

On September 28 2006, Baron Cohen appeared in character as Borat at the White House gates to give a press conference and invite "Supreme Warlord Premier George Walker Bush" to a screening of his forthcoming film, along with "O.J. Simpson", "Melvin Gibsons" and other "American dignitaries", after which they would join him for drinks at Hooters. Secret Service agents would not admit him to the grounds. The apparent publicity stunt was likely timed to coincide with an official visit by President Nazarbayev the following day.

Complaint by Roma in Germany

On October 18, 2006, European Centre for Antiziganism Research, which pleads against discrimination of Gypsies (e.g. Roma and Sinti people), filed a complaint with prosecutors based on Borat's comments about Gypsies in his film. The complaint accuses him of defamation and inciting violence against the ethnic group.

At a press conference just hours before the live broadcast of the 2005 MTV Europe Music Awards, he shocked local and international journalists in Lisbon, Portugal by bringing a bag of birds from Romania (the first European country to detect avian influenza) as a gift, then proceeded to say he was sorry that they had all died.

Victims of the hoax

WAPT (Jackson, Mississippi) TV news producer Dharma Arthur states in Newsweek she lost her job as a result of her booking Borat on a local afternoon news program. At the time of the appearance, she was unaware of Baron Cohen's act. During an interview with anchor Brad McMullan, Borat made sexual and scatological references, kissed McMullan, and later disrupted a live weather report. She said: "Because of him, my boss lost faith in my abilities and second-guessed everything I did... I spiraled into depression, and... was released from my contract... It took me three months to find another job, and now I'm thousands of dollars in debt and struggling to keep my house out of foreclosure... How upsetting that a man who leaves so much harm in his path is lauded as a comedic genius."

The broadcast, including the initial interview, the disrupted weather report, and several behind-the-scenes shots made by Borat's own film crew, is seen in the Borat movie.

However, not all hoax victims threaten to sue. Behind-the-scenes interviews with Randall Shelley (Guide to Baseball), Danny Passmore (Guide to Hobbies USA), Jennifer Defrancisco/Charles Di Cagno (Guide to Acting), Ken Goldberg (Guide to Being a Real Man) and Peta Heskell (Guide to English Gentlemen) have all decided not to sue.

Litigation

• The state prosecutor in Hamburg, Germany, filed a complaint against Mr Cohen, accusing him of slander, inciting violence against the Sinti and Roma Gypsy groups, and violating Germany's anti-discrimination law.
• Two fraternity men featured in the movie have filed an anonymous complaint against corporations and persons affiliated with Mr Cohen in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, California, for fraud, rescission of contract, common law false light, statutory false light, appropriation of likeness, and negligent infliction of emotional distress. One of the plaintiffs has been revealed as Justin Seay, a graduate of the University of South Carolina and former Vice President of the Chi Psi Fraternity. On December 11 2006, an L.A. Judge denied the pair a restraining order to remove them from the film.
• Cindy Streit, the owner of Etiquette Training Service in Birmingham, Alabama, has claimed mistreatment and fraud after "Borat" attended a dinner party and subjected her and the other guests to "ridicule and humiliation". Ms. Streit has hired attorney Gloria Allred, who is demanding an investigation by the California attorney general. Allred says her client agreed to be filmed as part of a documentary for Belarus television, and for those purposes only. She is asking the attorney general to consider all appropriate relief, including a percentage of the profits from the film. 20th Century Fox denied the claims and stated that there was nothing in writing about only being shown in Belarus; they also asserted that the release form clearly stated the footage could be distributed worldwide.
• According to a January 2007 report by the Associated Press, Israeli comedian Dovale Glickman plans to sue Cohen for copyright infringement of the phrase "Wa wa wee Wa." Glickman originated the phrase 16 years ago as part of his Israeli comedy show, "Zehu Zeh."

Borat in Popular Culture

In the 2007 film Epic Movie, Borat appears at the end of the film, and repeats his "NOT!" joke used at the end of Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. In this instance, he is played by Danny Jacobs.

The 30-Second Bunnies Theatre has produced a parody of Borat, although in this case, he is from Bunzakhstan (a parody of Kazakhstan).

See also

• Zlad! - A similar, Australian character.
• Kazakhstan - Borat's Home Country.
• Sacha Baron Cohen - the actor who plays Borat
• Mahir Çağrı - A similar, real character.

External links

• Official Borat Homesite, formerly at www.borat.kz
• Very extensive Borat fan site
• Borat at IMDb
• Borat at Rotten Tomatoes
• Video interview with Borat on Movies.com
• Borat film review at Mansized
• The Borat Soundboards

Articles

• NPR Fresh Air Interview of Sacha Baron Cohn
• Interview with Dan Mazer about Borat, Producer of Da Ali G Show on April 23, 2003 on boratonline.co.uk
• "Did Ali G Go Too Far?" on August 13, 2004 in The Jewish Week
• "The Borat Doctrine" posted September 13, 2004 in The New Yorker
• "'Ali G' Comedian Riles Rodeo Crowd" on January 14, 2005 on CBS News
• "No Joke" by Kenneth Neil Cukier on December 28, 2005 in Foreign Affairs, on what the removal of the Borat site from the .kz domain portends for the administration of the global domain name system
• Borat on Google Video
• Borat on Gotuit Video
• And Now for the World According to Borat and Sacha Baron Cohen
• "Borat in Paris" on October 9, 2006
• "Offensive and unfair, Borat's antics leave a nasty aftertaste" by Kazakhstan Ambassador Erlan Idrissov on October 4, 2006 in The Guardian
• "Behind the Schemes", Newsweek, October 16, 2006 (profiling several people who became unwitting Borat punch lines)
• "Borat vs. Kazakhstan", brandchannel, October 30, 2006 (discusses Borat's affect on Westerners' perception of Kazakhstan)
• "Mahir to Borat: I Sue You!", Wired, November 2006 (Q&A with Borat look-a-like Mahir Cagri)
• "New Borat Book Contains 100 Photos of Naked Kazakhstan Women", Russian Spy, November 2006
• "We survived Stalin and we can certainly overcome Borat's slurs" by Kazakhstan Ambassador Erlan Idrissov on November 4, 2006 in The Times