Very well said, Vince, and thanks for writing this up—I don't think I'd have seen it otherwise. It's good that people like Charles are still articulating nuanced views rather than Hot Takes. How refreshing.
However we feel about it now, I have never seen a comedy with an audience that laughed as hard as the one at Borat. After the naked fight, a guy in front of me stood up, went to the aisle, and leaned against the wall for a couple minutes to catch his breath.
It's kind of a miracle they were able to pull off a Borat sequel at all, let alone one that was pretty good. The Dictator did give us this scene, which I remember fondly now and then.
Great write-up but I think we're remiss to not mention 'Who is America.' Done after The Dictator and all the other stuff, it was a return to form, and I think in many ways a better take on the Jackassian/Boratian, Brunian stunts that came before. In particular the scene with the Tech Bro comes to mind, or the office defense where he gives some simple minded biggots a Ham to throw at terrorists 😂 They ate it up, metaphorically and pun intended.
I didn't like "Who is America" that much overall (it relied too much on just getting stupid people to do stupid things as opposed to finding comedy in the characters), but the small-town Mosque segment is among the best things that Baron Cohen has ever done:
Yeah I get it, and agreed; I just told somone about the Mosque skit! I guess for me the utility in the stupid people doing stupid shit thing is when they're public/government officials.
Very well said, Vince, and thanks for writing this up—I don't think I'd have seen it otherwise. It's good that people like Charles are still articulating nuanced views rather than Hot Takes. How refreshing.
So refreshing.
Man, I'd never really put together how people were nice to Borat, but immediately mean to Bruno.
Almost like foreshadowing, in a way.
Somehow I assumed Baron Cohen's IDF character from "Who Is America?" made it so he'd be a bit more aware of what was going on rn buuuuut guess not.
(Also, my PFP was a shitty picture of Borat since like 2006 on a billion places, Uproxx included.)
"Certainly not everyone who saw Borat and laughed at it was halfway intelligent"
Shit, not even half of us was.
I missed the memo on how we're hand-wringing about Borat now so I'm not sure which half that leaves me in.
The Canadian one
So the dumb one
However we feel about it now, I have never seen a comedy with an audience that laughed as hard as the one at Borat. After the naked fight, a guy in front of me stood up, went to the aisle, and leaned against the wall for a couple minutes to catch his breath.
It's kind of a miracle they were able to pull off a Borat sequel at all, let alone one that was pretty good. The Dictator did give us this scene, which I remember fondly now and then.
https://youtu.be/vm7dIAq7QwM?si=66AQghrud2xIpAKU
Borat was an enormous in theater experience!
Great write-up but I think we're remiss to not mention 'Who is America.' Done after The Dictator and all the other stuff, it was a return to form, and I think in many ways a better take on the Jackassian/Boratian, Brunian stunts that came before. In particular the scene with the Tech Bro comes to mind, or the office defense where he gives some simple minded biggots a Ham to throw at terrorists 😂 They ate it up, metaphorically and pun intended.
Very true, that one was amazing
Totally agree and people never really talk much about that series.
I didn't like "Who is America" that much overall (it relied too much on just getting stupid people to do stupid things as opposed to finding comedy in the characters), but the small-town Mosque segment is among the best things that Baron Cohen has ever done:
https://www.tiktok.com/@playitlayitbang/video/7231704567103163675?lang=en
Yeah I get it, and agreed; I just told somone about the Mosque skit! I guess for me the utility in the stupid people doing stupid shit thing is when they're public/government officials.
What in the cinnamon toast fuck is that Nic Cage movie.