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Borat Sagdiyev is a fictional 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 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.
Background
Borat claims to be Kazakhstan's sixth most famous man. He is a top journalist for a Kazakhstani 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 and plough were stolen. He has also told stories of his wife dying in a field due to an accident. During a trip to Kazakhstan, it was revealed that Borat has numerous wives.
Beliefs Borat's beliefs are mostly based on his experiences in Kazakhstan. He 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 answering his questions and sometimes agreeing with him. Other guests attempt to explain American values and equality 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 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] (http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/story.jsp?story=553818)
However, the Anti-Defamation League, a prominent Jewish lobby group, complained to HBO after Borat sung 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 '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 Kazakhstan and other foreign countries to teach others about the American political system. Broadwater later posted a letter on his website denouncing Da Ali G Show. [2] (http://www.webgeordie.co.uk/borat/broadwater.htm)
Borat has also caused a stir in Kazakhstan, where the Kazakhstani embassy in the United States wrote a formal complaint to HBO to remove Borat. [3] (http://www.kazakhembus.com/)
See also: Da Ali G Show
Quotes - "But if she cheat on me, I will crush her!"
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- —Speaking with Jenny Noel from Great Expectations Dating Agency
- "I love baseballs, do you love the baseballs?"
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- —At a Savannah Sand Gnats baseball game, speaking to the crowd
- "It's nice... It's good, but I have seen bigger!"
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- —Speaking with a man on the street about his penis, after touching it
- "She was voted by Almaty Chamber of Commerce for best sex in mouth. She is number 2, or 3, best prostitute in the country of Kazakhstan."
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- —Speaking with singer and country musician Porter Wagoner about his sister while asking for song ideas
- "He will say many bad things, but that is because he is a liar."
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- —In response to an employment adviser asking what his former boss would say about him
- "Last night, me and my wife, we have sex."
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- —Speaking to members at a formal dinner
- "I make a smell. It smell like a shit."
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- — Commenting on his flatulence at a formal Southern dinner.
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- — Directed towards an elderly woman at a recreation of a slave plantation.
See also
External links - Channel 4 Borat website (http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/A/alig/borat.html)
- Da Ali G Show on HBO (http://www.hbo.com/alig/)
- Borat Online (http://www.boratonline.co.uk)
- Borat Soundboard (http://www.cringehumor.net/borat_soundboard.html)
- Throw the Jew Down the Well (http://www.throwthejewdownthewell.com/)
- Throw the Jew Down the Well video (http://waxy.org/random/video/Ali_G_-_Throw_the_Jew_Down_the_Well.wmv) (WMV)
- Borat with James Broadwater (http://homepage.mac.com/njenson/movies/borat.html) (Quicktime)
- Article on Disruption in the Jewish community (http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=9732)
- The New Yorker on Borat (http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/?040920ta_talk_radosh)
- Stir caused by Borat at US rodeo (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/01/14/entertainment/main666985.shtml)
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