He Wants to Make Romance Inside You

Can you sue a comedian for playing a character? I'm tempted to say no, that such a thing would be impossible. Yet, here is the nation of Kazakhstan, threatening to sue British comic Sacha Baron Cohen (better known as Ali G) for his portrayal of the hilarious "Borat," a clueless Kazakh TV show host.

For the 8 people on the Internet who don't yet know about Ali G, here's the short version: Jewish British guy Cohen dresses up as one of three different characters (wannabe hip hop doofus Ali G, gregarious yet repugnantly intolerant Borat or gay Austrain fashionista Bruno) and interviews people who don't any better. It works on the "Punk'd," "Tom Green" level of making people look like assholes on TV, but it also serves as perhaps the best satire on television. The genius of Cohen is how he uses these characters, who are stupid and out-of-their-element enough to make even the loopiest fool feel morally and intellectually superior, to bring out the flaws in his guests. If you're a racist, well, so is Borat, so you two might be able to find some common ground.

Really, it's amazingly funny, and also why the jokes aren't really very offensive. I mean, the Ali G character is incredibly stupid, but the way the character is used to make pseudo-intellectuals like Andy Rooney look ridiculous is actually very smart. In that same way, just because Borat himself may be an offensive stereotype doesn't mean that the humor itself is offensive. In fact, Borat is used most often to reveal the less obvious, buried racism that lurks under society's phony facade of tolerance.

One brief example before I get back to the article...In perhaps the greatest Cohen routine of all time, Borat goes to an Arizona redneck bar to play a country-music song for the crowd. At first, of course, the laugh, because he's a swarthy Middle-Eastern guy in a smelly ill-fitting suit with a heavy accent wearing a cowboy hat and playing a guitar.



But the song is catchy. By the time he gets to the lyrics about throwing Jews into wells, the crowd is clapping and even singing along. (Borat, being a Muslim from Central Asia, hates Jews passionately, and finds similarly-minded Americans with surprising frequency). It's a hilarious bit, both because the song itself is a funny interpretation of ignorant anti-Semetic nonsense and because these people, who probably know well enough to be guarded about their distaste for Jews, loosen up in Borat's presence and reveal their true colors. Brilliant television.

But back to this article...

Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry threatened legal action on Monday against comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, who wins laughs by portraying the central Asian state as a country populated by drunks who enjoy cow-punching as a sport.

Baron Cohen, who portrays a spoof Kazakh television presenter Borat in his "Da Ali G Show", has won fame ridiculing Kazakhstan, the world's ninth largest country yet still little known to many in the West.

Whoa, the world's ninth largest country? I mean, I knew the Soviet Union used to be huge, but think about that...That's pretty goddamn huge! (I'm assuming the article means "largest" in terms of area, not in terms of population, because I'm thinking I could name 9 more populous nations. I mean, have you ever met anyone from Kazakhstan?)

Baron Cohen appears to have drawn official Kazakh ire after he hosted the annual MTV Europe Music Awards show in Lisbon earlier this month as Borat, who arrived in an Air Kazakh propeller plane controlled by a one-eyed pilot clutching a vodka bottle.

"We do not rule out that Mr. Cohen is serving someone's political order designed to present Kazakhstan and its people in a derogatory way," Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman Yerzhan Ashykbayev told a news briefing.

"We reserve the right to any legal action to prevent new pranks of the kind." He declined to elaborate.

I think MTV in America is going to replay the Europe Music Awards. I'll have to try and see it if they do, cause just that intro sounds hilarious.

And I'm not sure what's being implied by the Foreign Ministry with that quote. Is there some British-Kazakh tension being alluded to that I'm simply unaware of, or is it just unbridled paranoia. I'm certain that Mr. Ashykbayev isn't intimately familiar with the Borat routine, or he'd realize that the humor comes from Borat making his guests look stupid. Everyone knows that Borat isn't really supposed to represent the people of Kasakhstan. That's why it's amusing that such a silly character can dupe so many people!

But here's my question, on the off-chance there's a lawyer in the house. Can you sue someone for defaming an entire race of people through a character? If that were possible, couldn't just about every comedian ever be sued? I mean, what about Eddie Murphy's infamous "Jewish guy" character, that he played in about 10 movies back in the 80's? Or Mike Myers' Scottish Fat Bastard from the Austin Powers movies (or Shrek or So I Married An Axe Murderer or half of his sketches on "Saturday Night Live")?

Isn't that total horseshit? So why bother contacting all these news organizations and making a public statement? What's the use of threatening a comic with legal action?

Cohen's earlier jokes about the Central Asian state include claims that the people would shoot a dog and then have a party, and that local wine was made from fermented horse urine.

"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 ethics and civilised behaviour," Ashykbayev said.

I'm interested in the exact statements by Borat that offended the Kazakhstan Foreign Ministry. What is really his insistance that dog-shooting is the national pastime? Or his declaration that the best Kazakh wine is derived from horse urine? Because Borat has said way worse stuff than that. In particular, his constant sexism and racism would, I assume, be an issue for the Kazakhs. Borat has claimed to keep his wife in a cage, that in his country horses and dogs rank as more important than women, that prostitution is the greatest profession to which women should aspire. He's also made it known that he and his wife are afraid of those with a "chocolate face," and don't object to slavery in any way. Finally, if you watch the special features on the Ali G Second Season DVD, you can hear Borat suggest hunting Jews for sport.

But that stuff's all apparently fine with the Kazakhs...They just want you to know that none of them drink horse pee.