Borat might be the worst movie I’ve ever seen

Now, I can’t honestly say that “Borat” was the worst movie ever because, well, I didn’t get through the entire movie. By the 40th intolerable minute of it, I walked out.

Let me say up front – I am no prude. And while I am sensitive to racism and sexism in pop culture, I am not so sensitive that I can’t enjoy it. I enjoyed the South Park movie and laughed very, very hard through many of the songs. I thought ‘Team America: World Police’ was funny, including the final monologue. I think Eminem is talented.


Now, I can’t honestly say that “Borat” was the worst movie ever because, well, I didn’t get through the entire movie. By the 40th intolerable minute of it, I walked out.

Let me say up front – I am no prude. And while I am sensitive to racism and sexism in pop culture, I am not so sensitive that I can’t enjoy it. I enjoyed the South Park movie and laughed very, very hard through many of the songs. I thought ‘Team America: World Police’ was funny, including the final monologue. I think Eminem is talented.

But Borat? Borat, and all the other characters done by the same actor, is garbage. Ali G is straightforward blackface. Borat, on the other hand, is Kazakhface. There seems to be a lot of buzz in the media about the brilliance of Borat. This actor, Cohen, exposes the hypocrisy, the racism, the antisemitism, in America. I don’t buy it. The main target of Cohen’s mockery is his own character. It’s clear in the structure and setup of every joke. It’s not exposing US racism to have the Kazakh bring a bag of shit to the dinner table. Or to show the Kazakh washing his clothes in a pond in Central Park. Or to show the two Kazakhs wrestling naked over a long period of time, ending up in sexual positions. It’s basic scatological humor, cliche, no cleverness or wit or talent at all that I could see.

The other thing was that it just wasn’t funny.

Author: Justin Podur

Author of Siegebreakers. Ecology. Environmental Science. Political Science. Anti-imperialism. Political fiction. Teach at York U's FES. Author. Writer at ZNet, TeleSUR, AlterNet, Ricochet, and the Independent Media Institute.

3 thoughts on “Borat might be the worst movie I’ve ever seen”

  1. By all means, and then some.
    By all means, and then some. For a somewhat more in-depth, markedly less civil analysis/rant, view: blog.myspace.com/creamhorn

  2. you nailed it, rafter! “It’s
    you nailed it, rafter! “It’s not transgressive or shocking, sadly – would that it were. It’s a dusty old corpse in a moth-eaten suit, leering at itself in the mirror, congratulating itself on how new and exciting it is.”

    that’s exactly it! thank you for that in depth and less civil analysis – ie., for saying what i was too diplomatic to say!

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