September 29, 2006
In My Country There is Problem
We're awfully sad today at DCist headquarters, after learning this morning that we missed out on spotting Borat (the faux-Kazakh reporter portrayed by comedian Sasha Baron Cohen) trying to gain entry to the White House yesterday, though sadly, to no avail. His visit to D.C. was a brilliant piece of publicity timing, coinciding both with the first official state visit of Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev, as well as the upcoming release of his new film, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.
Luckily, intrepid boy blogger The Nabob was there to bring us this glorious photo of Borat's earlier stunt, hosting a brief and bold press conference in front of the Embassy of Kazakhstan. Check out his entire account, not to mention The Post's not-to-be-missed video. The Reliable Source gals sum up Borat's statements thusly:
Sadly, the Kazakh government has long demonstrated their lack of a sense of humor in all things Borat-related, thus explaining the expensive PR campaign they've launched, mentioned above. To us, the genius of Borat isn't that he's poking fun at Kazakhstan — it's that he's skewering many Americans' complete lack of knowledge of the outside world by showing how much we'll put up with from someone who is foreign. The classic example is his performance of the song "In My Country There is Problem" in an Arizona country and western bar on Da Ali G Show, when he was able to get unsuspecting patrons to sing along to lyrics like "Throw the Jews Down the Well" (Cohen himself is Jewish).He began by waving an actual four-page advertisement that the former Soviet republic placed in yesterday's New York Times touting its sophisticated culture, religious tolerance and gender equality.
"These are disgusting fabrications!" he said in a thick, ambiguously foreign accent. They're perpetrated by "evil nitwits" from neighboring Uzbekistan "who, as we all know, are a very nosy people with a bone in the middle of their brain."
To be sure, we'll be on the lookout for any more Borat sightings in our fair city. Perhaps a DCist-hosted debate about all the ways in which you can compare a woman to a horse is order. Borat, can you hear us?
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You said:
To us, the genius of Borat isn't that he's poking fun at Kazakhstan — it's that he's skewering many Americans' complete lack of knowledge of the outside world by showing how much we'll put up with from someone who is foreign.
The classic example is his performance of the song "In My Country There is Problem" in an Arizona country and western bar on Da Ali G Show, when he was able to get unsuspecting patrons to sing along to lyrics like "Throw the Jews Down the Well" (Cohen himself is Jewish)."
I thought the "throw the jew down the well" was a clip from his new movie? Regardless, the humor isn't Americans' complete lack of knowledge by showing how much we'll put up with a foreigner..the humor comes from exposing how racist and ignorant Americans are >>>the people in the country western bar are singing along with great excitement "throw the jew down the well."
I'm pretty sure he first performed the song during the Ali G show. Maybe he does it again for the movie, but it was a couple of years ago (a year ago?) when he was starting to "perform" Borat frequently. If you haven't seen it, it's priceless.
Borat hosted a sneak preview of his new movie film at the Loews Cinema in Georgetown last night. Sadly, I was unable to attend.
My wife and I both choked on our soup when a television ad for Kazakhstan came on at Mr. Pho Friday evening.
The official catch phrase at the end of the commercial was, "Kazakhstan. Ever wandered?" wtf?
The Kazakhstan television add was just plain weird. The pretty scenes of nature were nice. But then they switched rather unceremoniously to more 'urban' scenes. One was quite literally just a couple of guys in suits walking down a street in a nondescript city. Is that supposed to entice me to fly halfway around the world to visit? So I can see a couple of guys in suits walking down the street? I can look out my window and see dorks in suits for a lot less hassle.