The movie "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Gain Glorious Region of Kazakhstan. " is a Mockumentary in regards to a Kazakhstan state tv set reporter known as Borat brings his destroyed British and chauvinism to America to make a documentary about life in the "U. S. of the". Upbeat and naive, Borat and his producer Azamat come to America to learn "why is America great". What he detects is a hodgepodge of gracious, bewildered, irritated, and racist people. The movie offers us a distinctive view of an outsider looking in on our contemporary society.
Borat's journey starts out in New York as he interviews various people for his point out television stop and becomes a quest in the united states to be along with his "real love" Pamela Anderson in California. As he crosses across the country Borat's journeys are filled with entertaining interviews and crazy antics. For my newspaper, I am going to examine a specific scene in the film in which Borat makes a stop in Salem, Virginia for a rodeo during his mission to be with Pamela Anderson in California. I believe this scene is unquestionably one of the funniest and politically wrong views in the movie. The field starts as the camera pans on the crowd packed with people who seem to be conventional "WASPS's" getting ready to see the rodeo. Borat, as he wears an American flag cowboy outfit, is conversing with Bobby Rowe, the general manager of the Imperial Rodeo. Rowe is sharing with Borat that he appears like a terrorist Muslim and that he should shave his mustache so that he will look like an Italian and not be so conspicuous. He tells Borat that he will never be accepted looking like a Muslim because everyone will look at him and think about what kind of bomb he has strapped to him. Rowe goes on to show his hatred of the center East stating he cannot wait around before US is victorious the war and have "all those damn child of the butts hangin' from the gallows" rather than until then will the American people acknowledge Borat's variety. Rowe then commences to discuss gays and instructs Borat to remain away from them; Borat points out to Rowe that they hang up gays is his country and Rowe replies "that's that which you are trying to get done here" and then he provides Borat a high five. After his talk with Rowe, Borat is asked to sing the Country wide Anthem to begin from the rodeo. When he gets to the center of the industry, he begins speaking to the crowd about the conflict on terror. He started out by saying, "I am Borat, I come from Kazakhstan. MAY I say first we support your conflict of terror!" The masses cheers and applauds Borat as he praises American patriotism, then goes on to say, "May George Bush drink the bloodstream of every man, woman, and child in Iraq!" At this point, the group erupts in arrangement. After his conversation, Borat quickly instructs the audience he is going to sing the Kazakhstan National Anthem to the tune of America's national anthem, "The Celebrity Spangled Banner. " Initially, the public is reverently waiting to listen to him sing, but as he begins to sing the Kazakhstan Country wide Anthem the crowd begins to get in an uproar of disapproval. Because of the arbitrary lyrics in the tune, the crowd did not know whether Borat was serious or joking by singing a songs that was so degrading to the United States in their own country. The crowd was so shocked when they listened to the lyrics, "Kazakhstan is the greatest country on earth!", that a horse having a cowgirl with an American flag fell down as the industry exploded in boos.
This scene contained many key points that made it humorous. To begin with, the main reason for this movie was to make fun the arrogance of the nation and confirm that while America thinks it is the best country on the planet, we are still fallible. Disparaging laughter was the one of the most prevalent types of humor used throughout the movie and especially in this picture. Ferguson and Ford express disparaging laughter as "remarks that are intended to elicit amusement through the denigration, derogation, or belittlement of confirmed audience (2008). What made this scene so funny was to observe how racist and ignorant Bobby Rowe was as Borat roused him on throughout their conversation. The actual fact that someone would say that people should suspend all the gays, or that we want to destroy all folks in Iraq is so outrageous that it is very funny to laugh at and observe how ignorant many people actually are. This humor is successful because, Rowe possessed the audacity to plainly belittle Borat, the folks of Kazakhstan, and all of those other Middle East while he knew he had been filmed since it gave him a feeling of superiority. Critchley facilitates this aspect as he declares that, "we have fun from thoughts of superiority over other people" (2002). The masses of spectators in the rodeo industry also exhibited disparaging humor when the masses commences to cheer as Borat talks about killing all the people in Iraq including women and children and ingesting their blood. Under the psychoanalytic theory, Ferguson and Ford article explain that "It offers the humorist with a relatively benign means of expressing and fulfilling unconscious, socially undesirable impulses"(2008). Borat was able to egg on the group and Rowe to say and applaud views that are a racist and undesirable to our modern culture.
In addition, the Incongruity Theory of laughter was also used throughout the landscape. Critchley points out, "Laughter is made by the experience of the felt incongruity between what we know or be prepared to be the situation, and what actually happens in the joke, gag, or jest" (2002). For instance, one would not need expected to see Borat dressed as an American flag themed cowboy or give an outrageous conversation about George Bush enjoying the blood of each Iraqi. On top of that, his pronunciation and term use also made it humorous. For instance, Borat announces to the rodeo followers, "we support your conflict of terror", rather than the normal wording, "the battle on terror". Also when Borat was announced to sing the United States National Anthem, it was unexpected and funny that he arbitrarily decides to instead sing the Kazakhstan's Country wide Anthem to the music of the "Star Spangled Banner".
Finally the Comfort Theory of laughter also was prevalent in this scene. The scene starts out displaying the rodeo crowd, cowboys, bulls and a cowgirl on the horse keeping an American flag. As Borat is sings Kazakhstan's National Anthem to the music of the "Star Spangled Banner" and the stunned masses starts to boo in outrage from what they are reading and the cowgirl possessing the American flag suddenly just falls down. Critchley says us that, "laughter is discussed as a release of pent-up energy. . . where in fact the energy that is released and discharged in laughter provides pleasure" (2002). To be sure this movie was funny to its audiences, Sacha Cohen, the originator of Borat, made sure to present this movie to the American audience who stocks the same group of cultural icons, norms, and expectations. This empowered moviegoers to relate to the outrageous antics that Borat does continually throughout the movie.
By exposing Us citizens to some of the reasons why other countries criticize or mock the United States, it eventually lets Us citizens realize their own ideological shortcomings. The movie also allows People in the usa to look at their culture from another foreigner point of view since Borat's persona was a person from a completely different country and culture. Cohen intentionally exposes America's weaknesses as a political message for an American audience hoping of influencing American world. By depicting the way the United States has sense of superiority, Cohen will an excellent job in showing how widespread prejudice and racism is still alive in parts of the United States against other countries' custom and ethnicities. This movie invites audiences to reconsider many issues regarding world politics by losing light on popular controversial American ideology. Through the use of laughter to serious things, it is easier for the viewers to digest. The movie achieved its goal by showing how People in the usa are continuously intolerant and racist towards other countries. By responding to these serious issues in a funny way, the movie allows the viewer to digest more easily please remember the concept that Cohen wished to get across.
In conclusion, I came across this movie to be extremely funny. However, I can understand how some people might have been influenced by Cohen's sense of humor and found the movie to be insulting. Borat was my favorite movie to view and analyze because of this school. Having seen the movie when it first came up to the theaters, and then viewing it again for a class assignment definitely offered me an alternative potential of the movie. I was able to see the movie with a far more critical eyesight and appreciate different styles of humor that were implemented throughout the film.
