A humorless humor expert. A clueless ex-Congressman. An arena full of whooping rodeo fans. A patronizing etiquette coach. A bunch of drunken frat-boys. What do they all have in common? They were all victims of Borat, the phony Kazakh journalist portrayed by ambush-comic/satirist Sacha Baron Cohen. Cohen's guerrilla-filmmaking resulted in one of the year's most hilarious movies - hilarious to us, the spectators, but not so to the people Cohen victimized. Many of Borat's unwitting co-stars even got angry enough to attempt lawsuits - the boozing racist frat boys, who claimed their "reputations" were damaged; the etiquette coach Cindy Streit, who claimed she was doing to it to prevent others from being duped by Cohen as well (how big of her). Even the Romanian villagers Cohen used as his faux-Kazakh kinsmen got in on the litigation (apparently Romanians don't know funny either). And then there was the curious case of Kid Rock, who got so incensed over Pamela Anderson's perfectly witting appearance in the film, that he pushed her right into leaving him. Maybe somebody could hook Kid up with Cindy Streit. Hey, at least his manners would improve (and maybe she'd be able to potty-train him finally).
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Biggest Losers of 2006: #9 Borat Victims
A humorless humor expert. A clueless ex-Congressman. An arena full of whooping rodeo fans. A patronizing etiquette coach. A bunch of drunken frat-boys. What do they all have in common? They were all victims of Borat, the phony Kazakh journalist portrayed by ambush-comic/satirist Sacha Baron Cohen. Cohen's guerrilla-filmmaking resulted in one of the year's most hilarious movies - hilarious to us, the spectators, but not so to the people Cohen victimized. Many of Borat's unwitting co-stars even got angry enough to attempt lawsuits - the boozing racist frat boys, who claimed their "reputations" were damaged; the etiquette coach Cindy Streit, who claimed she was doing to it to prevent others from being duped by Cohen as well (how big of her). Even the Romanian villagers Cohen used as his faux-Kazakh kinsmen got in on the litigation (apparently Romanians don't know funny either). And then there was the curious case of Kid Rock, who got so incensed over Pamela Anderson's perfectly witting appearance in the film, that he pushed her right into leaving him. Maybe somebody could hook Kid up with Cindy Streit. Hey, at least his manners would improve (and maybe she'd be able to potty-train him finally).
