Borat in New York

Two thin English funnymen wandering the streets of New York, late at night and looking for liquor. To quote a friend of mine, “What could possibly go wrong?” Sacha Baron Cohen (who created the character Borat) and Hugh Laurie (who used to be funny until he moved to the United States. Just kidding, Hugh) were heading out to a bar after working together on a show of Saturday Night Live (which also used to be funny.) The boys were probably on a post-show high and Sacha, who was apparently dressed in his Borat clothes decided to have some fun with a Big Apple resident. He went up so some guy and says, “I like your clothes. Are nice! Please may I buying? I want have sex with.” Instead of the expected ‘look, it’s Borat’ hilarity, buddy cuffs Sacha in the head then settles in for a good, old fashioned New York style beating. Hugh leaps in and pulls Sacha to safety. I guess if you don’t count a couple of bruises and a battered ego, there’s some pretty good free publicity since somebody had to release the whole episode (including dialogue) to the media. It sounds just like the sort of thing a publicity goof would do.

Speaking of ‘Borat’, which is supposed to be a pretty funny movie I hear (but then I also heard that the movie The Blair Witch Project was supposed to be scary so it just goes to show), I wonder why an Englishman pretending to be a journalist from some little country full of goats and chickens, felt the need to travel to the United States to expose hypocrisy, or whatever. Are there no balloons to be popped in England? Isn’t the idea of the hereditary right to rule worth poking with a sharp stick, or a sharp shtick even? Or is it just that the trusting and welcoming nature of our friends to the south makes them an easy target? My fellow Canadian, Rick Mercer, did something along those lines several years ago called Talking With Americans to pretty good reviews although it seems to have been a little less mean spirited. I suppose it’s only right that Sacha carried on with it, taking it to the next level, and if he has to take a few shots to the head to pay for it, well that’s cheap.

Anyway… Humouroceros

Borat? Or a real funnyguy?

I know what my vote is.