Comments by "Dennis" (@Dennis-nc3vw) on "What Kazakhstani Think Of Borat | Street Interview" video.

Sacha Baron Cohen's original inspiration for Borat was a Russian guy he met. He chose Kazakhstan precisely it's a country people didn't know anything about. It made Kazakhstan a blank slate he could work with.
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What's disturbing is that you thought Borat was in any way supposed to be an accurate depiction of Kazakhstan.
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Because hating America is fashionable.
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@r-man3864 It's not to "expose Western ignorance." Some things are just funny and humor doesn't have to come at someone else's expense. Why are people so damn mean-spirited that they believe it does? Play this character in Japan or any other country nowhere near Kazahkstan and you'd get the same response. It's not because people are "ignorant" its because no one expects to be the target of a well orchestrated prank and when people are put on the spot, they'll always go along with absurdity in the heat of the moment. Even if they suspect they're being pranked or get suspicious, they wouldn't want to say anything for the sake of politeness. So many people like to judge those Sacha Baron Cohen "dupes" but I guarantee you'd be no different. Or do you think every person Sacha Baron Cohen pranks happens to be an idiot? Because no one has EVER said to him "This is an act, I see through you, you're a comedian in disguise" during one of his roosts. Nor do you see this behavior on any prank/hidden cameras shows.
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Borat was NOT a satire of Kazakhstan. Sacha Baron Cohen's original inspiration for Borat was a Russian he met. He used Kazakhstan because it was an out-of-the-way country people knew nothing about, making it a blank slate he could work with.
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@BA-bo7kx Because 95% of the jokes about were about "Kazakstan." I don't truly believe Chuck Norris bleeds magma or pushes the Earth down when he does push-ups but I still laughed at those jokes.
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Christ alive, dude, why would you believe for one second Sacha Baron Cohen has some kind of vendetta against Kazakhstan? The original inspiration for Borat was a Russian he met. He used Kazakhstan precisely because it's a country that Westerners know and care little about, making it a blank slate that was easy to work with it.
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It's not a mockery or satire of Kazakhstan. Borat simply used Kazakstan because it was an out of the way country people in the West knew little about, making it a blank slate that was easy to work with. Anyway, why do you keep making this about Americans. Sacha Baron Cohen is from Britain, dumbass, and that's where his character got started. Get some less fashionable hatreds.
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Sacha Baron Cohen got his character Borat started in the UK, so if we're bigoted, they are too. Why can't some things just be funny? Why do people have this mean-spirited idea humor always have to come at someone else's expense? Comedy comes from taking some things that are true or sound vaguely plausible and then exaggerating them to a ridiculous degree. It is, to quote Buzz Aldrin (Buzz Lightyear) in his interview with the Ali G, when you mix the real with the absurd. When people made Chuck Norris jokes, was it to ridicule Chuck Norris? No. Were they genuine praise of Chuck Norris? No. They were just funny.
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@maxh7637 That's an idea, but it increases the risk people would know they're getting punked. It's probably best to have something that sounds passingly familiar.
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1) There are plenty of white people in Kazakhstan. 2) The stereotypes in Borat are based on Eastern Europe and post-Soviet countries. Nothing to do with yellow people.
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@maxh7637 Racism is about race and race is not nationality. Do you call mocking Canadians or Americans racist? Also, plenty of American comedy plays on stereotypes of Blacks and Jews. For example I remember when Trigger Happy TV had Jerry Minor stand at the corner of a liquor store and offer "vallet parking."
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There are no stereotypes of Kazakhstan and its barely ever mentioned in the Western media. That's precisely WHY Sacha Baron Cohen chose it, so he had a blank slate he could work with.
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@maxh7637 Jesus McGod...I'm almost at a loss of what to say here. Even though Kazakhstan is portrayed as a mostly white country in the film, and the stereotypes that exist are portrayed are either generic third world stereotypes, or stereotypes of Post-Soviet Countries, (which are mostly populated by white people), you're saying the film was some kind hit job against "Asians"?
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Why is it everyone magically loses the ability to distinguish race from nationality when a country is not majority white? You wouldn't call mockery of France, Australia, or the United States racist.
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It's sad how people's analysis of comedy always shows how mean-spirited this world is. It's always "X is making fun of Y." Why can't we just accept some things are just funny and humor doesn't have to come at someone else's expense? The movie was not making fun of Kazakhstan (Sacha Baron Cohen's original inspiration for Borat was a Russia guy, but people know too much about Russia for that to work), it's not making fun of America's ignorance (he used Borat's character to trick the people of Great Britain for years). It's just funny.
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@maxh7637 sigh I'm really afraid of what you're going to answer here, but if Khazakhstan was a mostly white country, like it is portrayed in the film, would that have made this movie okay to you?
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@SouravDas-vi1jh Sacha Baron Cohen got his career started in the UK.
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@nicoleKerry23 What on God's Green Earth are you talking about? People loved the skit Saudi Arabia release on Joe Biden? Americans also love how we're portrayed in Hetalia.
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Why are people so damn mean-spirited. The movie wasn't made to make fun of Americans, it wasn't made to make fun of Kazakhs. Some things are just funny and humor doesn't have to come at another person's expense. Don't judge Sacha Baron Cohen's dupes, because everyone, no matter their nationality or demographic, will go along with absurdity in the heat of the moment. That's why prank shows work all over the world and no matter what their subject matters. No one expects to be the victim of a well orchestrated prank and even if they start to suspect something is amiss, they're likely not to say anything because they don't want to be impolite.
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@ichjeyo Khazakstan is a country, not a race. Why is it every time a country doesn't have a white majority, people magically lose the ability to distinguish race from nationality?
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Anyone can look at that video and see the response from Americans are overwhelmingly positive. Sacha Baron Cohen also has Billy Wayne Ruddick Jr. and Dr. Nira Cain-N'Degeocello, who are Americans, as his characters.
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It's a multi-ethnic country. Many of them are white too. Nikolai Alexandrovich Antropov for instance.
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Plenty of them are white looking. It's a multi-ethnic country.
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Sacha Baron Cohen's inspiration for Borat was a Russian guy.
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Just because they associate the movie with Kazakhstan doesn't mean they actually think that's how the country is.
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It wasn't supposed to be a fricking documentary or satire. He chose Kazakhstan because if it was an out-of-the-way country most people didn't know anything about.
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Lol, you're so smart and yet don't know Sacha Baron Cohen is British and got his character started in the UK.
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You know he actually has an Israeli character: Eron Morad?
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@maxh7637 You've got that completely backwards. The fact that he used "absolutely false" stereotypes shows he's not really out to insult or mock anyone.
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@maxh7637 Do you even know what you mean by that? America is the constant butt of jokes.
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It's to "expose Western ignorance" either. No one ever expects to be the target of a well orchestrated prank and anyone will go along with absurdities in the heat of the moment. That's why hidden camera/prank shows work on any demographic/nationality no matter what their subject matter. People judge Sacha Baron Cohen's dupes but you'd be no different. Even if you suspected something was amiss, you'd go along for the sake of politeness.
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