'Borat': Cultural Teachings to America

I saw 'Borat' last night, and I tell you what: That guy's got nerves made out of diamond strands. I laughed so hard that I saw little sparklies in the corner of the screen, but now that the comedy endorphins are wearing off, I'm left to wonder -- how is he still even alive? In the movie itself, the guy dodges more titanic beatdowns than a banana-suited man on Kong Island. But there's always more behind the scenes... and now that the people he's duped are communicating online, the legal beatdowns may be coming.

Mahir Cagri bears a striking physical and aesthetic resemblance to Borat. Cagri enjoyed a massive early blast of Internet fame (lots of attention for a short time, no actual money) when his Web site hit the "dude can you believe this guy" nerve center in the brains of a billion dot-commers all at once, all of whom forwarded his site to each other and laughed like hell for weeks. There are some pretty obvious connections between Mahir and Borat, big black lip-caterpillar notwithstanding. And Mahir's pretty irked about it. He contacted 'Wired' looking for a connection to a lawyer to help him sue 'Borat's producers, and ended up giving this interview.

Newsweek contacted a number of Borat's interviewees for this story. From Newsweek:

Given the likelihood that Baron Cohen's movie will make piles of money—and the loose legalese of those release forms—someone is sure to try taking Borat to court. It's one of the few lessons in American life that Borat doesn't learn on screen: in this country, we sue. "I have a lawyer friend who said, 'Let me represent you! This is fraud!'" says Linda Stein, a New York-based sculptor whom Borat interviewed alongside Welch.

Stein herself has published a public response to her appearance in the Borat film, saying:

I don’t know what motivates Borat/Cohen to use his considerable talents to deceive and manipulate: maybe it’s his way of gaining power over the childhood sting of religious animosity or the feelings of inferiority from a woman’s beating him at Scrabble. I only know that afterward, I am left feeling confused and sad.

USA Today does a fantastic job of rounding up commentary from many of the film's participants, including a snippet of commentary from one of the three frat boys who come off looking particularly bad. Ask Metafilter has a pretty interesting ongoing discussion, purportedly started by one of the frat brothers' friends, who says:

John's terrified that everyone's going to see the movie and think he's an awful human being (which he's not). He's very distraught. He feels like he's disgraced his family, he wants to drop out of school, and feels like his life is ruined. How can I help him?

One woman lost her job as a result of Borat's antics. And, of course, many, many representatives of the real Kazakhstan are furious.

Keep in mind that the movie has not even been out in the United States for a full week, and already all this material is surfacing. You can already see deleted scenes andsome guy's Flickr photos from the movie's filming two years ago. By next week, what will have happened? Will a class-action suit against Borat's producers emerge, fueled by Web backlash? Or will Oscar buzz build? I haven't read a single negative review of this film.  

Sacha Baron Cohen recently inked a deal to make a similar film starring Bruno, his gay Austrian alter ego. Will he even be able to pull it off now that the world is wise to his tricks?

I'm not sure how to feel about 'Borat's' sudden, smashing success. I loved the movie, and I can honestly say that it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Ultimately, Cohen and crew are exposing Americans' racism, sexism, homophobia and other forms of ignorance. It's an incredible indictment of a society that claims to be better than any other one wrapped in a thick layer of brilliant lowbrow comedy. 

Some serious jerks were outed in the film, and they're pretty good examples of more rotten apples in our collective barrel. But a few nice, polite folks were trampled, too. Is sending an important message worth the collateral damage?