Posted on 10/26/2006 9:40:14 AM PDT by NYC Republican
There were peasants, prostitutes, several barrels of fermented horse urine and possibly the most politically-incorrect speech Britain has ever heard.
Borat, Kazakhstan's famous TV reporter, was in town.
Gallery The stars come out for the Borat premiere
Also... • REVIEW: 'Borat the movie will offend everyone'
He arrived on a wooden cart drawn by a mule, surrounded by a gaggle of cheap-looking Kazakh ladies of the night.
And he brought laughter - although much more bafflement - to London's Leicester Square.
Unsuspecting office workers paused on their way home last night to watch as Borat attended the premier of his film, Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.
Borat, for the uninitiated, is the latest character of Ali G comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.
His persona as a Kazakh TV reporter - depicting his homeland as a nation of misogynists, racists and anti-Semites - has infuriated the country's President.
Last night, it was easy to see why. Baron Cohen hopped off his mule cart and declared: "Good evening gentlemen and prostitutes."
Wearing a bright yellow jacket and jeans, and oversized sunglasses, he grabbed a microphone and invited the crowds to join him after the screening at his hotel in King's Cross, where "We will all drink, wrestle with no clothes on and shoot dogs from the window."
Puzzled onlookers, standing in heavy rain, could be heard asking who on earth was speaking.
Lampooning Kazakhstan, Borat spoke warmly of the progress his home nation had made towards the modern world.
Such strides, he declared, as "women now permitted to travel on inside of bus" and "homosexuals no longer have to wear blue hats."
Flanked by two fearsome-looking guards with bayonets, Borat said he would love to meet the Queen, though he stressed: "Not for sexy time."
He also said he was hoping to meet Madonna after reading about her adoption of 13 month old Malawian boy David Banda.
"I have brought here with me my 11-year-old son, his wife and their new-born baby, who I am hoping to sell to singing transvestite Madonna," he said.
And his verdict on English women? "Very nice, but I cannot say for sure because I have not had time to buy any," he remarked, adding: "Here the women have more hair on their heads than our women do on their backs but English women not look strong enough to pull a plough."
As celebrities such as Peaches Geldof, Trinny Woodall and Desperate Housewives star Jesse Metcalfe hurried into the cinema, Borat announced: "Now we will sing Kazakhstan national anthem. All who do not join in will be reported."
And off he went, booming out the song in English - well, there was some English in it - and it was possible to discern something about his nation's prostitutes.
As Borat sang a verse that went something like "Kazakhstan's filtration system a marvel to behold," the crowds were divided into those attempting to sing along with the joke, and those left utterly baffled by what was happening.
One onlooker, Tomsk Alojzy, 23, from Poland, said: "Is this supposed to be Eastern European or English humour? I really don't understand it."
Perhaps Borat still has much to learn from Hollywood stars such as Tom Cruise, famed for spending literally hours chatting to his fans.
High-fives and screeched greetings were the only reward Borat's sodden fans received from Baron Cohen.
Borat has dismayed the Government of Kazakhstan with his claims that the country's national pastimes are "disco dancing, archery, rape and table tennis."
The Central Asian state cannot work out how to respond. Its enraged president has threatened to sue Baron Cohen and has hired two Western PR companies to denounce Borat's jokes.
But other ministers have said many people are in danger of taking the character too seriously.
Tonight, the Kazakh government attempted to give Baron Cohen a taste of his own medicine by sending a real-life Kazakh TV star, Jantik Baimukhamedov, along to report on the premier.
But he succeeded only in confirming the inept stereotype by arriving late and being refused entry.
Maybe London got off lightly. In Toronto, at the film's world premier last month, Baron Cohen arrived in an oxcart pulled by six women ferrying a donkey in the back
Imagining the entire membership of NOW having collective heart seizures while watching that scene breaks me up.
The trailer cracks me up every time I see it.
Now that is a funny line! 8-)
I sometimes can't cut through your sarcasm enough to know if you really liked it, or you're ripping on it. Which is it?
I'd pay good money to see that.
No sarcasm.
I thought the old guy had no idea what he was talking about, but he got the jist!
I'll post this one last time. PLEASE check out post #21. Does anyone else find it as funny as Petronski and I? Would love to hear others' opinions. Thanks
mark for myself so I can view these at home - - durn company firewall, always wrecking my amusements....
"Kazakstan is the only Central Asian state whose constitution does not assign a special status to Islam." - Wikipedia
Did you enjoy it? Did you laugh? At least chuckle?
Yeah, it was a riot!
Sasha Cohen is a Brit, actually, so we can't get blamed for this one.
There is a rumour that Mahir may have been among the inspirations for British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen to create the character Borat Sagdiyev, a fake reporter for Kazakh television, as seen on Da Ali G Show. Chief similarities between Mahir and Borat include facial hair and taste in formal wear. Borat also shouted out Mahir's catchphrase "I like sex" to the crowd at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Lisbon and at a Savannah Sand Gnats baseball game. In the upcoming feature film of the same name, Borat not only quotes "I like sex" and "You can stay my home" in the introductory scenes, but poses during a game of ping-pong in revealing red shorts, referencing two of Mahir's famous shots. However, the Character "Borat" has been in development since 1995, 4 years before Mahir's page was online. Sacha Cohen has said himself that it was based on a Russian doctor.
The original Mahir site, but if you ran a search on Mahir, there's ton of old links going back 7 years. http://www.istanbul.tc/mahir/mahir/
Thanks for the tip
Like a toothache this idiot's funny. Andy Kaufman without the talent.
"Any more shocking than the Beatles' "Her Majesty" on Abbey Road?
"
Not if you have a belly full of wine.
Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl...
Someday I'm gonna make her mine, oh yeah,
Someday I'm gonna make her mine!
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