Posted on 10/01/2006 4:52:53 PM PDT by blogblogginaway
XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX OCT 01, 2006 19:42:01 ET XXXXX
FOX MOVIE: 'BUSH MAY DRINK BLOOD OF EVERY MAN, WOMAN, CHILD IN IRAQ'
All systems go for controversy, and the release of FOX fuss film 'Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan' -- a film which features a comic announcing to an outraged Virginia rodeo: 'May George W. Bush drink the blood of every man, woman and child in Iraq!'
VARIETY calls the film, set for wide release November 3rd, "uproariously funny."
Borat Sagdiyev, Kazakhstan's leading journalist from the State run TV network, travels from his home in Kazakhstan to the U.S. to make a documentary. On his cross-country road-trip, Borat meets real people in real situations with hysterical consequences.
"'Borat' should make abundant B.O. benefit for FOX," predicts the trade.
NEWSCORPFOX chairman Rupert Murdoch is said to be 100% supportive of the mockumentary, a top source tells the DRUDGE REPORT.
But it is a scene filmed last winter in Virginia, at a rodeo in Roanoke, that is raising spurs.
Comic Sacha Cohen, impersonating a Middle Eastern man in an American flag shirt and a cowboy hat, took to the stage to sing the national anthem at the Salem Civic Center.
Introduced as Borat Sagdiyev from Kazakhstan, he was said to be an immigrant touring America. A film crew was with him, doing some sort of documentary. And he wanted to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" to show his appreciation, the announcer told the crowd.
"I hope you kill every man, woman and child in Iraq, down to the lizards!" he told the audience.
An uneasy murmur ran through the crowd, unaware it was a set up.
"And may George W. Bush drink the blood of every man, woman and child in Iraq!" he continued.
Then the man took off his hat and sang a butchered version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" that ended with the words "your home in the grave," The ROANOKE TIMES reported.
By then, a restless crowd had turned downright nasty.
"If he had been out there a minute longer, I think somebody would have shot him," said one witness. "People were booing him, flipping him off."
"It's a wonder one of these cowboys didn't go out there and rope him up."
Last week outside of the White House, Secret Service agents turned away Cohen, in character as the boorish, anti-Semitic journalist, when he tried to invite "Premier George Walter Bush" to a screening of the upcoming film.
Cohen's "Borat" comedy routine has drawn legal threats from the Kazakh government, which keeps a tight lid on criticism in its news media.
Developing...
He also said that Jews should be thrown down a well and that women in his country are beaten daily.
Borat is an idiot. He is an ignorant, stupid character who says things that are outrageous. Borat insults people because he is ignorant and stupid. And you fell for it. You took a baffoon seriously.
It's like the guy who gets pissed when he is squirted in the face by a flower on a clowns shirt. The more pissed he gets, the funnier it is. Not the clown's fault, that is what clowns do. When you get squirted, just laugh it off or ignore it. The angrier you get the sillier you look.
You think screwing with Americans when our troops are at war is hilarious "guerilla comedy?"
And the answer was YES, then the quote followed. I don't think I missed the point at all; I think you did.
When they asked the Borat character what he thought of Ali G. his answer was "Kill the jew..."
Then the fault is with others, not me and my son. And advocating this lunacy doesn't help any.
Would you say the same about the rodeo audience?
And the question I posed to you was: what's wrong with screwing with American civilians FAR away from the war during a war? How is that a bad thing? How is that bad for the war effort?
*Shrug*
They looked pretty silly to me.
Some background for you...
From ABC News
Did you hear the one about the comic who so thoroughly offended a foreign country he could face legal action from its government?
Sacha Baron Cohen, star of the "Da Ali G Show," is doing his part to put Howard Stern's FCC battles into perspective. Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry is threatening to sue him for portraying the central Asian state in a "derogatory way." The 34-year-old British comic is under attack for "Borat Sagdiyev," a faux Kazakh TV personality he plays, who gleefully describes his countrymen as drunken sexual deviants.
Earlier this month, Cohen appeared as Borat to host the MTV Europe Music awards show in Lisbon, telling the audience that he arrived on an "Air Kazakh" aircraft, a propeller plane flown by a vodka-swilling pilot.
On his wildly popular HBO show, Cohen's Borat describes himself as the "sixth best known Kazakh in the world." He ruminates over "the terrible events of 7-11" and asks questions such as, "Is Disneyland part of the U.N.?"
"In the U.S. and A. they treat horses like we in Kazakhstan treat our women," he says in one episode. "They feed them two times a day. They have them sleep on straw in a small box. And for entertainment, they make them jump over fences while being whipped."
Kazakh officials have complained before about Cohen, as have other groups who see nothing funny about his spoofs, but this is the first time they have threatened to slap him with a lawsuit. It's unclear where and for what they'd sue him, and if they did, their chances of success would seem remote. But the threat clearly underscored their frustration.
"We do not rule out that Mr. Cohen is serving someone's political order designed to present Kazakhstan and its people in a derogatory way," Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman Yerzhan Ashykbayev said Monday in a press conference.
"We reserve the right to any legal action to prevent new pranks of the kind."
Posing as Borat, Cohen has been successful in landing interviews with such luminaries as Newt Gingrich, Buzz Aldrin, Brent Scowcroft, Ralph Nader, Donald Trump and Sam Donaldson. While some of his guests have been good-natured about their appearances, a few have claimed they were misled. Others have complained that Cohen just goes way too far.
In January, Cohen's Borat drew the ire of several Jewish groups and Kazakhstan officials, after he led patrons of an Arizona bar in a song called "Throw the Jew Down the Well," which he declared was a popular ditty in his native land.
"It's not quite helpful to portray a country where 'Throw the Jew Down the Well' is a famous folk song," a Kazakhstan embassy spokesman, Roman Vassilenko, said in a statement.
In another instance, Cohen sang the national anthem at a Salem, Va., rodeo, posing as a Middle Eastern man wearing an American flag shirt and a cowboy hat. He mangled the words — singing ''and your home in the grave" rather than "and the home of the brave" and called on President Bush to ''drink the blood of every man, woman and child in Iraq.''
In July, Cohen's Borat character visited the 150-year-old Mississippi plantation of George Matthews Marshall, claiming to be making a documentary about Southern hospitality. Marshall says he was outraged when a worker brought refreshments and Borat said, "Ah, I see you still have slaves here."
At the meeting, Cohen was accompanied by a woman who groped him and made several unseemly gestures, the 75-year-old Marshall said. When Cohen was asked to leave, he remained in character, shouting from the doorway, "I do not understand your customs!''
"I was so shocked, I didn't know what to think," Marshall later told reporters. "I told him people here get paid for a living."
Marshall says he plans to sue if the interview is included in Cohen's new movie, "Borat," which is slated to be released later this year.
While Cohen has critics, the controversy hasn't stemmed his meteoric rise. The Cambridge University-educated comic cultivated his humor in Britain in the late 1990s, and since bringing his act to America, he's landed several plum roles, including his steady gig at HBO. He was featured earlier this year in the animated kids' film "Madagascar," and he and Will Ferrell are on the fast track to appear as race car drivers in an untitled NASCAR-themed comedy, with Cohen playing a gay French racer.
Cohen had hosted the MTV Europe awards show once before, but as Ali G — his Jamaican British character — rather than as Borat. His recent show confirmed that his barbed tongue knows no bounds.
When Madonna performed the opening number, he quipped, "It was very brave of MTV to start the show with a transvestite." Some viewers even believed momentarily that the part of Madonna was being played by a female impersonator.
We are the fools for giving it to him.
So no troops who have been in Iraq or are on their way there, and none of their families and loved ones will see this movie? Where is it being shown, on Mars?
You're not answering the question, instead you're throwing red herrings and silliness. Stick with the question: how is screwing with normal citizens bad for the war effort? You said screwing with Americans during a time of war is bad, why? What is it about war that makes "gotcha" humor wrong?
It is not just us. ALL Americans should be offended. What has happened to this country?
Yep
They got upset at a clown acting like a clown.
Why aren't you more pissed off at the guy who allowed him to sing the National Anthem? That guy either will let anyone sing who requests regardless that he doesn't know who they are, or he knew full well what Cohen was going to do and went along with it.
I bet a whole lot of our troops will be pretty pissed off if they can't see this movie. The Ali G show is pretty darn popular with the male 18 to 34 demographic.
If this asshat showed up at a FReeper gathering (instead of a rodeo) and said this stuff, what do you think would happen?
Well, at least you and a few others would be there to alert us to the nuance and uber-humor.
I'd advocate for you and your son in a second if I truely felt his and your honor and sacrifice was seriously being belittled here. But, in my opinion, your son's honor and pride is quite safe from Cohen's Borat character. Borat is an idiot who is ignorant, racist, and stupid and everything he says should be taken as the ramblings of a stupid, ignorant, racist. Some others here have also posted other quotes by him which I'm sure infuriated others by slamming their core values. Unfortunately he got to you now.
When people see the film they'll say "ha, look at that moron. he's so stupid he can't even get the anthem right. go America!" or something to the effect ;)
At least i HOPE so.
And how many troops do you know???
Soooo....it's hilarious to see the rodeo audience, for example, make fools of themselves (IS SOME EYES) in their outraged response to anti-American statements? I just really don't think so.
And how many troops do you know???
I know a Marine over there now who is a big Ali G. fan...
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