Posted on 10/19/2006 5:50:49 AM PDT by The_Englishman
ALMATY - Alarmed by the antics of a fictional TV reporter who portrays their country as a nation of horse urine-drinking misogynists, Kazakh authorities have invited the comedian who plays the character to come and see the truth for himself.
Rakhat Aliyev, Kazakh first deputy foreign minister and a powerful son-in-law of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, asked comedian Sacha Baron Cohen to visit the vast, oil-rich steppe nation and meet normal human beings rather than the larger-than-life lunatics shown by Cohen's TV reporter Borat.
"His trip could yield a lot of discoveries -- that women not only travel inside buses but also drive their own cars, that we make wine from grapes, that Jews can freely attend synagogues and so on," Aliyev told local news agency Kazakhstan Today late on Wednesday.
The Central Asian state's Foreign Ministry threatened Cohen with legal action last year after he hosted an international music show as Borat, who arrived in an Air Kazakh propeller plane controlled by a one-eyed pilot clutching a vodka bottle.
His coarse jokes included portraying the world's ninth largest nation as a land where cow-punching is a sport and locals would first shoot a dog and then have a party.
In the forthcoming movie, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan", Borat depicts Kazakhs as a nation of misogynists, racists and anti-semites whose favourite drink is fermented horse urine.
The Kazakh authorities shut down Cohen's www.borat.kz site, prompting a move to a new homepage, www.borat.tv.
But the influential Aliyev, with interests in professional soccer and sugar trade, has made a pacifying gesture.
"I understand that the feelings of many people are hurt by Cohen's show," he said. "But we must have a sense of humour and respect the creative freedom of others."
I find the kind of humor that makes fun of Eastern European/central Asian manners and customs extremely boorish. The Borat concept isn't even original, one can see the influence of Steve Martin and Dan
Akroyd's SNL skits of the "two wild and crazy guys" from the 70's!
A class act of Kazakh officials to reach out to bury the hatchet!
Well said. Borat's gig is painfully boring.
The clip I saw from the Phoenix redneck music club, where he sings the anti=semitic folk song, seemed to make fun of the people watching and then joining in on his parodies. The whole Kazakh thing is just a backdrop....
And I'm not sure it is so benign. It is strange that he does pick on the one "success" nation in the region. Kazakhstan is seeing nearly double-digit-per-year growth, roughly balanced numbers of Orthodox Christians and Muslims with limited sectarian violence, a pro-Western outlook... and it is this country that Borat unleashes a torrent of hateful accusations on?
Go back to picking on Albania!
That's nothing. I seem to remember that H. Allen Smith, upon tasting a particularly flat American brewski, was heard to propose, "Put it back in the horse."
Hello Borat - Welecome to Kazakstan
Let me show you the old gulag the soviets built here - free room and board for a year or ten.
Your lawyer will see you upon your release in 2035.
Just kidding - or are we?
There's a Corona brewery in Kazakhstan? Who knew?
ROTFLMAO!!! Now that's funny.
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