14 DAY TRIAL // Every nation appears to have an etiquette due to several stereotypes, which come from promoting good or bad aspects through films, books, political meetings, conflict situations, cuisine, commerce, music, tourism, economy, so on and so forth.
All stereotypes are speculated in comic shows, which happen to gain success if they promote appealing characters, situations and dialogues.
But when superficiality and lack of documentation lead to comic shows that create and promote stereotypes, which are massively distributed through a networking process, humor might cross the line and become a real insult to the character or to the nation depicted in the program.
This week, a nation's representative has spoken about the misconceptions promoted by the comic acts of a famous TV host.
The falsehoods spread by Borat, a character on "Da Ali G Show" which has recently finished its second season on HBO, made Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry think of a legal action against the British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.
In Kazakhstan, women are not kept in cages and they do have equal rights to men. The national sport is not shooting a dog and then having a party. You cannot earn a living being a Gypsy catcher. Wine is not made from fermented horse urine and it is not customary for a man to grab another man's khrum. Well, "Khrum" is not even the word for testicles, as Borat suggested.
Borat's prank show promotes the idea that in Kazakhstan, Jews attack people with their claws. The comedian's singing opinion is: "Throw the Jew down the well / So my country can be free / You must grab him by his horns / Then we have a big party."
Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry condemned Cohen and announced that, earlier this month, the country dedicated the largest synagogue in Central Asia.
Borat doesn't look like an ethnic Kazakh and his words resemble some gibberish Polish, but he still won fame ridiculing Kazakhstan, the world's ninth largest country, yet still little known to many people in the West.
"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. (?)We reserve the right to any legal action to prevent new pranks of the kind ", Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman Yerzhan Ashykbayev told a news briefing.
"We view Mr. Cohen's behavior at the MTV Europe Music Awards as utterly unacceptable, being a concoction of bad taste and ill manners which is completely incompatible with ethics and civilized behavior", Ashykbayev added.
Sacha Baron Cohen, a 34-year-old British comedian, was born into a middle-class Jewish family, the second of three sons of Gerald Baron Cohen and his wife Daniella.
His father, who owns a menswear shop in Piccadilly, is originally from Wales, while his mother is from Israel. His brother, Erran Baron Cohen, is a composer and trumpet player.
Cohen is the cousin of University of Cambridge Professor of Developmental Psychopathology Simon Baron-Cohen. The comedian is currently engaged to be married to Australian actress Isla Fisher.
In his youth, Sacha spent some time volunteering for Habonim Dror, a Jewish youth movement.
Cohen, who attended Haberdashers' Aske's School, a public school in Elstree, graduated history at Christ's College, Cambridge.
In 1994, the comedian sent to Channel 4 a tape picturing him in the character as Borat, a fictional television reporter from Kazakhstan, which caught the attention of one of the producers. Cohen came to prominence when his character Ali G started appearing on The Eleven O'Clock Show on Channel 4.
Da Ali G Show began in 2000 and won the BAFTA for best comedy series the next year. In 2003, the show went to the United States, where it airs on HBO.
He received some harsh critics for his comments, but his intention is said to be the delivery of an obvious satire that exposes people's ignorance.
Besides Ali G, Cohen created the character of Borat, a television reporter from Kazakhstan with an ardent hatred of Jews and a misogynistic attitude, and Bruno, a gay Austrian fashion show presenter, who often lures his subjects into unsuspectingly making offensive statements and engaging in embarrassing behavior.
On November 3rd 2005, the British comedian presented the European MTV awards as Borat, a satirical Kazakh caricature.
Borat has a younger brother Vilo and another one who is mentally ill. His sister is a prostitute (awarded "Best sex in mouth" and rated number 2 or 3 prostitute in Kazakhstan) and sometimes like to pretend that he and his sister are "husband and wife". His mother "wishes she was raped by another man". His wife was accidentally shot in a field after a hunter mistook her for a bear. Borat had a pet pig Igor which ended up eaten by his family. He sometimes uses a Romanian-made car called Dacia.
He admires Joseph Stalin, who he describes as being both "strong" and "powerful" and he hates Jews and also the people of African descent, whom he refers to as 'chocolate-faces'.
When he created the Borat character, Sacha Baron Cohen based it on a man he met in southern Russia. He started doing satirical interviews with various people who apparently do not realize the show is satirical. Although all his statements about that nation are false, the outrageous dialogue leads to getting some people's agreement with his anti-Semitism and misogyny, while others attempt to explain Western values instead.
Cohen writes his alleged notes in Hebrew, and he uses occasional Polish words (Dzi?kuj? - Thank You, Jak si? masz - How Are You, Dzie? Dobry - Good Day, Przepraszam - Sorry) when speaking to people.
His sexual talks were strongly contested by some viewers. He was daring enough to tell a female member of the Oklahoma City Council that he wishes to "make romance inside of her", followed by the exclamation: "all day I think of you, no clothes, wa-wa-wee-wa. That is very wonderful"?
Meanwhile, Sacha is working on a mockumentary based on Kazakhstani immigrant Borat's coming to the America on a mission. The movie will be released next year.
The controversy on Borat's undermining Kazakhstan's international image, as well as causing offense to real Kazakhstanis continues.
Borat Sagdiyev, the creator of "Borat's Guide To Britain" was constructed as a fictional reporter exposing Western ignorance and prejudices of foreigners in a humorous way.
"I in make-up preparation. I the number two television journalist in Kazakhstan. My other professions: ice maker and gypsy catcher. High five! You will not escape, Borat will get you. Call Kazakhstan-2417 for guarantee removal."
He calls Shakira - "Vagina" and tells Victoria Beckham he will put her in the show in return for fellatio, he calls Madonna a transvestite, he is talking killing and naked women at a gun club, he drinks wine before discussing slavery, he attends New Age dancing classes, searches for job tips, and asks the ex head of the FBI to cast his mind back to the grassy knoll and say "who really shot JR?". He discusses baseball, touches the penises of Vietnam veterans in Atlanta, urinates on trees with new age gurus in Sedona.
"Fuck', "bollocks", "sex", "dirt", "anus", "shit", "khram", "penetration", prostitute", are the words he uses most.
But so do most of the stand-up comedians nowadays.
Borat's daring might be compared at some point to the famous British television comedy series Monty Python, which first aired on October 5, 1969 with the episode 'Whither Canada?'. Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin also pushed the boundaries of what was then considered acceptable, both in terms of style and content, but their sketches were based on well-known life stereotypes and their influence upon comedy has been compared to that which the Beatles had on music. From Adult Swim, South Park, and bits from Late Night with Conan O'Brien, the American programs used the same comic successful recipe.
From Monty Python's musical bit with children singing "all the sperm is sacred/ all the sperm is good", to South Park's Cartman - Fartman, Kenny's "shit" and "'Blame Canada' campaign", we have dealt with social, ethnical, cultural and political issues stereotyped in daring successful comic shows.
The anti-Borat opinion is partly based on the idea that people are still ignorant when it comes to knowing more about Central Asian or Eastern European countries and take the witty jokes created by Borat as real facts.
This way, humor and mockery may become defamation, through the process of networking stereotypes.
On the other hand, Borat's interviews also show some people's sense of humor and, at the same time, the superficial way of thinking of the many others.
Stupidity and ignorance have become the subject of most of the comedy shows, but when delivered to an unprepared public, the discourse of a joke is believed and appreciated, while the pun itself is forgotten.
