I have some CDs of his old UK show – he’s a Mercer contemporary and he’s way more famous (and given his much larger body of work) more talented than Green.
Doesn’t mean anyone has to like it, but he’s been growing this movie for the better part of a decade, so I give him credit for that.
Plus, he’s stupid rich now.
Besides the old ‘shock the mundanes’ schtick old Baron von Borat has going he also has a *point*. Something that Green never even considered in his foggiest imaginings. Cohen is acutely aware of all this casual racism and basic idiocracy all around us and brings in the old spotlight to try waking up those people who just don’t get it. The sad thing is that despite how obviously he is making his point there still appear to be a whole lotta people that have to be held by the hand and have it *explained* as well. Alas.
borat (aka cohen) is WAY funnier that tom green ever was (in my opinion).
cohen is big here in the uk. borat is talked about all the time. in that way, he is also bigger than tom green. i never heard canadian press talk about green. of course the canadian press are reluctant to talk about anything…
I’ve not seen any clips of Cohen humping dead mooses … so I’m guessing no.
As everyone else has said … Borat is just a way funnier version of Mercer’s “Talking to Americans” routine.
I’m in agreement with the above comments. Cohen’s comedy generally comes at the expense of those who deserve it, and is clever.
Tom Green is just weird, which was funny for a while.
I agree with Toren. Borat is just trendy now. You guys are making him sound way more complex then he actually is.
Define trendy? Simply because it’s popular and doing well at the box office? That’s no reason not to see the film. Hell, LotR was trendy a couple years ago. Ghostbusters was trendy at one point. If our only gauge is box office receipts. And anything that is popular at the box office is going to get a lot of press play.
Comedy is generally situated in time. Something we thought funny 20 years ago probably has little relevance today. Few comedians and comedies translate well over time. Borat, at the moment, is hitting a specific nerve and does it well. Will Borat still retain its humourous qualities if viewed 10 or 20 years from now? Likely not, but it is reflective of the time we live in now. And should be viewed from that perspective.
And Cohen’s a smart enough guy that he’ll probably bury Borat when his time has run out and find something else that’s more timely.
To clarify, I’m not really saying Borat is one thing or the other, I really haven’t seen any of his work, except for a few minutes of the Ali G show. That didn’t make me laugh but it did make me feel uncomfortable. Uncomfortable in kind of the same way as the British original of The Office except I know that everyone in The Office is an actor and I’m not sure about Borat/Ali G.
I posed the question because I actually wanted information and opinion!
Ok Toren. Sacha Cohen (Borat/Ali G) is clearly someone sho does his comedy in order to elicit the uncomfortable reaction that you mention. Racism is something he clearly has a serious hate on for and he will go to whatever lengths necessary to get the point across (I suspect that he has simialr views about sexism). Unlike Tom Green, Mr. Cohen is a Cambridge educated Englishman (who happens to be Jewish) who did a doctoral thesis on the role of Jews in the American Civil rights movement. Tom is a goofball from Ontario who happened to realize that a certain segment of the population get a huge laugh out of seeing people do uncomfortable of just plain bizarre shit.
He’s just stealing Rick Mercer’s bit.
I have some CDs of his old UK show – he’s a Mercer contemporary and he’s way more famous (and given his much larger body of work) more talented than Green.
Doesn’t mean anyone has to like it, but he’s been growing this movie for the better part of a decade, so I give him credit for that.
Plus, he’s stupid rich now.
Besides the old ‘shock the mundanes’ schtick old Baron von Borat has going he also has a *point*. Something that Green never even considered in his foggiest imaginings. Cohen is acutely aware of all this casual racism and basic idiocracy all around us and brings in the old spotlight to try waking up those people who just don’t get it. The sad thing is that despite how obviously he is making his point there still appear to be a whole lotta people that have to be held by the hand and have it *explained* as well. Alas.
borat (aka cohen) is WAY funnier that tom green ever was (in my opinion).
cohen is big here in the uk. borat is talked about all the time. in that way, he is also bigger than tom green. i never heard canadian press talk about green. of course the canadian press are reluctant to talk about anything…
I’ve not seen any clips of Cohen humping dead mooses … so I’m guessing no.
As everyone else has said … Borat is just a way funnier version of Mercer’s “Talking to Americans” routine.
I’m in agreement with the above comments. Cohen’s comedy generally comes at the expense of those who deserve it, and is clever.
Tom Green is just weird, which was funny for a while.
I agree with Toren. Borat is just trendy now. You guys are making him sound way more complex then he actually is.
Define trendy? Simply because it’s popular and doing well at the box office? That’s no reason not to see the film. Hell, LotR was trendy a couple years ago. Ghostbusters was trendy at one point. If our only gauge is box office receipts. And anything that is popular at the box office is going to get a lot of press play.
Comedy is generally situated in time. Something we thought funny 20 years ago probably has little relevance today. Few comedians and comedies translate well over time. Borat, at the moment, is hitting a specific nerve and does it well. Will Borat still retain its humourous qualities if viewed 10 or 20 years from now? Likely not, but it is reflective of the time we live in now. And should be viewed from that perspective.
And Cohen’s a smart enough guy that he’ll probably bury Borat when his time has run out and find something else that’s more timely.
To clarify, I’m not really saying Borat is one thing or the other, I really haven’t seen any of his work, except for a few minutes of the Ali G show. That didn’t make me laugh but it did make me feel uncomfortable. Uncomfortable in kind of the same way as the British original of The Office except I know that everyone in The Office is an actor and I’m not sure about Borat/Ali G.
I posed the question because I actually wanted information and opinion!
Ok Toren. Sacha Cohen (Borat/Ali G) is clearly someone sho does his comedy in order to elicit the uncomfortable reaction that you mention. Racism is something he clearly has a serious hate on for and he will go to whatever lengths necessary to get the point across (I suspect that he has simialr views about sexism). Unlike Tom Green, Mr. Cohen is a Cambridge educated Englishman (who happens to be Jewish) who did a doctoral thesis on the role of Jews in the American Civil rights movement. Tom is a goofball from Ontario who happened to realize that a certain segment of the population get a huge laugh out of seeing people do uncomfortable of just plain bizarre shit.