[NEohioPAL]Borat doesn't pay.

[James Smith]

>>> On Nov 12, 2006, at 12:25 PM,
pengo at davidhansen.org wrote:

Interesting. A stupid, drunk racist allows himself to
be caught on film being a stupid, drunk racist, even
signing a contract stating that this film may be shown
in public, this film which shows him behaving as
himself, a stupid, drunk racist. This stupid, drunk
racist is offered no compensation, nor expects any,
because he stupid and dumb, and drunk.

When said film turns out to be a comedy blockbuster,
the stupid, drunk racist wants his cut of the profit.

Let's go back and forth on this until Fred cuts us
off.

David H. <<<

More like, some jerk tricks you into doing what you
think is a documentary for a poor Eastern European
country, but instead starts shouting nonsense about
how he wants to kill the Jews and how women in
Kazakhstan pull plows, then edits the footage to make
it look like you agree with him. And even if you sit
there stone silent, you're judged for "not speaking
out against anti-Semitism."

There's more to this than just a few drunken frat boys
(who, for what it's worth, were told the film wouldn't
be aired in the U.S. -- yet more deception and conning
for the sake of so-called comedy). Sacha Baron Cohen,
the 'comedian' behind Borat, and his crew descended
upon an impoverished Romanian village to serve as
Borat's Kazakh hometown. They told the residents they
were filming a documentary, then proceeded to put them
into scenes and situations which made them look like a
bunch of backward peasants so that a bunch of
Americans could sit back and laugh at them. Does Cohen
vote Republican too? Oh wait, he's British.

And they knew the villagers would be unlikely to find
out the truth, because the closest movie theater is 20
miles away, none of them own cars, and even if they
could get there, they couldn't afford to buy a movie
ticket. It was only when a few journalists showed them
clips of the film that they were upset. Cohen took
advantage of them and misrepresented them without
their knowledge. They were paid a paltry stipend
(about $6 U.S.) for their participation, which they
graciously accepted since they were so poor, but at
the expense of having a cow urinate and defecate in
one person's house. Can you imagine a filmmaker trying
to pull a stunt like this in the U.S.?

One journalist even lost her job thanks to Borat's
on-air buffoonery. One could write this off as "she
didn't do enough research to find out his shtick
before accepting his interview request," but Borat's
gigs work specifically *because* Cohen goes to great
lengths to ensure the mark is fooled. They even set up
a fake website to give the appearance of legitimacy to
the "documentary," originally at www.borat.kz until
the Kazakh government took it down. Read more here:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,227307,00.html#2
(Yeah, I know that's a Fox News link, but type the
name Dharma Arthur into Google News and you'll find
plenty of other sources too.)

Borat puts people into uncomfortable situations and
asks loaded questions in order to make them say
certain things, then splices the video to make it seem
different than it really is. Do you really think all
the people featured on Jay Leno's Jaywalking segments
are really as stupid as they appear? I'm not sure
what's so funny about 84 minutes of watching people be
humiliated and taken advantage of. I'm sure plenty of
people find it hilarious so long as it doesn't happen
to them.

Not cool, in my book. Sorry.

-Jim C. Smith


 
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