Not the "Comedy Classic" You've Heard About

Rating: 2/10 (7 June 2007)

I finally got around to watching "Borat," and have to say disappointed doesn't even being to cover it. I can appreciate all kinds of comedy, and mockumentary is one of my favorite genres, but, this film really confuses humor with jokes at someone else's expense.
I don't think I've ever been more uncomfortable watching something unfold. The Bed and Breakfast scene with the elderly Jewish couple was appalling, and to think that these people were duped into someone else's punchline makes it doubly so. Like someone else on this post pointed out, the scene with the dinner party was also cruel. Under a different guise, these people were opening their lives up to someone--in their minds, helping someone fit in, and they were rewarded by someone insulting them as being unattractive, having feces presented to them at the dinner table, and having what they believe is a prostitute show up on their doorstep. The antiques dealer has his merchandise destroyed in front of him, and women on an elevator are the target of what boils down to as indecent exposure. Why is it that Pamela Anderson can be totally in the loop on what's going down, but, other people are totally lied to? When I found out that the villagers in the opening scene weren't completely in the know, that was sort of the straw breaking the camel's back for me.
If this is what "the next generation" believes to be cutting edge humor, then, our society is in worse trouble then I thought. It goes well beyond crass humor. I'm as liberal and open minded as can be, and I am a firm believer in freedom of speech and supporting the arts, but, "Borat" just seemed like a yuck fest that centered around little more than picking on the slow kid. I don't want to ever think that sort of comedy is funny.