Borat

There are certain, unmistakable signs of a culture in decline. In my humble opinion, the popularity of this heinous piece of crap is irrefutable proof that the US has taken a sharp left turn toward the nether regions. That this is now one of Blockbusters' top five rented videos assures me that the taste of the average Blockbuster customer must run to fried SPAM sammiches and Ripple. But I'll come clean. I actually saw this stinker in a theater. With my husband. Guess who picked the movie.

Sacha Baron Cohen thinks of himself as a comedian. He is a comedian who reminds me of no one more than the late Andy Kaufman - who's idea of humor was anything that induced bad behavior or made people miserably uncomfortable. The big joke here is that all the real people in this film, and most of them are ordinary folks, don't know that Borat is a fictional character. Cohen pretends to be a journalist from a fictional backwater country and then eggs people into acting reallllllllly stupid. Not that it's hard to do.

Let's just say that the tastelessness knows no bounds. Lots of poop, lots of disgusting sexual innuendo, lots and lots of bigotry, and a naked wrestling scene with a hugely obese and very hairy man ( in on the joke although the poor, luckless folks at the hotel who get to witness it are not.) Several people have sued Cohen for being misled into making this film. It's hard to tell who gets shafted more, them or the folks who have paid to watch this, but Cohen is laughing all the way to the bank. He was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. That's the biggest joke of all.

If this sounds like your cup of tea, see the website here.