Borat : CLAMBGNK – The Next level of Sarcastic Humor or it’s Disintegration ?

There is a ninety-nine percent chance that when you initially glanced over the topic and your eyes met “CLAMGBGNK”, you had no clue so as to what it meant.

CLAMBGNK :

Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

Borat : Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan(lets refer to that biggie title by CLAMBGNK) was released(limited) back in November,2006. Although the movie failed to make its way through the censor boards and onto the cinema screens in many Asian countries, it became an instant hit all over the world(thanks to P2P and the DVD release).

Plot:

In the movie, Sacha Cohen Baron plays the character of Borat, who is a famous journalist fromKazakhstan. Borat is sent to the “Greatest Country in the world”,Unites States of America(or US&A as Borat would like to call it)by the Ministry of Information of Kazakhstan in order to prepare a documentary that explores the various things that make the country so great. He leaves Kazakhstan with his camera crew and the documentary director, Azamaat.

Once in USA, Borat falls in love with C.J(Pamela Anderson) after watching an episode of ‘Baywatch’ in NewYork. Shortly after, Borat receives a letter from Kazakhstan informing him about his wife’s death. He is very content to hear that his wife is dead(wow..Talk about sarcastic humor) and decides to pursue Pamela Anderson and marry her. He convinces his director Azamaat, to shoot the remaining parts of the documentary in California by telling him about the Pearl Harbour being there and Texas being nearby (although the Borat’s real motive is to find Pamela Anderson in California and marry her). Borat and Azamat off on their cross-country road trip and ensuing are confrontations of Borat and Americans, leading to the development of a story-line based on mockumentary(as Wikipedia would like to call it), which some may find to be exuberantly hysterical while others may think of it to be nothing more than a pile of crap that depicts acrimonious persecution towards racism which is unaccounted for.

Analysis:

When I saw this movie about 7 to 8 months ago, I found it to be extremely amusing. Being a Sacha Cohen fan since the characters of Borat & Ali G first surfaced, I partially knew what to expect from the movie. There were times (in fact, there were many many many many…_this could go on forever) times during the movie when I was knocked off my chair and couldn’t help but laughing my ass off.

The various elements that are a part of this movie (besides the plot) and make it “Exuberantly Hysterical” were bound to give rise to criticism and controversy. The movie makes a mockery (or, is a *Mockumentary according to Wiki P.) out of Kazakhstan, the Iraq war and achieves “humor” through certain instances of the film that reflect nothing but denigration of Jews(Sacha Cohen is a jew himself) and Gypsies.

All the Arab countries banned this movie. The Russian government discouraged the playing of this movie at cinema houses. The Kazakhstan government did not receive the movie in a very good manner( as If they would after what the movie depicts Kazakhstan and it’s people to be).

*From of Wikipedia the free enclypedia :

“Mockumentary, a portmanteau of mock and documentary, is a film and TV genre, or a single work of the genre. The mockumentary is presented as if it were a documentary recording real life, but is in fact fictional. It is a commonly used medium for parody and satire. They are often used to analyze current events and issues by using a fictional setting.”*

Despite all of the above, the Movie was a huge hit and debuted as no. 1 on its opening weekend in the United States, received a nomination at the 79^th Academy awards and was named the best comedy movie of the year by the Broadcast films critics association. Some people also called it “the changing face of comedy”.

Although, I still find the movie to be extremely humorous and so may you, but we must ask ourselves this: Is this really the changing face of comedy? Is this what “genuine” comedy has come to?

Conclusion:

I think that I must say this again. I found this movie to be really funny and still do(so may you). However, at times when I try to explore in-depth, the type of humor that is made use of in such movies, I feel that the level of humor has dropped over the years. Why do we need to make a mockery out of various religious backgrounds (Jews ,Chinese etc.) in order to laugh? Why do we use racism as a tool of humor? Why do we need to a mock a country’s poor health and living system in order to achieve humor? What kind of Humor lies in mocking the physical attributes of a person? What kind of humor does the mocking of other languages/the way people talk hold? What meaning does the word “Humor” reflect in today’s society? .On a broader note, Why do we need to use mockery as a tool of humor?

I may have found this movie to be amusing and humorous, you may have as well, but did everyone ?

Whatever happened to the light hearted comedy that everyone could enjoy?

The Question my friend, is for you to answer.