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Rosalyn Knapp
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BORAT
February 6, 2007 - 04:45 PM
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In times when being Politically Correct is Oh so crucial, does Borat take it too far with his crude portrayal of Khazakstan? Or is it high time someone stood up to society's 'unspeakables' and loudly proclaims them over the hills and valleys of the world?
To be P.C. or not to be, that is the question.
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Hugh Switzer
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Re: BORAT
February 6, 2007 - 05:23 PM
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This topic seems to come up more and more frequently these days. As society evolves, satire has become main stream with popular comedy shows like The Daily Show or The Colbert Report.
To start with, when comedy is done, I think it is important that it is clearly understood as satire rather than truth. Borat has become a world-wide phenomenon and his quotes such as "I liiiikkeee" have become part of regular conversation.
In the case of Borat, I find his humour comical and am not offended by anything he says -- although I'm not (based on race, gender, etc) really portrayed in any of his satirical pieces either.
Where I think the line *should* be drawn is where comedians (such as Dave Chappelle) use words such as n*gger and then have the expectation that no one else can say that unless they are the same race. (DC does not say that, just an example)
When I watch Borat, I don't really think of Kazakhstan except for the introduction which is obviously so overly staged that it can't even be taken as the truth. What worries me are the people who believe that that is how Kazakhstan is which is in part why the Kazakhstan government was so quick to condemn the movie in the first place.
While I think society can try and be more PC at times, being overly PC can seriously hinder society. For example, some feminists use the word womyn instead of woman. I totally support that, however if they were to come to me and say that I HAD to use that spelling, I would not.. It's like a word was just invented. I have similar feelings with professional titles such as policewomen (or similar). As a guy, I don't think of a policeman as being a man, but rather a term to describe an officer of the law -- man or woman. And at the same time, I don't find that it empowers a female officer to be called a policewoman, and in fact seems to further segregate them. But that's just me.
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mnopq
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Re: BORAT
February 7, 2007 - 12:53 PM
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RosalynK wrote:
In times when being Politically Correct is Oh so crucial, does Borat take it too far with his crude portrayal of Khazakstan? Or is it high time someone stood up to society's 'unspeakables' and loudly proclaims them over the hills and valleys of the world?
To be P.C. or not to be, that is the question.
Satire is what I would call it.
Satire, an invention of Romans, was and is still regarded as the best way to "break" taboos, prejudices and falsive overgeneralizations about societies, cultures, etc.
Chinese Buddhists used to go and remain next to rotting corpses for some time. Their purpose, by so doing, was to try to purge themselves of corporeal pleasures as well as fear of death and suffering...
I cant say this is exactly a kind of satire but there was time when people where "curing" the sickness by "getting infected" by it, just like in modern time medicine when one is injected with a light version of an illness, which is meant to make the body develop anti-bodies of this illness for further prevention of contamination by that illness.
That's is I think what Buddhists were doing and satire is aimed at somewhat similar target: to rid societies of their prejudices and taboos.
And that is what I think Sasha Baron Cohen, a Cambridge graduate, had in his head with this movie Borat, where taboos about Jews are especially conspicious. If you also consider his Ali G performances it fits really well with the idealogy of advancing the cultural sensitivity and global awareness by means of satire!
H.
This post was edited on: 2007-02-07 at 12:56 PM by: mnopq
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Oliebol
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Re: BORAT
February 13, 2007 - 11:23 PM
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Satire is such a wonderful form of commentary, I laughed at myself - at first - until I realised that the target of this satire is not necessarily the person who gives a critique.
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