Borat: a Success?

After seeing Borat last weekend, I was a little disappointed. Don't get me wrong: I thought it was very funny. But I just don't think that a lot of people will "get" the satirical humor of the movie.

For the record, Borat has it's good moments that I think were clearly poking fun at the right people. The rodeo scene and the part with the frat boys had me in stitches. This was partly because the bigoted people targeted deserved every bit of embarrassment they must now be feeling.

Yet even knowing the premise, there were parts of the movie that totally baffled me. Like, why the antique store owners? There was no obvious satire in this part of the movie, where Borat destroys over $400 worth of civil war memorabilia. The couple that owned the store seemed equally perplexed, and was not fairly compensated.

I also didn't see the necessity of interrupting someone's business conference by charging in naked for a wrestling match. Sure, it got some laughs, but you just wonder, why? Did Sacha Baron Cohen feel the need to be so outrageous just for the sake of shock value? Parts of Borat felt more like watching an episode of Jackass than anything else. The Internet Movie Database claims that the police were called on Cohen 91 times during the production of the film. Personally, I think the needless mayhem that Borat creates takes away from the more meaningful satire of the movie.

But then again, I still laughed.