Is Borat Unethical?
Filed under: Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Foreign Language, Independent, Celebrities and Controversy, Movie Marketing, Politics, Cinematical Indie
It all started with this BBC News piece titled "How Borat Hoaxed America." Over at Netscape, Karina Longworth has been poking around into the techniques the producers of Sacha Baron Cohen's movie Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan used to get the unwitting saps who interacted with Cohen's alter-ego, Borat, to agree to be interviewed by the comedian on camera. First, Karina dug a little deeper into just exactly who Borat producer Chelsea Barnard is, and then she interviewed New York Times Magazine's The Ethicist, aka Randy Cohen, about the film and the techniques used by producers to get Borat's victims, er, subjects, to agree to be made fools of on film. The Ethicist implies that Borat is, well, less than ethical when it comes to disclosing to interview subjects the nature of what they're agreeing to.I'm rather of two minds on this. While I can see the point of Borat's interview subjects who feel they were misled and made fools of, the bottom line is that Sacha Baron Cohen didn't force anyone to say the incredibly foolish things they said -- on camera. Tennessee rodeo manager Bobby Rowe, who opened up to Borat with his real feelings on those damn Muslims and homosexuals, is especially red-faced about the whole experience. The thing is, are the people Borat gets to reveal their inner ass the victims of a sinister, unethical hoax? Or has Cohen (the actor, not The Ethicist) simply found a brilliant way to tap into people's hidden sides and get them to show it to the world? I mean, honestly, these people knew they were on camera, regardless of whether they knew the context, and yet some of them said things that most intelligent people would never mouth off about.
And what about shows like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report? It amazes me how people agree to be interviewed for those show without seeming to be aware of their nature. Cohen -- The Ethicist, not the actor -- argues that there's a line between making a fool of a public figure, versus tapping some "unwitting sap" and getting them to reveal their foolishness. What say you, Cinematical readers? Is Borat brilliant? Or are Sacha Baron Cohen and his producers pulling a mean-spirited fast one on the poor, unsuspecting public?
More Borat than you can shake a donkey tail at:
Borat: The (Kind of ) Sequel
Borat Responds to Kazakhstan Advertisements
Fictional Borat Angers Real Kazakhstani Government
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-25-2006 @ 1:04PM
Matt said...
My question is, what percentage of the film profits is Sacha Baron Cohen paying Andy Kaufman's estate for stealing his act?
Its not the first time a comic has taken advantage of the ignorance of the general population.
Reply
10-25-2006 @ 1:52PM
bgdc said...
First, Cohen's entertaining and revealing quite a bit with his act. I'm all for it.
Second, Kaufman never did anything matching the brilliance of Borat, let alone Ali G.
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10-25-2006 @ 1:37PM
Kevin O'Shea said...
Just like you said, Cohen isn't forcing anyone to say any of those things, and in essence gets them to truly reveal themselves. It's not as if they're using hidden camera's to bait these people into saying these craaaazy things, these people were just arrogant enough to believe that there would be no repercussion from their words since it was a “foreigner” interviewing them for a foreign broadcast. Quite simply, sucks to be them, but they have no one to blame but themselves!
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10-25-2006 @ 2:52PM
Cath said...
The difference is The Daily Show doesn't hide who they are or what they're looking for. Furthermore, such humiliations only aggravate the flaw in our national character: the resentment toward learning in general and and smart people in particular. My nightmare is an American Pol Pot rounding up all the four-eyed smarty pants and put that Military Commissions Act to its real use.
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10-25-2006 @ 3:34PM
Alex said...
You know what's more unethical than anything Sacha Baron Cohen has done?
Tweaking the dialogue in the trailer for Man of the Year to make it seem like it's some Capra-esque comedy when in fact, it's more a rehash of The Net than anything else.
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10-25-2006 @ 3:59PM
lp said...
Borat isn't original, I don't think he SBC ever claimed him to be, in the uk he was preceded by his own Ali G & Dennis Pennis amongst others
The best example of this kind of thing (hoodwinking the priviledged & stupid) is Chris Morris' Brass eye.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass_Eye
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10-25-2006 @ 3:57PM
Rich said...
How is this any different than what Leno does when he asks people on the streets of LA questions about mundane things? They know they are on camera, they look like fools.
The only difference is people caught doing a sober Mel Gibson impersonation and are trying now to act like they were forced into it.
With reality TV being the rage lately, you think people would learn...
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10-25-2006 @ 6:51PM
deane_david@hotmail.com said...
Does'nt anyone read what they are signing?
I mean signing something without reading it, then complaining afterwords is unethical. Get a copy, sign and keep your copy for your records.
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10-30-2006 @ 11:43AM
mark house said...
Growing up, the popular Reader's Digest phrase was "Laughter is the Best Medicine". Altho' this Borat thing (of which I know very little) would seem to polarize some types... the fact is that if the general poplulace (whatever their views on life) can look at each and laugh WITH each other, AT themselves... then it's good.
Then again, I'm so stoned I Think I'm god so... how can i be trusted?
In the end, I think we'll all agree... all else failing, warm soft dry socks are good. Uhm.
Reply
10-31-2006 @ 9:35PM
mark house said...
Growing up, the popular Reader's Digest phrase was "Laughter is the Best Medicine". Altho' this Borat thing (of which I know very little) would seem to polarize some types... the fact is that if the general poplulace (whatever their views on life) can look at each and laugh WITH each other, AT themselves... then it's good.
Then again, I'm so stoned I Think I'm god so... how can i be trusted?
In the end, I think we'll all agree... all else failing, warm soft dry socks are good. Uhm.
Reply
11-11-2006 @ 10:38PM
Matt said...
Cohen's getting otherwise seemingly intelligent people to show everyone what's beneath their politically correct social facades is one thing. His cynical and knowing exploitation of the people of the village of Glod, Romania is just heinous. The people of that poverty stricken, tiny village spoke no English and were under the impression that a "tall, strange man" was filming a documentary. They were paid about 3 GBP each for everything. Cohen exploited dirt-poor, non-English-speaking people to be gags in his film, humiliating and degrading them for laughs.
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