When Kazakhstan's most famous TV journalist comes to America, he carries with him a jar of Gypsy tears to ward off AIDS. This is Borat Sagdiyev, the ignorant, terribly racist, and so-lovable character embodied by British avant comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, said Mick LaSalle in the San Francisco Chronicle. Baron Cohen's satire does have a serious side, but 'œthe first thing that must be said about Borat is that it's screamingly, hysterically, laugh-through-the-next-joke, laugh-for-the-next-week funny.'
With Borat's Stalinesque moustache and unfamiliarity with indoor plumbing, it looks as if Baron Cohen is mocking Third World backwardness, said Joel Stein in Time. 'œHe is not. He's mocking you.' When Borat reveals his shockingly anti-Semitic, misogynist, and homophobic opinions, some people react in horror, some with winking agreement. In encouraging them to respond to Borat, 'œBaron Cohen is able to get his interviewees to show their inner selves, and it often isn't pretty.' In a gun shop, for example, Borat asks which would be the best weapon for killing a Jew. Without missing a beat, the clerk recommends a 9mm.
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