Why don't certain people get that "Borat" was a satire?

Question

I just answered a question about what the appeal of "Borat" was, and I noticed that the majority of the respondants, as well as the person who asked the question herself, didn't seem to get that the movie was a satire. Some of them think he's funny; others think he's not so funny. But a lot of them seem to think that Cohen is a racist who hates Jews. How could they have missed that Cohen is a Jew himself and that his character's emulation of racists, bigots, and misogynists is intended as a satire of racists, bigots, and misogynists, NOT of Jews, Arabs, or homosexuals?

I don't know if it's more disturbing that some people hated the movie because it exposed the bigotry and hidden prejudices that certain segments of society openly accept, or that some people took the film at face value and laughed anyway.


Here's the link to the above-mentioned question if you're curious:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=ApI_aFqZDzjHGLjLRnBii6fsy6IX?qid=20061218083435AAvWXkR

Answer 1

I think it is either social/cultural isolation or a lack of mental ability to appreciate irony, or a combination of both. Some people are not self aware enough to look at their own prejudices without freaking out. Some people do not have the ability to look at an opposing world view and reconcile it with their own in a rational way. There is the knee-jerk "How could he!" response, and immediate rejection of the message without any analysis of the perspective of the messenger. I think it would take an expansion of mental and social abilities for these people to see something offensive and not rush to protect the delicate balance of their limited world view with an emotional response.

Answer 2

I think people had trouble with the way he did it. If you look at the genre of satire, you know that its primary vehicle is defamiliarization--it takes the topic and shifts it outside of our "normal" way of looking at it--in this case, the topic was popular U.S. perspectives.

In some ways, the reaction we're seeing towards Borat is the same type of reaction people had to Jonathon Swift's "Modest Proposal" when he first published it.

I think the key thing here is that Cohen's satire sought to expose prejudice through prejudice. Sure, some of his methods were extreme, and I can see why people would be upset. On the other hand, his methods would have failed utterly, as would have his film, were his film unable to unashamedly portray attitudes in the US. Cohen correctly identified US citizens' (a generality) contradictions, and used those same contradictions as the means to assemble his film.

Like all successful satirists, he faces condemnation. So, yes, he was a little extreme. The question is whether people value his message enough to see past the extreme-ness or if people value dignity enough to find his treatment of his subjects inexcusable--or, if we can see there is an important point to his message and understand none of his film would have been possible without social conditions being what they are today and lay equal blame on Cohen and ourselves.

Answer 3

Either way that you look at it, its disturbing. What makes it worse is that our system seems to promote such reaction, because it wants to ignore that which made America great in the first place, our differences. These differences allow us to laugh at our own mistaken ideas about others, and when the system pretends that every person is the same, the people in the system can't help but miss the point. Look at Californians, they are out in left field by the standards of the rest of the country, and worse, they don't even know it!

Answer 4

Satire, schmatire...if it isn't funny, what's the difference? And this film just simply was not funny.

I must've missed something...since when did it become high-grade satire to point out that rednecks, racists, bigots, etc. were stupid? Frankly, I think that comes more under the general topic heading of "shooting fish in a barrel."

I can't wait to miss this guy's next film.

Answer 5

Some people just aren't smart enough to understand satire.

Answer 6

You have to be able to laugh at yourself and not take yourself too seriously to understand the whole set of satire.

Answer 7

I beg you pardon .... you forgot to factor in the Unified Field Theory of String Cheese & Ritz Crackers

Answer 8

America is a nation of whiners

Answer 9

For the same reason that they think there is a "Davinci Code", they are idiots.

Answer 10

People are stupid...especially here in America.