Kazakhstan on Borat: Not Nice

Mon., Nov. 14, 2005 2:40 PM PST by Josh Grossberg

Let's get this straight: Kazakhstanis aren't a bunch of backward drunks who practice incest, guzzle wine made from fermented horse urine and denigrate women.

But apparently they are lacking in the sense of humor department.

The Central Asian country is spitting mad at Da Ali G Show mastermind Sacha Baron Cohen, threatening to sue the comedian because one of his characters, Kazakhstani journalist Borat Sagdiyev, ridicules its people.

According to Reuters, Kazakhstan's foreign ministry held a press conference Monday to condemn Cohen's brand of politically incorrect buffoonery.

"We do not rule out that Mr. Cohen is serving someone's political order designed to present Kazakhstan and its people in a derogatory way," ministry spokesman Yerzham Ashykbayev told reporters.

What specifically peeved the officials was Cohen's gig hosting the 2005 MTV Europe Music Awards as Borat earlier this month in Lisbon. Appearing in the guise of the well meaning foreign correspondent with an avid curiosity of all things Western, Cohen arrived at the show on an Air Kazakh propeller plane controlled by a one-eyed pilot holding a vodka bottle.

Following Madonna's show-opening number, the mustachioed faux newsman said: "That singer before me. Who was it? It was very courageous of MTV to start the show with a genuine transvestite. He was very convincing. It was only his hands and his testisatchels that gave it away." And he signed off by saying: "To the world, I love you! Apart from Uzbekistan. A--holes."

"We view Mr. Cohen's behavior at the MTV Europe Music Awards as utterly unacceptable, being a concoction of bad taste and ill manners, which is completely incompatible with ethics and civilized behavior," Ashykbayev said.

"To prevent new pranks of this kind," Ashykbayev threatened legal action, although he did not specify exactly what options the government of the former Soviet republic was considering.

Borat's bad taste and ill manners has made for some hysterically funny moments on the Emmy-nominated Da Ali G Show as Cohen uses his alter ego to expose prejudice.

In one famous segment, Borat masquerades as a country music star from Kazakhstan who visits a bar in Oklahoma and sings a patently anti-Semitic song that features the chorus: "Throw the Jews down the well." Despite the over-the-top antics, bar patrons are seen happily clapping, singing along and stomping their feet.

This isn't the first time a stunt involving Kazakhstan's sixth-most popular journo has made headlines.

Appearing in character, Cohen crashed a "marriage ceremony" for Pamela Anderson's pooches on a beach in Malibu in August. Borat arrived in the surf on an inflatable turtle-shaped raft. He was promptly thrown back to sea by Anderson's unamused security detail. The bit was presumably for the new season of Da Ali G Show.

But people are beginning to catch on to the 34-year-old Cohen's spoofs. New York magazine reported that Borat was recognized immediately when he showed up on the New York City subway in July, speaking broken English and trying to kiss men. The New York Times, meanwhile, said a Georgia politician backed out of interview with Borat after being tipped off by an aide about the shtick.

For its part, HBO has declined to discuss Cohen's pranks. There's no word from the comedian on the burgeoning Kazakhstan controversy.

But he might want to get cracking on that legal defense fund. His feature mockumentary, Borat: The Movie, is due out next year.