Review of Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006) by Brutuso. — 11 Mar 2007

Not very good, I'm afraid. A few laughs arise from some of the absurd politically incorrect situations, but mostly it boils down to sub-frat boy humour about racism and fisting, or occasionally incest, with lots of dull interludes where people have pretty lame set-up jokes played on them apparently without their prior knowledge.

Sacha Cohen can think on his feet as a comic actor (nothing great, but he improvises pretty well) and the character who played his Kazakhi sidekick was quite good as well. But overall the film is not that funny, and not that interesting to watch, if you want an assessment not imbued with hype.

Middle America may not have seen this sort of humour before, but the rest of us have. Anyone interested to see how gauche comedy can be done with a good deal more wit and panache and genuine laughs should track down the videos of the Australian Norman Gunston shows of the 70's and 80's.

There were more laughs in the ads for those shows than in the whole of Borat.