Ali G just won’t bite his tongue

Quite a bit of controversy has developed in the last few weeks from a special appearance Sacha… Quite a bit of controversy has developed in the last few weeks from a special appearance Sacha Baron Cohen made at the MTV Europe Music Awards earlier this month. Coincidentally, the second season of “Da Ali G Show” has just become available on DVD in the United States. For the sake of those poor souls who have yet to experience it, “Da Ali G Show” stars Cohen interacting with real people in one of three characters.

The main character is Ali G. Cohen plays a British man who both dresses and tries to speak like his character imagines people do in American ghettos. When a doctor declares himself homeopathic, Ali G makes a solid attempt to defend gay rights, thinking he means “homophobic.” He’s urged a Catholic priest to marry another guest on the show for the purposes of religious unity. When the priest refused, Ali G asked if he’d marry her if she were “a bit more fit.”

The second character, Bruno, is “fabulous.” He’s an absurdly effeminate Austrian man. He gets part of a wrestling team on spring break in the United States to moon the camera, then he tells them they’re on an Austrian gay TV channel. Bruno asks the owner of an American nightclub, “Do you think if house music was around in the ’30s that World War II would have happened?” The man responds, “No, I don’t.”

It’s the third character who’s really causing trouble. Borat is a reporter from Kazakhstan. He travels America reporting and learning. While he’s learning, he’s also teaching. He teaches everyone he meets about life in Kazakhstan.

Apparently, the fine citizens of Kazakhstan don’t feel Borat, and more significantly Cohen, is accurately representing the nation. They’re threatening legal action. Lawsuits are hardly a novelty, but the following statement by a spokesman, Yerzhan Ashykbayev, is pretty impressive:

“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.”

What does a man have to do to make a nation think his comedy may actually be a form of political warfare directed against it? Claiming that “in Kazakhstan the favorite hobbies are disco dancing, archery, rape and table tennis” is a decent start.

Telling people that the order of beings in Kazakhstan is “God, man, horse, dog, woman, then rat” is a decent supporting step. Asking a realtor if the house has a room with no windows and a metal door because Borat needs “a room for my brother. He is a retard,” damn near finishes it off.

Making a room of U.S. officials observe 10 minutes of silence to honor a massacre perpetrated by Kazakhstan – a massacre that never happened – well, that might justify paranoia. It would certainly be a bit maddening, and it can’t boost tourism.

Cohen mocks himself as Ali G. He mocks Americans specifically and anyone else he can find as Bruno. Kazakhstan certainly takes more of a beating than it may deserve, but Cohen doesn’t pull any punches for anyone, so he’s hardly singling the nation out.

He’s funny. Kazakhstan’s touchy. On the surface nothing seems exceptional. What is inspirational about this story, what fills me with delight like a Mountain Dew vending machine in the middle of an Amish field, what soothes me like a Tool guitar solo cutting through a Christmas music marathon, what keeps the nightlight in my soul glowing proudly æ is Cohen’s response. Well, I mean Borat’s.

“I like to state, I have no connection with Mr. Cohen and fully support my government’s position to sue this Jew.” Cohen posted his response on Borat’s Web site, www.borat.kz.

He doesn’t run. He’s not scared of a possible suit. He fights back in character. Obviously, it’s funny. Obviously, it’s brave. Obviously, it stands like a 21st-century Statue of Liberty. It’s a sign against a backdrop of cowardly correctness and shameless backpedaling that reassures all of us trying to make it to a new world that we’re almost there (there being the inevitable disillusionment of Ellis Island).

Slightly less obvious is the vicious bite Cohen took out of Kazakhstan. Borat, the man whose opinions the Kazakhstani government is so up in arms about, fully supports this government action.

Cohen is equating Kazakhstan’s attempt to sue over satire with all of the backward, racist, sexist, horse-loving behavior his character believes defines the soul of Kazakhstan.

E-mail Zak Sharif at rzs8@pitt.edu and let him know if you like Ali G, Borat or Bruno best.