Borat Watercooler
Last week, Borat made his musical debut on network television, with a stirring rendition of "You Be My Wife" (dedicated to Pam Anderson) on Late Night. It starts at 1:50, but watching it from the beginning isn't gonna kill ya. Watch those fingers, too; we don't play keytar, but we recognize legitimate keytar skills when we see 'em. They may be making the motions to a backing track, but it looks like Sacha is a sick pianist (what can't this dude do?!).
Between sets of our music marathon running, we barely had enough time to shower and watch LOST, so we're looking to you to tell us how Borat was. Does it live up to the new media hype?
Either way, John Mayer's on the scene with some of his blog thoughts:
...there will be a short window of time, from about 6pm on Friday to about 10pm on Sunday, when the film's impact will sit in perfect equilibrium with both its mass appeal and its comic potency. "The hip eclipse", let's call it. I say 10pm because somewhere in Oxnard, CA, 7pm local time, a young Friday's waiter will deliver a plate of Jack Daniel's Chicken Strips and punctuate it with the phrase "You laaaaaaiik!!!!!". This will be the first sign of the "Borat" outbreak - what will eventually be transmitted through contact with co-workers, on airplanes and in casinos, and GOOD LORD, in bars everywhere.We're with his reasoning, up until he tries to justify it:...
Borat impressionists will appear on youtube, and a home-made mega-mix of lines from the movie will be cobbled together by a 14 year old and placed incongruously atop a house drum beat. It will be an internet sensation. And while Dayton, Ohio greets it, the Lower East Side will have already eulogized it. If you don't believe me when I say we will kill it by hugging it too hard, look at what happened to Brokeback Mountain - "I wish I could quit you" became a ready-mixed punch line for months, and it wasn't even trying. (Even the word "brokeback" itself came to be an out of the box bon mot.) We've been waiting for the next "WAY!" and "NOT!" for a long time. And we're about to get it in the form of "high five!" and "wa-wa-wee-wah!"
"And if you're still wondering what leg I have to stand on with this, just remember: I was truly hip for three weeks back in 2001."Honestly don't remember those three weeks happening. Ever. But whatever -- he's still right! (Yeah, we link to J. May's blog alot, but here's the deal: We'll stop linking to him when he stops being funny.)
Posted at 9:30 AM in Video
Tags: Borat | John Mayer
two funniest lines...
like a wizard's sleeve
and
hand party.
SEE IT!
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Great post. And the movie was absolutely fantastic. There was one scene in particular, which I won't spoil here, but I had to eventually close my eyes and stop watching so I could catch my breath. My stomach hurt from laughing so hard, and tears were streaming down my face.
Sadly, John Mayer is right. I've been saying "wa-wa-wee-wah" all fucking weekend. My wife has had it up to here.
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It's good. I always loved the show but I think the character has run his course by now. That said, the gags were a little more varied and there was actually some narrative, but there's still something weird about it being the second highest rated movie on Metacritic this year. I assume a lot of critics were not familiar with the show or something. As far as comedies go, I'd still put it below Wedding Crashers and Anchorman for instance, but that's just me.
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Borat was a hilarious film, but I think that if you have never had experience with Borat before it would be much better. Some of the lines and bits had been done before on TV. It is still worth the price of admission and possibly the funniest movie I've seen all year.
That being said...there are things you can not unsee done in this movie...just a warning
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Hilarious. I though I was prepared, as I'd seen Borat on Ali G before. I was, for the most part. But there is a sequence in particular (those who have seen will know what I'm talking about) that has me wanting to gouge my eyes out, yet I'm also still cackling manically about.
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Could someone in the comments section to follow please explain what was so funny about the Wedding Crashers? I've seen it twice and can't come up with bupkiss. Vaughn & Wilson aren't comedians, they're actors doing their best to recite (apparently) funny lines from a script. Films like Anchorman and Borat employ the lost art of spontenaeity and improvisation, something Wedding Crashers was utterly devoid of. WC at best was boilerplate and at worst, well, boring.
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Could someone in the comments section to follow please explain what was so funny about the Wedding Crashers? I've seen it twice and can't come up with bupkiss. Vaughn & Wilson aren't comedians, they're actors doing their best to recite (apparently) funny lines from a script. Films like Anchorman and Borat employ the lost art of spontenaeity and improvisation, something Wedding Crashers was utterly devoid of. WC at best was boilerplate and at worst, well, boring.
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What Brandon said. It would have been better if I weren't such a media junkie. I'd already seen way too much of the material on Da Ali G Show, in clips, or in Borat's various media appearances over the past few weeks. And many of the parts that would have been shocking I was prepared for because of reading various reviews of the film.
Still, it was very funny throughout and I swear I made a noise while laughing loudly at one point that rivaled Louis and Gilbert in Revenge of the Nerds. Best moment for me featured a certain local politician. I thought I might die right there.
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Borat definitely was hilarious on Conan, but i don't think he was actually playing the keytar...i can't be sure, though, as there is a delay caused by my TEVO.
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I haven't seen the movie yet despite being a big SB-C/Borat fan but the dueling keytars portion of that Conan bit had me in tears when I saw it on Late Night last week. Sacha Baron-Cohen is a genius.
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totally worth it for the infamous scene everyone is mentioning... speaking of it would spoil the experience, but dear god, i'm not sure i've laughed that hard in the past 5 years.
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Carl, I'm right with you. People have been telling me that it's even better the second time, but I find it hard to stay awake.
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Am I the only one that was majorly disappointed? It wasn't bad but nowhere near close to the funniest movie ever. What i liked on the show was that the interviews go on for like 5-10 minutes, and you slowly see people lose patience and reveal things about themselves. In the movie it was cut so fast and it felt like 70% of the movie was staged 'narrative'.
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He's got some skills, but come on, it's all in the key of C. Anyone can hit the white keys.
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Carl, I agree with you. Wedding Crashers wasn't all that - I found Anchorman and The 40 Year Old Virgin much funnier. I did find the nympho (Isla Fischer) in Wedding Crashers funny. As it so happens, she's engaged to Mr. Cohen.
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Carl, I agree with you. Wedding Crashers wasn't all that - I found Anchorman and The 40 Year Old Virgin much funnier. In fact, the only thing I found funny about Wedding Crashers was the crazy chick (Isla Fischer). And as it so happens, she's engaged to Sacha Baron Cohen.
I must also add that his performance in Borat is uncompromising.
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As for the female performer, her name is Belinda Bedekovic, known as "the fastest finger on the remote keyboard" in her native Croatia.
http://www.belindabedekovic.com/
There are photos of her with Borat and STEVE VAI (seperately, sadly) up on her site.
You would all do quite well to visit her video page for more remote keyboard genius.
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ccu, I'm right there with you. I've been a huge fan of Da Ali G Show and especially Borat for a long time, and I was actually really disappointed with this movie. The candid moments we see on the tv show that make it so damn funny were few and far between in the movie, and the narratives were just weak and not particularly interesting, IMO. Plus, the now infamous scene everyone else seems to find so hilarious was just plain stupid to me. There were definitely a few laugh-out-loud funny moments, and I think it's certainly a lot better than most of the "comedies" that have come out in the last year or so, but if you're looking for humour that's actually funny and shocking and different, I say stick with the DVDs.
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Sigh. Borat's antics aren't nearly as funny when the people he's interacting with are in on the joke.
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he is so fucking dedicated to this character, man. the one scene, dear god, how he could keep it together while filming it, i have no idea.
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I was a little disappointed by the movie. From the hype, I was expecting much much more. That does not mean, however, that I did not enjoy the movie. I thought it definitely had its moments- a lot of them- but I thought they overdid the Jew jokes. On the other hand, I have not laughed as hard as I did at the hotel scene with the Baywatch book. I can't remember a time I laughed so hard for that long. Final note, I completely agree with Cherry about not knowing how someone could keep his composure during some of those antics.
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The movie was fantastic. One of the funniest I've seen in a long time. I plan on seeing it again soon.
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I can't wait to see this movie! Being an impoverished college student right now really sucks, but I'll figure it out. Anyway, I am a little nervous because I love Da Ali G Show and all the clips of Borat, and many of the people that have had experience with Borat were disappointed by the movie. I guess I'll have to wait and see.
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What he played on the keytar there didn't take a whole lot of skill...maybe a couple days of practice, that's about it. I do believe he played it, though.
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we all know what the funniest scene in the movie was, hands down. it just kept getting funnier and funnier and funnier .. it just caught you so off guard! i about died. that was the second i cried, the first time was about five minutes in.
easily lives up to all expectation and hype. easily.
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