Adrian Northrup

Borat. You may have seen him on the talk show circuit, conversing on the verge of lingual incoherence with various hosts. Or maybe you know him from his days on “Da Ali G Show.” But however and whenever you came to know the sexist, racist and culturally clumsy reporter from Kazakhstan, one thing is for certain: nothing could have prepared you for his movie.

Sometimes discomforting, frequently shocking and constantly funny, “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” is more than a box office success and a raw form of comedy – it’s an insightful satire of aspects of American society that range from embarrassing to unfortunate to disgraceful.

The ridiculous yet searing comedic style of Sacha Baron Cohen, the British comedian who created and plays Borat, constantly exposes the quirks and ills of our society.

In the context of the movie and his appearances on “Da Ali G Show,” Borat is a journalist from Kazakhstan with little respect for women and a hatred for gypsies and Jews – the latter of which is an obviously calculated fabrication, since Cohen himself is part-Jewish.

By assuming the persona of Borat, a character who supposedly has no sense of what is appropriate, Cohen creates an environment in which the funniest and often the worst of people surfaces.

Take, for instance, one of the first scenes, in which Borat is attempting to make friends with people on a subway. As is apparently customary in Borat’s faux version of Kazakhstan, the journalist tries to kiss men on both cheeks as he greets them. Within the first few moments of filming he has received repeated threats from angry passengers. Are they simply unfriendly, or are they possibly intolerant?

Fast forward to a rodeo, at which Borat receives the privilege of entering the ring and speaking with the crowd before singing the national anthem.

Borat evokes enthusiasm from the crowd by declaring his support of America’s “War of Terror,” receives a mixed response with his declaration that President Bush should “drink the blood” of men, women and children in Iraq, but outright offends virtually every spectator’s sense of nationalism by singing a fabricated Kazakhstan national anthem.

Also at the rodeo, Borat reveals the bigotry of an aging rodeo hand, who warns Borat he should shave his moustache to avoid looking like an Arab and jokes with a tone of sincerity about an American hate for homosexuals.

Later on in the film, Borat reveals the sexist and almost pathetic sides of three male college students who say they have no respect for women.

Even the elitist segments of society fall prey to Cohen’s satire, when Borat attends a high society dinner party. Borat effectively calls one of the women ugly, assumes that one of the men is mentally challenged and says in a highly inappropriate manner that he has to go to the bathroom. But it’s not until a large black prostitute (who Borat eventually claims as his true love) arrives that the dinner attendees become outraged.

One of the strangest segments of the movie skewers the flamboyant practices of Pentecostal fundamentalist Christians.

After the Pamela Anderson sex tape reveals to him that his true love is not a virgin, Borat has lost the will to go on. Supposedly accepting Jesus Christ as his savior, Borat begins to convulse and crumble, flailing his tongue about in a clearly manufactured attempt at speaking in tongues as many of the revival participants are. The zealots encircle Borat and praise God for the foreigner’s apparent transformation.

Granted, portions of the movie stray from the satirical as Borat falls in and out of love with Pamela Anderson, fights naked with his obese producer and breaks an exorbitantly expensive amount of antiques, but the societal commentary is unmistakable.

I found myself laughing and cringing simultaneously as I watched an ostensibly ridiculous movie that was ironically intelligent.

Borat may be inappropriate, but he is a curiously vivid mirror image of many of the problems in our society. Judging by the number of public denouncements and lawsuits the movie has produced, America didn’t like its reflection.