Brand Proliferation – From Borat’s Perspective’

by Karl on October 31, 2006

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Wow, that’s a deleted scene? I think that was hysterical.

From a couple of clips i’ve seen it seems that Borat is going to combine the brilliant fake interviews in the movie just like in the TV show (the Ali G Show). I think one of the reasons the Ali G movie failed was it had none of the “reality” of the TV show, ie famous and regular people being set up with fake interviews with a supposed foreign corespondent.

Tip of the hat Influx Insights and Markd.com (digg for marketing)

{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

Steve Portigal October 31, 2006 at 11:07 am

I just watched all the deleted scenes one after another. Pretty intense stuff – seems a little more brutal than the show, and without the rhythm of the HBO show (Ali G, Borat, Bruno) it should be interesting to see how the movie feels to sit through.

And yet today the NYT is reporting that the Bruno movie has already been bought. Bruno probably makes me more uncomfortable than Borat, because he seems to be at risk of being assaulted by a group of men having homosexual panic/rage…that sense of danger is funny and dramatic in small doses but how will it feel in a 90min film?

karl long October 31, 2006 at 11:12 am

I totally know what you mean, I can hardly bare some bruno moments. I’m thinking in particular of the Alabama gun show where he asks a particularly hulking red neck why shooting is such a fast growing sport with gays… Oh, that and the cheerleading at the southern college footbal game. Brutal.

Anthony Butler November 7, 2006 at 2:35 pm

This was a promotional scene that didn’t make it into the movie???

I guess the ‘unspoken’ message here is that people from countries like Kazahkstan have no point of reference for understanding why there are so many brands and line extensions of those brands for a single food product–in this case, grated cheese. Only by looking at this situation through the eyes of a cultural neophyte/savant do we appreciate the absurdity of it all.

Spend any time outside America and you start to understand how the world has a love/hate relationship with the US. Sacha Baron Cohen is a cultural jihadist… yet to the great unwashed in the US, they view Borat as a harmless rustic visiting from ‘over there” which makes the whole conceit possible I guess.

The only problem I foresee is that much like Will Ferrell’s President Bush, Cohen’s characters are so damn funny that only the New Yorker reading, Upper West Side liberal goes beyond the belly laugh to understand the subtext of his humor…

Fiona Long November 9, 2006 at 5:39 am

Very funny. I can’t believe the patience of the guy!

karl long November 9, 2006 at 11:19 am

I’m also amazed this didn’t make it into the movie, i think that scene was better than some other scenes in the movie. Love the “cultural jihadist” monikier, great stuff.

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