Russians have no sense of humour

[Pekka]

Borat's "victims":

"Two of Cohen's targets — fraternity boys who made drunken, insulting comments about women and minorities — are suing 20th Century Fox and three production companies."

Yeah, I wish I could sue everytime I was caught being a dick.

"And even if you figure it out, you've signed a release that Mr. Cohen's people say relinquishes any rights on your part to take action against them."

Well, why do you never read what you sign, I wonder who is to blame, hmmm...

Too bad, that most 'victims' of Borat are idiots. Even Kazahkstan is still prolly looking ways to sue.. EVeryoen is laughing beucase Borat is funny, and the joke is on those who are now trying to sue. It makes it even more funny.

[Dis]

they just want a piece of the action. They are jealous this guy is making millions off of their stupidity.

If the movie flopped I am sure no one would be sueing.

[Lonestar]

Originally posted by Elok
Er, why the hell would an obscure Kazakh journalist have a web presence? And why would she investigate someone's bonafides using the midden of factual errors we know as teh internets?

You're joking, right? The problem isn't that she didn't use the internet to do research, it's that she didn't check the bonafides at all. I was just commenting on how easy it would have been to make even a half-ass attempt to check him out.

It would have been easy to do, yes, but she had no reason to think, "maybe this guy is really a shock comic I've never heard of who went to the bother of staging an elaborate hoax to get on our obscure news show, and once he gets on-camera he'll stop acting like a reasonable person and start a twenty-first century blackface act." I suppose she theoretically could have guessed that, but then she might also have guessed that he was a vampire in disguise and taken twenty seconds to find a mirror and see if he had a reflection.

You're right, I guess I'm really going out on a limb to make a assumption that when someone is to make a TV appearence, they are to at least find out who they really are first. I think the phrase is "Piss-poor journalism".

Not bothering with searching "the Internet" she could have spent 10 minutes calling the Kazakh Embassy to find out about this guy. Instead "Whoa! Foreign Journalist! Screams Human Intrest story!" and booked it without a tought. Stop me if you think my perception on what her train of thought was is wrong.

[Elok]

I believe it was more along the lines of, "we've got a hole to fill, and we've got to fill it fast. This guy needs a favor, we'll go with him." I agree that she should have done more research; what baffles me is the way that this incident is not perceived to reflect badly on SBC at all. The fact that her vigilance failed does not change the fact that he was actively trying to screw with somebody else's work for a cheap laugh. He has built quite a career out of doing it, in fact.

Look at the Nigerian '419' scammers, or the Church of Scientology. Their victims typically commit much more foolish mistakes than failing to do some homework. Actively giving large sums of money to a purported banker from another country when you have no legal recourse should he cheat you is breathtakingly stupid. So is joining a church that says psychiatrists are responsible for 9/11 and the Holocaust, and charges extravagant amounts of 'mandatory donations' for very simple services. But no matter how stupid the con is, you've got to have blinkers on to assign no blame at all to the artist.

[Dis]

I don't blame her too much. I know how the business goes (not really, but I can guess).

But if she has a hole to fill (I don't mean that in a vulgar way for once), she could always have me on the news show. I'm sure I could provide some entertaining commentary.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Lonestar
I thought it was funny.

No accounting for taste.

[Serb]

Originally posted by Pekka
"Had he played a Finnish dude, instead of Kazakh dude your reaction was the same? You would thank him for such PR of Finland?"

Most likely yes. I don't believe in censorship.

There is no censorship in Russia.

[Serb]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


The Russian culture ministry makes recommendations about what films theaters should show?

That was the only case I can recall. And actually that statement of the culture minister had an opposite effect - an advertising of the movie.

Does the culture ministry also hand out grants of any kind to theaters, do they have other reasons to keep the culture ministry happy?

As far as I know, it doesn't.
Btw, after reforms the state institution which is responsible for relations with movie-making industry is "Federalnoe agentstvo po kinematografii" or Federal Cinematography Agency, NOT the culture ministery. That's why I find claim that culture ministery banned that exact movie or anything else, very suspicious. They've not banned an absolutely idiotic anti-Russian sh!tty nazi movie. Why the hell they would ban a movie that doesn't insult Russia or Russians?
The censorship is prohibited by Russian constitution. On the other hand, we have a law which forbids encouragement of ethnic and religious tensions. So, such actions (encouragement of ethnical or religious tensions) considered as crime in Russia. You will never find a single cartoon about f.e. Mohammed in Russian papers.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Serb
And if this movie really humiliates different ethnic groups and religions it should be banned, no doubt (in full accordance with our law, btw).

I would think that humiliating other ethnic groups would be right at home in the new Russia.

[Serb]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
You only say that beause he and Putin seem to be involved in somesort of gay love affair.

Really?
I've seen a picture called "make love not war". On that pic smiling Bush was assinated by smiling Osama. I thought it's photoshoped, but now you say that your president is a gay... May be the pic was true and George occasionally pleasures international celebrities?

[Serb]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara


I would think that humiliating other ethnic groups would be right at home in the new Russia.

Just try to post something that humilates Christ or Mohammed in Russian paper and you'll find your arse in trouble.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Elok
And why would she investigate someone's bonafides using the midden of factual errors we know as teh internets?

Just stop. The only reason you are defending her is cuz she's your gf's sister. She ****ed up. You know it. She knows it. And everyone else in the world knows it, since she spread her name around.

She could have handled this completely differently, used it as an advantage. Instead she's going around: woe, poor pitiful me, and saying what a loser she is, and associating her name with it. Now she' pretty much killed her career in tv.

Instead she could have sold herself as booking Borat for her tv show before anyone in America even knew who Borat was.

[TheStinger]

Originally posted by Serb


There is no censorship in Russia.

So why do you have all those exiles

[Serb]

Exiles like Berezovsky who is charged with sh!t loads of crimes here? Every criminal motherf*cker who was lucky enough to run away from justice start to whine about been persecuted in Russia for political motives.

[Elok]

Genius, the point of this, to my mind, was to show that SBC screws up people's lives. Maybe make it more difficult to laugh at the stupid smeg next time he refers to oral sex around an old woman and calls it high comedy. Obviously, I failed; people are more than capable of rationalizing their beloved asstard's antics.