Borat -- Evil genius
Well, we'll get around to the new year thang later. If at all.
I met a bunch of IITM classmates for dinner yesterday and one of the things that came up was the Borat phenomenon, which I had vaguely heard about before. During the get-together I got a lot better but still very general idea of his whole deal. I don't want to put that half-baked knowledge down here, but the sense I got was that this guy was truly a jaw-dropping phenomenon. There was a comedian called Andy Kaufman during the 60s who really pushed the envelope of comedy far beyond what it was at that point, and I think Borat is similiar. I just got the first taste of Borat on the web today. Its one of his less-successful exploits I think, but even that was way, way cool and completely lived up to my expectations.
In this video clip, Borat in one of his alternate personas, a rapper called Ali G, interviews Noam ("Norman") Chomsky. Its a fake interview, Ali G is basically stringing Chomsky along. The results are unbelievable. Pehaps, I'm exaggerating here, but the effect for me, was mind-blowing. Parts of it come from the fantastic impersonation (Ali G/Borat is I think a white Jew in real life) and part of it is the enormity of pulling this off on someone of Chomsky's stature. And the questions he puts and the language he uses are just so jaw-droppingly absurd. Borat is going to be a huge goldmine of exploration for me.
Here's a hilarious snippet from the interview, though it loses a lot in transcription:
Ali G: How many words does you know ?
Chomsky: (gives a reasonable answer)
Ali G: What is some of them ?
I totally cracked up at this one. If you got the humor in the above, I'm sure this video will have the same effect on you as it did on me.
I met a bunch of IITM classmates for dinner yesterday and one of the things that came up was the Borat phenomenon, which I had vaguely heard about before. During the get-together I got a lot better but still very general idea of his whole deal. I don't want to put that half-baked knowledge down here, but the sense I got was that this guy was truly a jaw-dropping phenomenon. There was a comedian called Andy Kaufman during the 60s who really pushed the envelope of comedy far beyond what it was at that point, and I think Borat is similiar. I just got the first taste of Borat on the web today. Its one of his less-successful exploits I think, but even that was way, way cool and completely lived up to my expectations.
In this video clip, Borat in one of his alternate personas, a rapper called Ali G, interviews Noam ("Norman") Chomsky. Its a fake interview, Ali G is basically stringing Chomsky along. The results are unbelievable. Pehaps, I'm exaggerating here, but the effect for me, was mind-blowing. Parts of it come from the fantastic impersonation (Ali G/Borat is I think a white Jew in real life) and part of it is the enormity of pulling this off on someone of Chomsky's stature. And the questions he puts and the language he uses are just so jaw-droppingly absurd. Borat is going to be a huge goldmine of exploration for me.
Here's a hilarious snippet from the interview, though it loses a lot in transcription:
Ali G: How many words does you know ?
Chomsky: (gives a reasonable answer)
Ali G: What is some of them ?
I totally cracked up at this one. If you got the humor in the above, I'm sure this video will have the same effect on you as it did on me.
posted by VK at 8:47 AM
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