sketch comedy like the days of old, with a hysterical contemporary twist that sometimes scares me. not crap.

So Not Crap.

Borat is now my favourite character though, followed by Ali G and then Bruno.

When Borat sang the "Throw the Jew Down The Well" song in the redneck bar to an enthusiastic crowd, I nearly died. That was one supremely well-executed comedy routine.

Not Crap, but like all shows of that nature, it was more enjoyable when it wasnt so well known. When Ali G could interview English people and they had no idea who he was.

One of the best bits was when he had Jarvis Cocker on and told him he looked like a kiddy fiddler.

NOT CRAP. I recently gave up HBO, but this show actually makes me miss it if only for Borat. I saw an episode on tour a few weeks ago and Borat was telling some guy that his mother "often wishes she had been raped by someone else". That's tough. And definitely not crap.

Dan

I'm so glad this threat was started.

I recently saw the show for the first time, and it was the funniest comedic anything I'd seen in a long while. I'm wondering how the show was different in Britain, because one thing I've noticed is that Sasha Cohen very subtly exploits people's insecurities about slang they don't understand. When Ali G interviewed Pat Buchanan and asked him about Iraqi WMD's and then switched to calling them "BLT's," and then Buchanan actually began calling them "BLT's," I figured it had to be because he thought, "Well, maybe that's a British term or something." For those of you who haven't seen it, Buchanan mentioned something about discovering some sarin and mustard gas in Iraq, and how that still didn't justify going to war, and Ali G, without missing a beat, asked him whether the discovery of "plain BLT's, without mustard" would have meant an attack was justified.

And Borat getting the idiots at this open mic night to sing along with "Throw the Jew Down the Well" was perfectly executed comedy. He said the name of the song translated as "There Is Problem In My Country," and the first verse was some awkwardly phrased thing about how the problem in his country was "transport," and then the second verse very casually pegged another problem as "the Jew." The chorus, as I remember it: "Throw the Jew down the well / So my country can be free / You must grab him by the horns / Then we'll have a big par-tee." I was humming it all the next day on the subway.

The Bruno character I don't find to be as finely realized, but I did like how, as a spin on "crap / not crap," he asked people "keep in the ghetto or train to Auschwitz?"

My question is how he convinces people to record those stupid "raps" that end the show.

I'm not a big fan of comedy that's based on making people look dumb because they don't realized that they're being mocked. The episode from last year when he interviewed Kofi Annan is the classic example- Annan, a guy with a ton of presitge, agrees to an intereview with someone he's never heard of and then barraged with asinine questions. He comes off looking like a jackass solely because he tried to give considerate answers. That to me is crap.

gmilner wrote:The Bruno character I don't find to be as finely realized, but I did like how, as a spin on "crap / not crap," he asked people "keep in the ghetto or train to Auschwitz?"

Bruno is a character who mostly threatens over-masculine types with his uber-gayness. Last night, he reached a pinnacle of this mode.

He was hanging out with these idiot jocks on spring break in Daytona Beach, and he got them to show him their wrestling moves, muscles, etc. There was the usual whooping and hollering associated with this activity.

Then, Bruno somehow convinces them to expose their ass cheeks to the camera. They do this with vigour, some of them even shaking their booty wildly.

Then came the kicker.

He got one guy to recite a few lines for the camera. Here's how it went:

"So, we'd like you to read a few lines for da TV spot, ja?"

"Sure man! Awesuuhm."

"OK! Say, Here in Daytona Beach..."

"HERE IN DAYTONA BEACH..."

"...we are all big fans...."

"WE'RE ALL BIG FANS!!"

"of Austrian Gay TV!"

"OF AUST...wait, what the fuck? Get the fuck away from me man, you MOTHERFUCKER!!"

The look on that guys face having just realised that he has just bared his ass to what he thought was Austrian Gay TV was simply perfect. I hope someone can find an online video clip of this scene to post here. Myself and my wife were still laughing about it today.

I seriously want to see this footage when it is broadcast:

"Ali G Comedian Risks Riot At U.S. Rodeo"
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... e_cohen_dc

I got the DVDs of the first two seasons. They cause silent laughter and pant wetting.

N/C

Super un-crap.

He is on the same level as Andy Kaufman for this type of socially uncomfortable comedy.