The Frat of Borat

I finally saw "Borat" and yes its funny. Its real freakin funny and smart and I laughed harder than I have in a movie in a long, long time. Its also a movie that made me physically uncomfortable ... I mean, I always knew there were a lot of idiots in our country - racist, discriminatory, homophobic, sexist idiots - out there in our country but I'm always amazed at those who unabashedly show their true colors on camera. And when they do, it makes me uncomfortable. My body tenses and tightens and contorts into positions I am not quite accustomed to as I watch these people do and say these awful and yet hilarious things on camera. It's bad enough that certain people have the capacity to think and feel so outrageously, but to give words and actions to those thoughts, those feelings ... ON CAMERA. HOLY CRAP. HOLY CRAP. It’s amazing. It blows my mind.

What’s even better? Some of these people (and by "these people" I'm not being discriminatory, I'm referring to those people portrayed in "BORAT") have come forward claiming the film "shows them in an unflattering light." Specifically, two gentlemen (and I'm using the term "gentlemen" with distinct sarcasm) have filed suit against the makers of the film claiming that they were tricked into participating in the movie, and that the movie made them “the object of ridicule, humiliation, mental anguish and emotional and physical distress...” These two GENTLEMEN, fraternity boys, are in the film getting drunk, riding in an RV with Borat, and spewing idiotic drunken jerk statements. it just so happens that the statements are overwhelmingly racist and sexist.

How dare these idiots bring this lawsuit? How dare their attorney(s) represent them in this case? I understand waivers and consent and all that crap. I may even go with you when you argue that a person cannot be held to a contract executed while they are drunk. But these guys, these GENTLEMEN, they didn't sign a contract for the purchase of a home - they agreed to go on film. And drink. And talk. And make asses out of themselves. By the looks of the movie, they were having a good ole time ... getting loaded, mugging for the camera, spewing drunken idiotic philosophies on women and minorities that, I'm fairly certain, these guys spew on a regular basis either under the influence or not. They were clearly putting on a show, trying to be funny and clever (which is scary as they were neither). They wanted their shot in the spotlight, and they got it, and the light was NOT flattering. Now they claim they are "the object of ridicule, humiliation, mental anguish and emotional and physical distress ..." good, they should be. Maybe they shouldn't have agreed to go on film. Maybe they should have stopped drinking. Maybe they shouldn't be ignorant college fraternity house stereotypes.

Who knows what will happen. Hopefully the million dollar 20th Century Fox attorneys will sink this loser of a lawsuit before it picks up any steam. Maybe they'll take it to trial and spend weeks showing a jury that the guys who were portrayed as idiots in BORAT are actually idiots in real life. Maybe they'll want to avoid trouble and settle, paying these guys a little something to make them go away, buy more liquor, and reward themselves for being on the bottom of the food chain. Shit people, maybe these guys will get their own tv show. Wouldn't that be funny?