Uhh... wow.

Wow.

I can't believe he just said/did that!

I think a little bit of puke just came up.

These were my reactions last night as I watched Sacha Baron Cohen spend about 95 minutes offending at least one sect of modern society at any given point. Yes, I went to see Borat last night with some of the interns and a teacher colleague of Mr. M's last night. Although I was constantly laughing/cringing/nauseous, I thought about the fact that I can never admit to my students that I went to see that flick! I really did think it was funny, but in a "I feel violated and uncomfortable" sort of funny that I almost feel guilty for enjoying.

K.M. made a good point about it after we returned to my place and had a drink to talk about our teaching experiences and the movie and other such interesting things. He noticed that Borat goes out of the way to make racist/sexist commentary throughout, which is obvious and blatant when taken from Borat's point of view. However, it's juxtaposed with allegedly "normal" Americans who reinforce those same values but do not see the irony or offensive nature of those values. He does a great job, too, of playing on the ignorance of American cultural ignorance, and a fellow blogger did a good job of pointing this out.

A funny side story... I was talking with my in-laws a couple years ago and made a bit of a slip in the conversation... for some reason, I was talking about what church in Calgary my grandparents went to, and it came out as "They attend a Pentecostal church in the Varsity area". After leaving, I was talking to Kerrie and it suddenly came into my mind... I looked at K and asked, "Did I say my grandparents went to a Pentecostal church?" "Umm... yeah, you did," she responded. Immediately I felt like an imbecile. "They aren't Pentecostal! They're Presbyterian! I have no idea why I said that! Now your parents think that my grandparents go to a church where people drop on the floow and speak in tongues!" I made a point of correcting my error the next time we visited them so there was no confusion. If you have seen Borat, you'll know exactly why this was such a severe error. K and I still laugh every time we think of Pentecostals. Not that there's anything wrong with being Pentecostal. I just don't believe in the whole modern Tower of Babel thing. However, I do want to see the new Brad Pitt movie, mainly due to the allusion to that very story.

Okay, no more ranting... time for work. Until again...

- T