If you haven't seen Borat, do. As an indictment of modern American culture it's worth any amount of earnest blogging commentary or pedantic discussion on message boards. It's also very funny.
Borat is the brainchild of Sacha Baron Cohen. Cohen, who like all tall comedians hails from Cambridge, also brought Ali G to the world. Until a year ago, I knew Ali G only from The Office BBC TV series, since this is the character Keith the morose accountant dresses up as on Red Nose Day.
Borat is the brainchild of Sacha Baron Cohen. Cohen, who like all tall comedians hails from Cambridge, also brought Ali G to the world. Until a year ago, I knew Ali G only from The Office BBC TV series, since this is the character Keith the morose accountant dresses up as on Red Nose Day.
Anyone wanting to see Ali G (a white guy who's trying to convince himself he's a "brotha") at his finest need only look up on youtube his interview with David and Victoria Beckham ("Little bit of a different vibe to Parkinson, eh?"), where the talk quickly gets round to a well-known football chant about Posh's sex life:
Ali G: Now there's a really insulting song that they sing about you. Have you heard it? What is the words?
Posh: I can't repeat that really, it's pretty insulting.
Ali G: (to Becks) But have you heard it?
Becks: No I haven't heard it.
Posh: Well what is it?
Ali G: Well I heard something, is it about you taking it up…
Posh: Oh yeah yeah, ok? It's Posh Spice… (leans forward and silently mouths "takes it up the arse")
Ali G: (loudly) So you take it up the arse!
Posh: No!
Ali G: That ain't an insult, that is the biggest compliment you can get!
Posh: You're just saying that cos you're a bit of a batty boy yourself.
Ali G: (leaning back in his chair) You is crossing dangerous territory!
Back to Borat, or Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, the two scenes that encapsulate the woes of the "US and A" most powerfully are one with bigoted university students filmed in a motor-home and one in a charismatic church.
Back to Borat, or Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, the two scenes that encapsulate the woes of the "US and A" most powerfully are one with bigoted university students filmed in a motor-home and one in a charismatic church.
"Charismatic" is here used to refer to an assembly where people of all ages are encouraged to throw their arms in the arm shouting "Thank you, Jesus!", where middle-aged men are moved to take their paunches for a spin around the auditorium like a pack of whirling dervishes, and where men at the front (only men) indulge in an unorthodox style of prayer for penitents who've negotiated a path to the stage through the runners, uttering imprecations over them while simultaneously attempting to push them to the floor. It's perhaps redundant to note that two of the eminent members of the church are a congressman and a supreme court judge. This is not only the US and A, this is also The South.
After receiving assurances that Jesus loves his "retard brother" Pilo and even his neighbour Nursultan Tuyakbay ("Nobody loves him!"), Borat is pushed to the floor and rewarded with passage to Los Angeles aboard the church bus for his climactic (though not in the sense he was hoping for) meeting with Pamela Anderson.
After receiving assurances that Jesus loves his "retard brother" Pilo and even his neighbour Nursultan Tuyakbay ("Nobody loves him!"), Borat is pushed to the floor and rewarded with passage to Los Angeles aboard the church bus for his climactic (though not in the sense he was hoping for) meeting with Pamela Anderson.
Watching the on-screen shenanigans reminded me of a wacky "Christian" event that was taking place at the same time over at the white elephant that is called the Hong Kong Stadium. For some reason that will doubtless remain forever hidden from me, I had received an invitation to a Tagalog-only event run by one Mariano Zuniega Velarde, better known as Brother Mike.
According to wikipedia, this "Servant Leader" of the Philippine-based Catholic Charismatic El Shaddai movement, does a little better than the average domestic servant, being owner of Amvel Land Development Corporation, a real estate company and a television station.
His message is straightforward: give ten percent of what you earn to the Lord and He will return it to you tenfold. Sceptics and disgruntled former members see things a little differently, wondering whether Mikey's closeness to the Lord has not now given way to self-identification with Him.
Anyone wishing for an antidote to all this garbage could do worse than rent Pier Paolo Pasolini's Gospel according to Saint Matthew. He may have been a mixed-up fellow (the DVD documentary describes him as "atheist, Marxist and Catholic") but he was a poet who knew how to get a performance out of people wearing upside-down wastepaper baskets on their heads. Ultimately, the power of his product lies in the fact that he lets Jesus speak for himself, drawing, as fellow non-believer Johannes Brahms did in his masterly Requiem, all his dialogue only from the Bible.
3 comments:
I didn't realise Pasolini was a Catholic, but if this is taken in a social/national rather than a strictly religious sense, I suppose it's possible.
The headgear in the Decameron is taken to another level.
First Dame Jessica, now Brother Mike. There must be something about your person, Ulaca, that attracts those looking for suckers, I mean donors.
Speaking of donations, I hear the beggars on Oxford's streets don't pay for dog licenses. On the contrary, my source says they have dogs precisely because they get an extra monetary benefit from the government if they care for a pet. If you think of income tax as our modern-day tithe, that's where part of it ends up - homeless dogs.
I'm saddened & baffled by the homelessness here. Perhaps I'll investigate and blog on it later.
It baffles me frankly. Now, if people knew about the inheritance from my maiden aunt in Windhoek I'd understand it, but I've never breathed a word about it.
I wonder if she's been indiscreet. She WAS talking about starting a blog last time she cabled.
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