TIL that during the filming of Borat, Police was called 90+ times
And the FBI was assigned to follow the film team on reports of a "vaguely middle-eastern man with a bear in an ice-crem truck", which has to be the funniest report xD
In 2012, the parody national anthem from the film's soundtrack, which acclaims Kazakhstan for its high-quality potassium exports and having the second-cleanest prostitutes in the region, was mistakenly played at the medal ceremony of Mariya Dmitriyenko at the Emir of Kuwait International Shooting Grand Prix. The incident apparently resulted from the wrong song being downloaded from the Internet.
I actually met a man from Kazakhstan in my store the other day. He gestured to me that he’d like to sleep in the parking lot and pointed, “in truck. In truck. No English.” Imagine my surprise when I said, “what language?” and this very Asian looking fellow said, “Russian. But not me Russian. Me Kazakhstan”.
I got to use the translate app on my phone for the first time and when I said, “Ah, I’ve heard of Kazakhstan. I seen Borat.” He said, “No no no, uh, he is from London. He is not really from Kazakhstan. We hate him. We’re so tired of him. That is not what we are really like.” I said, “Oh I know that Kazakhstan is a former Soviet country and you guys are nothing like that. Borat is a man from England. He’s a comedian. I know it’s a joke.” “Oh it makes me so happy you know about the real Kazakhstan.” He said.
Then I ordered him a pizza to be delivered to his truck.
It was a fun experience meeting him. He was a great guy.
We talked for hours using the Google translate app.
There were a couple of gaffs. I realized after he left when I said “nice to meet you.” It heard, “it was nice to me too.” But otherwise it worked pretty well. It amazes me that we can do that nowadays.
I've heard differing things about Kazakhstan's reaction. Wasn't there a time where Sacha Baron Cohen would have been a dead man if he entered Kazakh borders?
More recently though, he has spent his time complaining about the rise of antisemitism when he himself has done a fair amount of work contributing to it while in the character of Borat.
i have a BA in english and I used to teach esl.... i wasn't even thinking that could've been wrong. it felt correct to me. well...i'm gonna leave the title as is, since i appreciate the jokes about it here ^^