The Borat character is something of a phenomenon. Yeah, he says the wrong thing but really, thats the point. So I thought it was strange when I read this from Yahoo News:
“We are accusing him of defamation and inciting violence against Sinti and Roma (gypsies),” Marko Knudsen, head of the European Center of Antiziganism Research, told Reuters. Antiziganism refers to hostility to gypsies.
The group said it had filed a complaint to prosecutors over the film, “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan,” saying it treated violence and discrimination against Roma peoples as acceptable behavior.
State prosecutors in Hamburg will investigate the allegations before deciding whether to take action.
In the satirical film, which is due to open in Germany on November 2, Cohen, creator of the comic character Ali G, plays Borat Sagdiyev, a fictional Kazakh television journalist who travels to the United States to report back on the American way of life.
The film’s comic barbs also target gypsies, Jews, women and many other groups.
The complaint adds to a series of protests against Cohen’s creation, whose views are not only racist and anti-Semitic but also misogynist and homophobic.
Some of the most prominent criticism has come from Kazakhstan, Borat’s central Asian homeland.
I am reminded of a case where the Turrets Society took offense to the portrayal of a person with Turrets Syndrome in Deuce Bigalo. I don’t recall seeing much come of that either. I think the point that people are missing is that Borat is that he says the wrong thing consistently against all social groups, cultures, lifestyles and people. Its not like he is trying to OFFEND. The point is that the character is so clueless that he doesnt know he offends. This is the charm of Borat. We have to expect it from him. If the character did nothing BUT make innappropriate statements about Gypsies, then maybe Knudsen might have a case.
My favourite part of the Yahoo Report was this quote:
Knudsen’s group has asked for an injunction to stop the film from being shown in Germany. “We called the distributors, but they laughed at us,” he said.
Should the actions of a character be grounds for a lawsuit against the actor who portrays him? Or the writer who gave them the lines?
What do you think?
