Borat and Bathrooms

Color me skeptical. Sure, Sacha Baron Cohen's film Borat is funny. At times, it's very, very funny and a worthwhile evening's sophomoric, cringe entertainment. However, it is far from the smart sociological laboratory that some pundits and intellectuals are claiming. Are our standards really that low?

Unfortunately, it's not very difficult to bait misguided people into revealing their racism, sexism, homophobia and other personal insecurities. Nor is it tough to demonstrate that we Americans are not very fluent on matters of geography, culture and politics beyond our borders.

So what is Borat actually achieving other than box-office boffo? It certainly shows that bathroom humor and mockery of obese people or gullible politicians can still draw laughs. Yet, we should expect more of a film that purports to reveal something important and ugly about human nature. Otherwise, the leadership moment is lost and the film is simply enabling the kind of racist rants displayed by comedian Michael Richards at the Laugh Factory in LA the other night. If you want smart, comedic social commentary in film, try the 1979 Hal Ashby, Jerzy Kosinski and Peter Sellers film Being There. And don't forget the Marx Brothers, too.