Archive Hot: Borat Internet

That prison-worthy content now lives on the Internet Archive.

But this global fame was inextricably linked to a second, much fiercer source of heat: controversy. The film was a lightning rod for criticism almost from its first frame. The Kazakh government vehemently denounced it, and it was eventually banned in the country. The fictional depiction of Kazakhstan as a backward, anti-Semitic, and misogynistic nation led the Kazakh American Association to accuse the sequel of promoting "racism, cultural appropriation and xenophobia" and being a "harmful representation of the nation". Cohen, who is Jewish, faced backlash for using Borat's anti-Semitic rants—including a song from his Da Ali G Show days with the lyric "Throw the Jew down the well"—as a tool of satire. The Anti-Defamation League expressed concerns that some viewers might find it "reinforcing their bigotry".

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