Borat Make Funny Joke On Idiot Americans! High-Five!

[Djamila]

True, but it's a normal response. Everyone hates the girl in highschool who is full of herself, especially if she's not really all that pretty.

 

[SoyLeche]

True, but it's a normal response. Everyone hates the girl in highschool who is full of herself, especially if she's not really all that pretty.

Which tells a lot more about everyone else than it does about her.

 

[Djamila]

Which tells a lot more about everyone else than it does about her.

Hehehe - probably. But what it tells us isn't really that much, just that we're all human.

Within Europe there's the same dynamic, just as I'm sure it must exist in America. I imagine people in Arkansas roll their eyes when they see "New York" subtitles in American movies?

In Europe there's blocks. You have, the largest block, is East vs West. And this is the most complicated. Residents of the Big 4 - UK, Spain, France, and Germany - have a completely different idea of what East is than East does.

Slovenia and Croatia, for example, are considered Eastern Europe by people in the West. They consider themselves to be Central Europe, with Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, etc...

Bosnia is considered Eastern Europe by the Big 4, we prefer to say "Western Balkans", "Eastern Mediterranean", or "Southeast Europe" - because we're farther West than Greece, which is considered West by the Big 4.

And Eastern Europe views it as Slavic vs. Caucausian/Germanic, etc... anyways. This is in a general sense above all the specifics.

Like you wouldn't find many East Europeans who say Hungary is Eastern Europe, because they're Turks - not Slavs.

And on and on...

Then it gets more complex the smaller you go. Bosnia's "America" is Italy. Italians are considered loud, obnoxious, full of themselves, blah blah blah. Croatia's "America" is Austria. And on it goes. LOL

 

[Capt. Haddock]

And Eastern Europe views it as Slavic vs. Caucausian/Germanic, etc... anyways. This is in a general sense above all the specifics.

Like you wouldn't find many East Europeans who say Hungary is Eastern Europe, because they're Turks - not Slavs.

Really? That's news to me. I've never met a Hungarian who's told me they're Turks. My understanding is that they are linguistically related to the Finns, Estonians and some native peoples of the Urals.

What about Romanians, Estonians, Lithuanians? Are they not Eastern Europeans?

 

[Djamila]

Really? That's news to me. I've never met a Hungarian who's told me they're Turks. My understanding is that they are linguistically related to the Finns, Estonians and some native peoples of the Urals.

What about Romanians, Estonians, Lithuanians? Are they not Eastern Europeans?

Hmm...I've always said the Baltics but I have no cringe in my body for calling them Eastern Europeans too. Maybe you've found an exception!

 

[ALifetimeToWaitFor....]

just on a side note one of my friends and my sisters best friend from college produced that show and she changed her name because she was the one that had to set up the interviews and feed them all the crap to make them think it was legit. She had an article done on her in TIME and BBC using her name and it freaked her out hehe. Sasha is so funny he is seriously a comedic genius. I think the funniest thing about it is that hes a jew. I haven't seen the movie yet, I waiting for my sister to come visit for thanksgiving, but if its as funny as the sketchs on the ali g show its going to be great. You guys should watch the ali g show if you haven't already.

 

[Mercy Not Sacrifice]

I don't think Americans are that bad. It's one of the only countries in the world where you are likely to function your entire life without ever having to leave.

I think that's why they know so little about the rest of the world? But you have similar situations in Canada, Australia, and so on - and they're at least vaguely aware of the world.

Maybe it's just because America is so isolated in so many spheres? I mean, I couldn't tell you what the capitals of most American states are, but I could list every capital in Europe without problem (except always saying Istanbul, Turkey, even though I know it's Ankara). I think it's just we get away with knowing so much because I can say:

I know everything about 10 countries.

And that sounds big, but it's like an American saying, "I know everything about two states" - our countries are much smaller.

It's almost more connected. I get German television shows, French, even some from Morocco on basic cable in Bosnia.

I don't know a whole lot about Kazakhstan, but I'm vaguely familiar with the world enough to know what it isn't. I know the people are probably Muslim, the cities are probably communist architecture, the race is Eurasian of some kind, the language is probably Turkic or close, etc...

So I don't really understand it, but oh well. It's an interesting circumstance.

I was thinking about this very thing the other day.

Isolation of thought, unfortunately, seems to be a way of life here in the States. Our knowledge of current affairs in other countries is noticeably lacking, even when it comes to major events that don't directly affect our status. Why? Who knows. Perhaps it is that status thing; perhaps we have had little need to pay attention to anything outside our own backyard; perhaps it's just the way things have always been.

Also, we seem to have a curious correlation between how connected people are with the outside world, and whether they live in urban or rural environments: Urban people tend to be more exposed; rural people tend to be more isolated. This should make intuitive sense. Of course, when it comes to the influence of culture over time, the results are interesting to note, as thoughts and ideas tend to reach the urban areas first and eventually permeate their way into remote reaches of nearly deserted landscapes.

How do we increase our exposure toward the outside world? We have to actively seek it out, I think. We can't just rely on the corporate media to inform us. We must openly pursue alternate venues, be they foreign news sources, blogs, or simply taking the time to sit down and learn about another culture as viewed through their eyes. Why *do* they do as they do? It's all in the culture. It's all ours to learn, but it is we who have to do it.

 

[klubbhead024]

I think the movie is the funniest thing I ahve ever seen! I think these days, americans are generally stupid. There seems to be few of us who think for ourselves and rely to much on a bias media, and he exploits the hell out of that. Good for him!!

 

[cardero]

I haven’t seen a movie so hyped up to the point of farthest disappointment since “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”.

 

[RevOxley_501]

I like this movie.


Its nice.




YES!

 

[astarath]

Nobody likes to be made a fool, especially americans.

 

[SoyLeche]

Nobody likes to be made a fool, especially americans.

As is evidenced by the success of shows like "America's Funniest Home Videos" and the multitude of reality TV shows.

 

[astarath]

Oh I forgot to add unless you pay them for it!!!Silly me always have to include capitalism.

 

[BFD_Zayl]

there is the whole "we better be nice or have an international incident on our hands again" thing, or we can send the corps wherever we want and make them agree the incident was their fault... OO RAH MARINES!!

 

[Ody]

He spoke in hebrew

 

[Majikthise]

Borat.
Wicked funny movie.
Of course it's not real ......
If it is I'll let you have my sister for 6 months.

 

[wicca_woman]

Well, knowing that the US is larger than the entire European continent, and each state has it's own governments as well, we seem to get tied up in our own muck over here. A lot of the people here would actually like our government to concentrate more on our home issues than foriegn ones. We have enough problems here that just seem to get brushed under the political rug alot. I think that is why maybe some people don't bother as much with learning about what is going on in a country on the other side of the world from us. We, as a people, are more upset that nothing is getting done in our own country. Here we are spending billions of dollars on foriegn endeavors and meanwhile we have social security problems, homeless, unemployment, abuse, high murder rate, law enforcement problems, and our judicial system is screwed up as well, not too mention the tons of other things that cause strife, we have huge problems and yet, what are we doing about them? Yes, we might be "the richest country", yet only about 10% of our population has that wealth. We have a lot of the same problems in our country that we are trying to help out in others.

Maybe not an excuse for American Joe Shmoe's lack of knowledge of certain countries, but perhaps that gives an idea of why it happens.

Yeah , what she said...The Land of The Free , with more and more freedom being taken away everyday.

 

[Majikthise]

Yeah , what she said...The Land of The Free , with more and more freedom being taken away everyday.

High five!!