‘Borat’ obscene, or obscenely funny?

This week’s conversation takes place in the car immediately after the film preview.

Steve: How are we going to review this film when half of what we want to say about it probably can’t be printed in a family newspaper?

Andrea: It will definitely be obscene to some, and obscenely funny to others. Like me. I was laughing so hard I had tears streaming down my face.

Steve: I thought I was having a series of heart attacks, I was gasping for air for more than 90 minutes. In terms of audience reaction and nonstop hilarity, this is probably the best comedy of the last 20 years.

Andrea: Well, we can begin with the title of the film: “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.” For those who don’t know, Borat is a character created by Sacha Baron Cohen for his recurring HBO special, “Da Ali G Show.”

Steve: Borat Sagdiyev is ostensibly a TV reporter from Kazakhstan who comes to America to film a documentary for his comrades back home in the Eastern European country, a former Soviet republic.

Andrea: This is a reality show brought to the big screen, as Cohen’s “victims” don’t know it’s a hoax.

Steve: That is apparent in one of the film’s first scenes, when a newly arrived Borat tries to introduce himself on a crowded New York subway, Kazakh style. His attempts to kiss his neighbors hello has some angry reactions; physical violence is imminent.

Andrea: Until a chicken escapes from his luggage.

Steve: Too naive to be intimidated, Borat continues with his New York adventures until a late-night re-run of Baywatch introduces him to the lovely Pamela Anderson, of California. He’s immediately smitten, and convinces his producer-sidekick Azamat Bagatov (Ken Davitian) to turn a New York visit into a cross-country search for Anderson, whom Borat intends to marry.

Andrea: The pair, traveling in an old ice cream truck with a semi-domesticated bear for protection, navigate the confusing highways and byways of American life. We soon discover that the United States is as bizarre an environment as Borat’s home country.

Steve: From the moment that chicken leaped out of his suitcase, it is established that Cohen is a comedic genius, with a skill for absurdity that rivals the best efforts of the late Andy Kaufman.

Andrea: You’re so right. But where Kaufman’s comedy often turned surreal and even mean-spirited, Cohen’s Borat is pretty firmly grounded. Grounded exactly where, we don’t know, but the character is very likeable. The faux journalist is lost in America, encountering people and situations that many folks would normally place “off limits” in regards to tickling their funnybones.

Steve: You mean blacks, homosexuals, Jewish people, fundamentalist Christians, conservatives, women, and genteel Southern society. Borat is the perfect device for satire — he’s ignorant but well-intentioned, with the libido of a hyperactive 13-year-old on the wrong prescription. Ultimately, Cohen is an equal-opportunity offender, poking fun at all of society’s prejudices.

Andrea: That’s the underlying theme of the movie, but we don’t realize it until we’re in the car driving home — until then, we were laughing too hard to understand that the joke is on us.