Borat: Making fun of Eastern Europeans... by targeting Asians?

Here's a secret: Borat is not really from Kazakhstan. He's appears to be from the Czech Republic. Maybe Poland or Belarus. Either way, it's stupid that he picked Kazakhstan, but I suppose he has good reason.

Much has been written about the forthcoming Borat movie, and the article in today's New York Times actually adds a little bit to the discussion. See these tidbits:

1. “I do not feel any false patriotism,” said [a Kazakh], who, like all ethnic Kazakhs, bears no resemblance to Borat whatsoever.

2. No one [in Kazakhstan] greets you with [Borat's] expression “Jagshemash,” which is either nonsense, garbled Polish or mangled Czech; it’s hard to say.

The movie, if you haven't heard, features an actor who pretends to be from Kazakhstan, and it's not a caricature Kazakhs are happy about. "Borat" is anti-Semitic, mysogynistic, and ignorant in general. So that's gotten attention, particularly from the government of Kazakhstan.

But here's what's mostly been overlooked by most Americans, with the exception of the above line from the NY Times: The stereotype doesn't seem to resemble a Kazakh as much as an Eastern European.









Like Dan Akroyd and Steve Martin's "wild and crazy guys" from 1970s SNL, Borat seems to be more of an Eastern European. The SNL characters were from Czechoslovakia, if I recall correctly.

However, Kazakhstan is in Asia. Most Kazakhs seem to more closely resemble their neighbors in China, or perhaps Mongolia. Sure, they were in the USSR, but they are Asian, not European. But "Borat" still draws largely from Eastern European stereotypes.

Why pick Kazakhstan?

Perhaps comedians can't poke fun at Poles or Czechs anymore because the comedians might be confronted about it by an actual Pole or Czech. The falling of the wall changed a lot. Also, since so many of us have been to Prague, perhaps we realize the stereotypes aren't true. Additionally, perhaps the aforementioned comedians would like to go to Prague as well, without being pelted with rocks. Who knows.

It seems Kazakhstan became Borat's target because there's no strong Kazakh lobby in the United States, and no tourist destinations in Kazakhstan he (or other Americans) want to visit in the near future.

Update: ABC news repeatedly refers to Kazakhstan as an "Eastern European" country. Hello, it's due north of Pakistan. That's Asia.

But perhaps ABC is confused because Borat is acting like he's Eastern European. Or at least like a bad stereotype of a person from that area. So their blunder adds more weight to my theory.