The original Borat film is Sacha Baron Cohen’s masterpiece, and possibly my favourite comedy of all time, and he’s now made a Borat 2.
Seeing one of the strangest characters ever created interact with real people is impossible not to laugh at, but unsurprisingly, Borat himself was almost impossible for Baron Cohen to return to after the massive success of the film.
However, during the Covid-19 pandemic, he saw the opportunity for one last hurrah, and secretly filmed a sequel: Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery Of Prodigious Bribe To American Regime For Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan.
The world has changed a lot since 2006, though. We hold out hope that when the film drops on October 23rd, it make benefit glorious original moviefilm.
It Has To Avoid Toning It Down
Credit: 20th Century Fox
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This is the big one.
Fourteen years on from the original, and the world loves to be outraged more than it ever did. Borat 2 could be a playful story about dancing bunnies and it would still be hit with furious responses from many.
As such, we hope that Baron Cohen sticks to his furiously offensive guns and delivers something truly shocking.
One of his favourite hobbies seems to be getting people to reveal their own genuinely horrific thoughts through their agreements with Borat’s own, fictional, viewpoints.
Considering Borat 2 was filmed in the middle of a pandemic in the lead-up to the most divisive election of all time, it’s pretty likely that we’ll have a lot of far-fetched views to contend with.
But this comedy mostly stems from Borat letting people embarrass themselves.
We need a return to the character who’d have a naked fight in a hotel conference room; who’d return to a dinner party holding a bag of his own shit.
From the trailer, we can see Borat openly discussing his incestuous relationship with his daughter to an anti-abortion doctor… so things are looking good.
Well, maybe ‘good’ isn’t the word, but you know what I mean.
We Still Want Interactions With Normal People
Credit: Amazon Prime Video
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Obviously, one thing that most of Baron Cohen’s projects promise is a dissection of the personality of various big-name celebrities.
Ali G, for example, interviewed Donald Trump long before his presidency. Bruno made a desperate attempt to chat with a furious Harrison Ford.
We can see from the trailer that Borat has a (seemingly quite distant) interaction with Mike Pence, and that’s all well and good, but we already know his horrific views.
One of Borat’s specialities was freaking out the general public, whether it was by getting them to make their maddening opinions about women’s rights known, or simply forcing them to navigate a train with a chicken in it.
Let’s hope the sequel doesn’t focus too much on getting celebrity attention, and lets us continue to see the reactions of the public.
Avoid Having Too Many Scripted Scenes
Credit: Amazon Prime Video
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The beauty of Borat was that it was still able to create a storyline that unfolded quite naturally amongst the otherwise unrelated documentary-esque interactions.
This is because only four of the principal characters were actors who understood what was going on; pretty much everything else we saw was the unscripted, unsuspecting reactions of real people.
Sacha Baron Cohen’s The Dictator didn’t live up to the quality of his previous characters due to its avoidance of improvised scenes filmed alongside people that had no idea what was going on.
It has already been made clear that Baron Cohen told Holocaust-survivor Judith Dim Evans about the premise of the show and that the character he was playing was fictional before their interview, so it’ll be very interesting to see if that lands.
Beyond that, it’s hard to tell from the trailer how much of the film is going to rely on scripted, plot-heavy moments, and how much will give Borat time to freak out unsuspecting, real people.
The Return Of Azamat Bagatov?
Credit: 20th Century Fox
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In the first film, Borat’s sidekick, Azamat Bagatov was played by Ken Davitian.
He makes it pretty clear that he blames Jews for 9/11, and was once the most notorious rapist in all of Kazakhstan. Interesting.
Of course, none of this bothers Borat. What really ticks him off is when Azamat is caught masturbating over Pamela Anderson and the naked hotel fight mentioned above ensues.
The pair reconciled at the end of the film, and reunited briefly on Jimmy Kimmel. However, it has been rumoured that they haven’t spoken (in real life) since then, and that Azamat will not be making an appearance in subsequent moviefilm.
But we can dream. Rumours is rumours is rumours.
Baron Cohen managed to keep the entire thing a secret until just days before it was announced, so there’s always the chance that a world-class cameo could be being kept under wraps… right?
We Want To See Sacha Baron Cohen Having A Bloody Good Time
Credit: 20th Century Fox
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It seems that every time Sacha Baron Cohen debuts a new character, he thinks it’s the best thing he has ever done. Which is understandable, of course.
However, no matter how good they are, it’ll be hard to ever live up to the hilarity and cultural impact of Borat.
As such, despite the character being completely recognisable, there have been a few times over the years that Baron Cohen has donned the grey suit and made an appearance.
The issue with the majority of these appearances (the Jimmy Kimmel one mentioned above, for example) is that it doesn’t quite feel the same.
It feels a little more forced, and a bit like Baron Cohen would rather be playing someone else as his limps his way through catchphrases.
I’m hoping that he decided to make Borat 2 for fun and because he had something important to say about the state of the world, not for a bit of post-Covid-cash.
We want to see Borat using his wide smile because Baron Cohen is desperately holding in the desire to laugh at some of the best improvisational comedy since Borat.
What do you make of this feature?
Are you looking forward to seeing Borat 2?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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