MTV AWARDS will end in a court case

14.11.05, 15:26
uk.news.yahoo.com/14112005/80/kazakh-govt-threatens-comedian-court.html
Kazakh govt threatens to take comedian to court
Monday November 14, 01:41 PM


ASTANA (Reuters) - Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry threatened legal action on
Monday against comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, who wins laughs by portraying the
central Asian state as a country populated by drunks who enjoy cow-punching
as a sport.


Baron Cohen, who portrays a spoof Kazakh television presenter Borat in
his "Da Ali G Show", has won fame ridiculing Kazakhstan, the world's ninth
largest country yet still little known to many in the West.


Baron Cohen appears to have drawn official Kazakh ire after he hosted the
annual MTV Europe Music Awards show in Lisbon earlier this month as Borat,
who arrived in an Air Kazakh propeller plane controlled by a one-eyed pilot
clutching a vodka bottle.


"We do not rule out that Mr. Cohen is serving someone's political order
designed to present Kazakhstan and its people in a derogatory way," Kazakh
Foreign Ministry spokesman Yerzhan Ashykbayev told a news briefing.


"We reserve the right to any legal action to prevent new pranks of the kind."
He declined to elaborate.


Cohen's earlier jokes about the Central Asian state include claims that the
people would shoot a dog and then have a party, and that local wine was made
from fermented horse urine.


"We view Mr. Cohen's behaviour at the MTV Europe Music Awards as utterly
unacceptable, being a concoction of bad taste and ill manners which is
completely incompatible with ethics and civilised behaviour," Ashykbayev
said.

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Hate to say I told you so.....
    • usenetposts Re: MTV AWARDS will end in a court case 16.11.05, 12:35
      Yes, Maggie, but if anything, this just goes to show there was an element of
      truth in his spoofing of that country.

      They have shot themselves in the foot. He was spoofing attitudes to the
      countries that have emerged from Communism, but they have gone and shown that
      they cannot take a joke.

      Can you see the Belgians or the French or the Germans taking Monty Python or
      Harry Enfield to court? Of course not. These Kazachstanis have only gone to
      show how far from our understanding of civilisation they are.

      > "We do not rule out that Mr. Cohen is serving someone's political order
      > designed to present Kazakhstan and its people in a derogatory way," Kazakh
      > Foreign Ministry spokesman Yerzhan Ashykbayev told a news briefing.

      Wot a larf!

      He as good as said "Cohen is a Jewish name, and so what we have here is an
      attack by Israel on a good Muslim state".

      You can stick a Russian suffix on a towelhead's name, but you can't get his
      head out of that towel....

      Yakshemash!!!
    • nasza_maggie Re: MTV AWARDS will end in a court case 16.11.05, 17:03
      My view is slightly different. I watched the whole awards and I do like SBC but
      really, his jokes just weren't funny this time...
      And this concerns not only Kazahstan. There were jokes about people with AIDS
      and paedophiles amongst other things.
      ALso, I think if he made sucha mockery of the USA or French etc. they'd have a
      go at him too.
      It was just a silly thing to do, especially with the whole 'Free your mind
      theme'. I don't think it worked...
      • russh Re: MTV AWARDS will end in a court case 16.11.05, 17:44
        Never saw the awards, but have seen the acts.

        I think that these guys, and many others who are at the 'cutting edge' just go
        'over-the-top' sometimes, and it seemed to have happened this time.

        When it happens, it's just bad taste.

        Would still seem though that Kazahstan's reaction is just a little over-the-top
        as well.


        Never happened with Ken Dodd!
        • ianek70 Re: MTV AWARDS will end in a court case 16.11.05, 21:52
          russh napisał:

          > Never saw the awards, but have seen the acts.
          >
          > I think that these guys, and many others who are at the 'cutting edge' just go
          > 'over-the-top' sometimes, and it seemed to have happened this time.
          >
          > When it happens, it's just bad taste.

          I didn't see the awards either, but I can well imagine how it could backfire,
          since it totally defeats the purpose of the character.
          Borat's "TV reports" were funny because he acted naive and ignorant to expose
          the genuine stupidity, pretentiousness and snobbery of the people he
          interviewed, and it worked because they didn't know he wasn't really from
          Kazakh telly.
          Sometimes it was tasteless, sometimes surreal, and sometimes thought-provoking.
          There was a good one where he was interviewing some redneck about hunting, and
          by talking about Jew-baiting showed him up to be a bigoted asshole schmuck.
          Apparently that one wasn't shown in America, they don't understand irony there.

          > Would still seem though that Kazahstan's reaction is just a little over-the-
          top
          > as well.
          >
          > Never happened with Ken Dodd!

          Well maybe so, but the CIA still hasn't formally denied involvement in Rod
          Hull's death...
          • nasza_maggie Re: MTV AWARDS will end in a court case 16.11.05, 21:56
            ianek70 napisał:

            >> Well maybe so, but the CIA still hasn't formally denied involvement in Rod
            > Hull's death...

            Do tell more!!!!!!!! smile))))
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