Borat / YMMV - TV Tropes

Aluminum Christmas Trees: Some people did not even know Kazakhstan was a real country.
Angst? What Angst?: Although Borat is initially horrified to learn that the men he had brought home (and showered with, and done butt stuff with) the night before were homosexuals, he doesn't seem too concerned about it later and barely mentions it again.
Award Snub: There was some disappointment that Sacha Baron Cohen didn't get an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, though he did get a nom for Adapted Screenplay.
Broken Base: Depending on who you ask, the rodeo scene is either the absolute best part of the film, or the absolute worst; there's not a whole lot of middle ground (even Todd Phillips, who directed the scene, hated the result so much that he quit the director's position, leaving Larry Charles to take over). The scene's detractors feel that Borat's Take Thats at the "War of Terror" are dated, overdone, and come across as cheap shots compared to the rest of the film's humor, and that's before you get to Borat's mockery of The Star-Spangled Banner via the fake Kazakhstan national anthem. On the other hand, the scene's fans usually consider said fake anthem to be the highlight of the whole movie, feel that the scene as a whole Crosses the Line Twice (with more than a little help from the horse that unseats its rider), and/or enjoy seeing it troll those who treat patriotism as Serious Business to an excessive degree. It also helps that the clearly ignorant audience is more upset about the anthem (which is overall pretty childish), while also previously cheering on Borat's genocidal pro-War on Terror speech. The head of the rodeo being openly racist and extremely homophobic (claiming he wants gay people executed) also gives the scene a fair amount of Catharsis Factor.
Crosses the Line Twice: The overall style of the movie, especially in terms of the vulgar and/or racist themes. In particular, it's agreed that the whole reason Borat works as a character is that he has nothing to do with an actual Kazakh—at that point, the joke stops being "ha ha, look at the Funny Foreigner and his backwards ways" and starts being "ha ha, look at the Americans taking this guy at face value when he's faking every second of it."
Discredited Meme: Quoting individual lines out of context (such as "My Wife" or "Very Nice!") has been run into the ground so often it's become a stock gag meant to inform the audience about a character who isn't funny, as seen in shows like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Bob's Burgers.
Fridge Horror: Played for Laughs. Borat mentions that his aging mother is 43 years old, but Borat himself looks like he is at least in his mid-thirties (to be precise, Sacha Baron-Cohen was 35 at the time the movie was made). Just how young was she when she had Borat? Notably, in the sequel Borat makes a big deal about his fourteen-year-old daughter being the "oldest unmarried woman in all of Kazakhstan".
Genius Bonus: When Borat attempts to buy a gun, he asks the man at the counter for the best one to defend himself from a Jew. The gold-plated pistol that the man gives to him is a Desert Eagle, a weapon that was partially designed and manufactured in Israel.
Hilarious in Hindsight: During Borat's montage exploring New York, we briefly see him defecating outside Trump Tower. This minor throwaway moment unintentionally foreshadows the events of the film's sequel, where the entire premise revolves around Borat launching far more direct and damaging attacks on then-President Donald Trump.
- The whole "what type of dog is this" skit involving a tortoise only got funnier upon the release of Elden Ring, with players writing notes near tortoises like "could this be a dog".
Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales: Borat is quite popular in Kazakhstan, despite the title character being a deliberately absurd Funny Foreigner who acts nothing like a real Kazakh, and the general portrayal of Kazakhstan as a dirt-poor backwards country like Dilbert's Elbonia inhabited by ignorant racist buffoons. Kazakhs were mostly smart enough to realize that the film has nothing to do with the real Kazakhstan and is actually lampooning Americans' ignorance of foreign cultures. It also helped reintroduce Kazakhstan to the public eye after the fall of the Soviet Union left it without a real national identity. The president tried to ban it, with the First Daughter urging the government to lighten up and not take the film seriously, reportedly boosting their tourism sector.
Nightmare Fuel:
- The very existence of people who seriously supported Borat when he jokingly wished George Bush to drink the blood of Iraqi men, women and children.
- The rodeo manager in particular is pretty unsettling due to his staggering ignorance (he thought Borat was Russian, despite stating he was from Kazakhstan several times), reacting to Borat kissing him on the cheek (a common greeting in European countries) with homophobia, and fully supporting Borat joking that they kill gay people in his country. "That's exactly what we're trying to get done here!" Out of all the bigots in the film, he stands out as being downright evil.
- One would think that people receiving a college education should know better, and yet the frat boys are among the most misogynistic and bigoted people in the movie, including Borat himself.
Older Than They Think:
- The character of Borat had appeared six years earlier on Da Ali G Show as one of several recurring main characters. The film recycles the premises of many scenes from the show. Borat had also already made his film debut in Ali G Indahouse as a delegate from Kazakhstan who meets Ali at a conference. Interestingly, it so turns out that Borat (in a way) existed long before that as well. He basically debuted (in an earlier form) in 1996 on the British comedy series known as K2F, but the character went by a different name, as he was known as Alexi Krickler and was Albanian rather than Kazakh. A year later on the show, he would be renamed to Kristo Shqiptari, with his nationality being changed to Moldovan.
- As mentioned under Broken Base, Borat's shots at the "War of Terror" during the rodeo scene are sometimes accused of being cheap shots, considering that by the time of the film's release in late 2006, The War on Terror had mostly lost support among the American populace. However, the scene was actually filmed near the start of 2005, shortly after George W. Bush's re-election, so it's fair to say support for the war was much stronger back then.
The Woobie: Borat is one from the moment he learns that Pamela's not a virgin to when he meets Mr. Jesus.

YMMV / Borat

Edit Locked