2 ((better)): Borat

lies in its shift from finding "underlying" racism to documenting a culture where conspiracy theories and extremism have entered the mainstream. This is most vividly illustrated when Borat quarantines with two

When the first Borat movie burst onto screens in 2006, it was a cultural hand grenade. Nobody had seen anything quite like it: a fake Kazakh journalist with a malfunctioning mustache, a mankini, and a bottomless well of anti-Semitism and misogyny, unleashed on an unsuspecting America. The genius of Sacha Baron Cohen’s creation was that the joke was never on the foreigners—it was on the bigots, the politicians, and the elites who were all too willing to expose their own ugliness to a camera. borat 2

In a deleted scene (and partially in the film), Borat attends a pro-Trump synagogue gathering where attendees laugh about him wearing a “jew alert” watch. The mask-off moment is terrifying precisely because Borat isn’t the scariest person in the room. lies in its shift from finding "underlying" racism

: Fold the small overhanging corner tabs over the edges of the triangle so they stay wrapped around. The genius of Sacha Baron Cohen’s creation was

Cohen’s genius is that he provokes people into revealing who they really are. In 2006, that meant frat boys using the N-word. In 2020, that meant powerful men in hotel rooms and armed civilians at rallies.

1 hour, 35 minutes.