Blogging the Borat Movie

Posted on November 13, 2006

The new Borat movie has been a hit at the box office. The numerous video clips on YouTube.com and the viral video offering the first 4 minutes of the film have probably helped. Blog buzz pushed Snakes on a Plane to number one at the Box Office but it did not result in big numbers. The Borat film has accomplished both blog buzz and big box office numbers. It probably helped that actor Sacha Baron Cohen did several media appearances in character. Borat has a lot of fans but some bloggers appear to be already tired of Borat -- there is talk of a Borat backlash. Technorati shows over 50,000 English language Borat posts. The posts started to trail off but climbed upward again just in the past few days.

Borat didn't follow in Snakes on a Plane's tracks as a Variety article suggested it might. "Well ahead of its Nov. 3 release, 20th Century Fox's "Borat" has become a sensation in some quarters. But weak tracking so far -- two weeks out from its opening, the Sacha Baron Cohen satire is trailing the also-anemic audience interest ratings for "The Santa Clause 3" -- has already raised concern that the pic will follow in the footsteps of "Snakes on a Plane" in failing to convert intense niche interest into a big box office grosses."

Gawker is polling to find the most annoying Borat-isms. "I liiiike" is currently in the lead for most annoying.

John Dicker at The Huffington Post declares that a Borat backlash has begun.

A CBS News' article includes a section about Borat and the blogosphere. The column mentions several bloggers blogging about Borat.

Plastic Bag: "So it was with this in mind that I went to see the film with my little brother and all I can say in response is what the hell film were they watching?! There are some very funny bits in it, and some very scary bits as well, but they were heavily overwhelmed by clumsy shit jokes, big testicles and fat naked people running around."

DCist asks "Did you welcome a dozen channels of dedicated election coverage as a break from Borat media over-exposure, but really couldn't enjoy it because you lived in constant fear that Sasha Baron Cohen would crash the set at CNN, send Wolf Blitzer screaming for the exit, and reduce Lou Dobbs to tears?"

The Borat character is similar to Mahir Cagri, the "I Kiss You" web celebrity that briefly came into our lives a few years ago. Boing Boing says he is Mahir 2.0.

Aaaron Schwartz blogs about the meaning of Borat: "In reality, Borat is about the existence and enforcement of cultural norms. In place after place, Borat goes somewhere and does exactly what you're not supposed to do. By doing so, he demonstrates exactly what are cultural assumptions are, makes us laugh uncomfortably at their violation while we start to question their legitimacy, and then documents the punishment inflicted for violating them."

LAist suspects that some of the backlash could be a marketing ploy. "But I suspect that most of the "Borat backlash" is the clever work of 20th Century Fox marketing executives who are smart enough to understand that any publicity is good publicity. I'd be willing to bet that the trail for most of these negative Borat stories eventually leads back to the film's producers and marketing team, which probably prodded, planted, exacerbated or invented them wholesale."