Then the researcher in me kicked in and I decided to ask others for their thoughts. The others I asked were from Romania, Germany, Italy, France, Spain and Russia. The responses amused me. Here's what I found out... Let me start by writing that I had no idea who Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen, Ali G. or Bruno were until about a week ago. I was at a dinner party and the talk got onto Cohen's movie. My host had a Cohen DVD, "Da Ali G Show/Da Compleet First Seazon", which I watched.
I watched some of the Borat segments and all but one of the Ali G segments. Just to keep myself honest here, I did laugh. I didn't laugh as hard as my host or his wife. I laughed hardest at the Buzz Aldrin, C. Everett Koop and Marlon Fitzwater interviews. But General Brent Scowcroft, James Woolsey, Ed Meese, Ralph Nader, James Baker, ... None of these people knew they were being put on? Their advance teams hadn't vetted "Ali G." prior to getting them in front of a camera?
Anyway, this morning's discussion helped me understand why I was seeing things like Borat Tricked Me! and Will 'Borat' Dupes be Able to Sue Filmmakers? showing up on the 'net.
What brought me to all this was hearing that the Borat movie is getting lots of play on the 'net and that some fear that might hurt the box office, a' la Snakes on a Plane. That has to do with the power of viral marketing, social networking and online trust, and those things intrigue me greatly.
This morning's conversationalists found Borat offensive and it always came down to a single element; The hand of friendship is extended and the individual being interviewed gets their face slapped for it.
Interesting, don't you think? A trust issue. The "Borat" character is playing a con game, essentially telling the interviewee "I trust you," and, once trust is returned and the interviewee begins sharing, is (according to the people I talked with) made a fool.
My European friends -- many of whom didn't know about Borat -- fell into two basic camps; one group would know this was a joke and the game would be up. The second group would call the Borat character on what he was doing and again, the game would be up. Why the different responses on different sides of the Atlantic? As one Romanian friend said, "Europeans don't have a fear of what's different (culturally) and Americans do."
But what really impressed me was the consistency of one aspect of the European response -- Everybody Borat interviewed fit "the American stereotype."
Ouch.
No thanks!
But what about Age and Gender? My host, his wife and several others who thought Borat hilarious are all 20-25 years my juniors. They also were laughing at the "Borat" character. The folks I was talking with this morning? All over 45, and all thought Borat was laughing at them. Interesting isn't it, how different ages and genders think?
What do you think?
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