JAGSHEMASH, America! Sacha Baron Cohen, the Cambridge-educated comedian who gave the world Ali G, the idiotic, tracksuited rapper from the West Staines Massive, is about to test America’s sense of humour to the limit.

Baron Cohen has finished shooting his new film, which centres on a crazed journey across America in an ice-cream van by his moustachioed character Borat Sagdiyev, a fictional Kazakh television reporter with the meaningless catchphrase.

While some of the film is scripted, much of it sees Baron Cohen, 34, mercilessly baiting luckless Americans who fail to twig that he and his film crew are actors.

Insiders report that police were called more than 50 times during filming by angry and alarmed victims, while some ordinary Americans tricked into taking part have branded Baron Cohen “disgraceful”.

Baron Cohen has already developed a strong following in America — his Ali G show, which also features Borat, became a hit on the television channel HBO and was nominated for three Emmy awards last year.

The new film, entitled Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, purports to be a government information broadcast made by the main character, a rabidly sexist anti-semite.

The film does not open until November and changes may still be made, but last Friday night a preview was shown in Traverse City, Michigan. The audience was amused although some found it shocking. Jamie Ross, 47, a lawyer, said: “I don’t know what kind of comedy you’d call that, it goes beyond slapstick.”

A local reviewer noted: “It makes fun of just about every subculture of America: blacks, gays, women, Jews, cowboys, Christians, college boys, no one is spared.”

Baron Cohen has attracted a stream of complaints from Kazakh diplomats because of Borat. He reduced the audience at an MTV awards ceremony to silence and boos after greeting them with: “Good evening, gentlemen and prostitutes.”

In the film — during which the main character becomes overwhelmed by a desire to marry Pamela Anderson, the former Baywatch star — Borat goes to buy a car and asks a dealer whether a Humvee would be suitable for running over gypsies.

In another scene Borat insists on driving to California, instead of flying, “in case the Jews repeat their attack of 9/11”. In another scene, Baron Cohen, who is himself Jewish, is shown spitting out food given to him by the Jewish owners of a bed-and-breakfast because he believes it may be poisoned. He tells Alan Keyes, a black presidential candidate, he has a “chocolate face”.

While Kazakhstan may be the butt of Borat’s jokes, his interviewees often come off even worse, lured into betraying extreme or idiotic views. In one scene Borat is at a rodeo discussing homosexuals with an older man in rancher-style clothes, and says: “They hang ’em in our country.” The man replies: “That’s what we’re trying to do here.”

At another point, Baron Cohen, naked in a hotel room, catches the fat actor playing his producer, also nude, looking at a magazine containing pictures of Anderson. A wrestling contest ensues, with the fat producer sitting on Baron Cohen’s face.

Matt Dentler, producer of the South By South West film festival, who has seen an early version of the film, said: “This naked hairy male chase ends up coming into a giant marketing convention with 200 suited and tied people, screaming ‘call the cops’ and throwing them to the ground.”

While the Borat film was being made, George Matthews Marshall from Natchez, Mississippi, was tricked into holding a dinner party for Borat and a large black prostitute.

Marshall said that, while Borat was fondling the woman, the comedian tried to lure him into making pro-slavery and anti-Jewish comments.

Marshall, 76, whose family have lived in his house since before the civil war, said Baron Cohen’s behaviour was “disgraceful” and “disgusting”, adding he had been led to believe Borat was the host of a serious cultural programme.

“He intimated we might have favoured slavery . . . we were horrified,” said Marshall.

Last week an official at the Kazakh embassy in London confirmed he was aware of Borat but declined to comment.



Additional reporting: Jane Boursaw, Traverse City

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