blog 16

I do think that the videos can go too far. The best example of this is Borat’s “Throw the Jew down the Well” skit. What made the skit so controversial and funny was the audiences reaction to the lyrics of the song. I find it interesting the audience was pretty apathetic when Borat was talking about everyday things such as transport in Kazakhstan, yet when he began to sing “Throw the Jew down the Well” the reaction from the audience was clear. They began to clap, cheer and sing along to the song. Borat’s skit only reinforced my opinion that there is still an abundance of racist people in America. Not everyone in the world is comfortable with different cultures, there are many closed minded people that prefer to stay with what they know and react ignorantly when any other opinion is presented to them. It makes me come to the conclusion that since there are people out there who would laugh at a meta-bigots joke because they think its true, rather than laughing at the absurdity of it, makes meta-bigotry seem less and less desirable. Many would make the argument that it opens up dialogue and I cannot stress enough on how wrong and ludicrous that assumption is. Most people who saw Borat in theatres or watched Dave Chappelle’s shows did not understand the underlying message that they tried to convey.