BBC News, on Sasha Baron Cohen:

In the film, Cohen’s character Borat portrays Kazakhs as a nation of misogynists, racists and anti-Semites.

(ref)

This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the humour that Ali G provides. To see his characters including Borat as making fun of the characters he portays is totally missing the point — if that were all that was it would be a really dumb show. Ha ha, look at how dumb foreigners are, ha ha.

It’s more true to say that Cohen is a master of the art of trolling, that is to say creating great controversy just for the sake with people who don’t know better. To the people who know better it’s funny to see the reactions of those not in the loop, because we know we’d probably be just as taken in. That’s also the basis for hidden camera shows, though of course Cohen mixes more offensiveness into the batter.

The real crux of the humour in the show is that Cohen shows just how much common folk in the US and UK are willing to take so long as he portrays himself as an outsider. He does horribly offensive things and is treated like a child because his victims assume that his differences provide him with an excuse for the things he says as does. Instead of standing up and saying “hey that’s wrong you jerkoff” as they ought to, they’ll condone it as if his outsider status gives him immunity from the responsibilities of being a good person.

In this way, the character of Borat doesn’t make fun of Kazakhstanis any more than Ali G makes fun of people from Staines. The joke’s not on them, but it’s on us.