I happened across the Wikipedia page on Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, which is unintentionally hilarious in describing the “plot” of Borat. It also reveals some details that make the movie seem even funnier:

“IMDb states that during [the filming of the movie] Borat’s antics led to police being called on Cohen 91 times.”

“No Kazakh language is heard in the film… Sacha Baron Cohen speaks Hebrew in the film, while Ken Davitian, who plays Azamat, speaks the Eastern dialect of Armenian. They also use several common phrases from Slavic languages: Borat’s trademark expressions “jagshemash” (jak się masz) and “chenquieh” (dziękuję) echo the Polish (or other related languages) for “How are you?” and “thank you”.”

“In most cases the film’s participants were given no warning on what they would be taking part in except for being asked to sign release forms agreeing not to take legal action against the film’s producers… Prior to being considered for appearance in the film, all potential participants were required to sign long release forms agreeing not to take legal action for any defamation of character or fraud carried out during the film’s production.”

“There are conflicting reports regarding the feelings of the participants in the scenes in which Borat and Azamat stay at a guest house owned by a Jewish couple. The British tabloid The Sun claims that a scene depicting cockroaches running around in their home has hurt Mariam and Joseph Behar’s business in Newton, Massachusetts. The couple were quoted as saying, “This is very insulting. They never told us they were going to do this. It is really terrible.” However, the Salon Arts & Entertainment site quotes the Behars as calling the film “outstanding,” referring to Cohen as “very lovely and very polite” and a “genius.” The Boston Globe also interviewed the couple, saying they considered the film more anti-Muslim than anti-Semitic and had feared that Cohen and his ensemble might be filming pornography in the house.”

“Cohen reacted to [news of the myriad lawsuits filed against him as a result of the movie] by noting, “Some of the letters I get are quite unusual, like the one where the lawyer informed me I’m about to be sued for $100,000 and at the end says, ‘P.S. Loved the movie. Can you sign a poster for my son Jeremy?'””

And as for the movie’s reception in Kazahkstan? “Kazakhstan has not banned the film but has urged that it not be distributed… The Kazakhstani tabloid Karavan declared Borat to be the best film of the year, having had a reviewer see the film at a screening in Vienna. The paper claimed that the film was “…certainly not an anti-Kazakh, anti-Romanian or anti-Semitic” but rather “cruelly anti-American … amazingly funny and sad at the same time.””

I commented before on how the DVD itself was made to appear pirated, but this is the icing on the cake: “The DVD is described as a “prerecorded moviedisc for purpose domestic viewing of moviefilm” and the viewer is warned that “selling piratings of this moviedisc will result in punishment by crushing.” … Also, when one selects the Hebrew language option, one is informed that the room is surrounded and not to unfold one’s claws or shape-shift.”