Jagshemash! My latest for The New Yorker is The Borat Doctrine.
Writing this piece left me even more in awe of Sacha Baron Cohen. Simply asking Roman Vassilenko to comment on Borat's outrageous claims was awkward, as he seemed genuinely upset by them. My insticts as an interviewer (such as they are) are to make the person feel comfortable, to get him to like me. Cohen, of course, sets out to do exactly the opposite. If you think it's tough to watch someone squirm on Da Ali G Show, try being the guy who makes them squirm.
I am also somewhat in awe of the legendary New Yorker fact-checking department, which determined that what Borat claimed was a speech to "The Oklahoma City Council," was actually made to the traffic commission (there is no Oklahoma City Council, though there is an Oklahoma City City Council).
Big ups to The Unofficial Borat Homepage, an invaluable resource for this piece and a repository of fun behind-the-scenes info from Borat's targets (be sure to see Christianist congressional candidate James Broadwater dig himself deeper into a hole as he attempts to explain what he meant when he said Jews are going to hell.
Update (pretty sure not meant sarcastically):
From: Roman Y. Vassilenko
Subject: Thank you for the story!!!
Date: September 13, 2004 7:09:09 PM EDT
To: radosh@gmail.comThank you so much for the story, The Borat Doctrine.
I am sure many people in Kazakhstan will be grateful to you.
By the way, I failed to dispute the most obvious: Borat isn't even a name in Kazakhstan. There are Bulat and Bolat (which translates Steel - meaning strong), but no Borat (not even such word). Oh well...
