Today, the New York Times proves conclusively that Sasha Baron Cohen was completely on the money when it came to the portrayals of Central Asians in his movie Borat.Ellen Barry's piece is one of the funniest I've seen in the Times in quite a while.
I'll give you a few minutes to go ahead and read it, but then come back...
[Cough, cough]
Back so soon! We missed you!
I will say a couple of things by way of criticism:
1) How the hell could they not have repeated the Jewish joke? I mean, that's writing 101. (How bad could the joke have possibly been?)
I'm sort of furious about this... Ellen Barry, if you're reading this, I want to know! How could you leave that out?! (I'm not blaming you: I'm sure there was some schmucky editor at the Times who said, "We can't print that!")
2) How the hell come this story wasn't on Page 1? They have a frickin' story about the jobs situation in Mississippi, but the story about Dagestan jokes winds up on Page A7? No news sense! None!
3) How the hell does 1,200 people constitute an ethnic group? That's my building for chrissakes, not an ethnic group.
Otherwise, I give Miss Barry credit. Niiiiiiiiiiiiice!
