Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry threatened legal action on Monday against comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, who wins laughs by portraying the central Asian state as a country populated by drunks who enjoy cow-punching as a sport.

Gets right to the point.

We do not rule out that Mr. Cohen is serving someone's political order designed to present Kazakhstan and its people in a derogatory way."

So awesomely Soviet.

Of course the funniest part is that Baron Cohen is not really making fun of Kazakhstan (at least, that's not the main point). He's making fun of Americans who know nothing about other countries and actually believe this guy is from Kazakhstan. He doesn't look or talk like anyone from Kazakhstan. He just says outrageous things and shows how awful Americans are for humoring him just because he's a "crazy foreigner." That's the genius of all of this guy's characters. He acts a fool and gets people who want to seem important to play along.

Well, I think that's definitely the case for Ali G. But I'm not so sure about Borat. You're right that he isn't actually going after Kazakhs, of course, but I don't think he skewers the people he interviews all that much -- many of them acquit themselves just fine. But the pieces are still hilarious because Borat is a great caricature of some unknown backwards nation (not a specific one, of course -- he just needs a specific name to sell it). And caricatures are funny.

Raising an Arizona honky tonk in a chorus of "throw the Jew down the well"? That's embarrassing to us all.

I think Kazakhstan works specifically because it is a very large and not wholly inconsequential nation, but most any American would be unable to determine the difference betwen it and any string of consonants preceding -istan. What's hard to determine is why SBC didn't go with the eminently more funnily worded Kyrgyzstan.

embarassing, but hilarious. and while anti-semitism is of course very, very bad, I prefer to think of that bit as making fun of the macabre/horrible nature of various innocuous-seeming folk songs.

Of course you think anti-Semitism is hilarious.

No no no no no. It's not funny because folk songs are funny. It's funny because they all start singing along and clapping. They think he's adorable. And he's talking about how Jews have horns.

And what about the guy who's running for Congress who he gets to say on TV that he believes Jews are going to hell? So awesome.

I really don't think the basis of humor of Borat, Ali G, or Bruno is very different at all. My favorite Bruno episode is when he actually gets all these fashionista queer-eye types to completely reverse their opinions on whether to love or trash celebrities' outfits just because that particular person is really "hott" in Germany. It's all the same idea.