There must be a way to make people laugh without resorting to scatology, homophobia, racial stereotypes or onanism — but Mars may well be colonized before Hollywood works it out.
"Borat," the runaway comedy hit of 2006 in the United States and much of the rest of the world, finally makes a belated appearance in Japan, no doubt after much hand-wringing by promotion people here over how to market it. Let's see, a guy who speaks disjointed English, makes sexist remarks, and gets fall-down drunk — what's funny about that?
Much of the humor in "Borat" derives from cultural misunderstandings — halfwit journalist and cultural ambassador Borat is sent from benighted backwater Kazakhstan to report on contemporary America for the folks back home who are, as the film would have it, still living in the 19th century.