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The film is funny, but there are two criticisms that could be leveled against it. First, the story is extremely thin. This is not all that unexpected considering that Borat was actually a skit that Sacha Baron Cohen (the actor who plays Borat) performed on his show, Da Ali G Show, on HBO.

To sum the film up, Borat comes to America, and he finds love. That's about the depth of it. This criticism is hardly worth mentioning except that the movie begins to feel like a running series of skits from Ali G rather than a movie in its own right.

What saves the movie is that, although it feels like several skits strung together, you laugh too much to care. You soon realize that having a story is not always the most important thing. Borat is so over the top that you don't have time to worry about silly little problems like having a plot.

The second, and more serious, criticism of the film is that although Borat is a great character, one is left wondering whether he's as strong and memorable as someone such as Archie Bunker. Part of Archie Bunker's appeal grew out of the supporting cast that surrounded him. The same is true of Michael on The Office. Each character works as social satire because we contrast them with those who aren't caricatures.

In this season's premiere of The Office, for example, what made Michael such an idiot was that Oscar, an actual gay man, starkly contrasted with the views that Michael had of gays in his mind. Borat has no comparable — for lack of a better phrase — straight man. The gay men are only there to serve as sex-crazed stereotypes.

The more apt comparison, therefore, for this type of social satire may be The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert. Colbert is hilarious because he portrays conservative pundits like Fox News' Bill O'Reilly so well that others believe that Colbert really is a conservative pundit. This seems to be the gist of where Cohen is going with his portrayal of Borat. There are scenes in the movie where one is not certain whether the other participants, including a couple of politicians, are in on the joke.

For this very reason, the character was controversial even while on Da Ali G Show. Organizations like the Anti-Defamation League questioned the show's humor and whether it was anti-Semitic. Cohen indicated in interviews that he is engaging in satire to demonstrate the absurdity of intolerance. In the movie, Borat treats Jews as though they are monsters who can shape-change into bugs that will kill him. He tries to ward off the bugs by throwing money at them. He and his countrymen have a “running of the Jews” scene that is similar to Spain 's famous running of the bulls — except that the Jews are grotesque puppets that are eventually beaten by adults and children alike.

Similarly, there are many points in the film where, as gay men, we may feel uncomfortable, but ultimately what makes it work is that Borat is a satire. Cohen is making fun of people who hold intolerant attitudes. One may question whether people who hold intolerant attitudes will get that he is making fun of ignorance and intolerance, but judging by the New York audience's reaction, it's probably safe to assume that even if they don't get it, some of us do.

This character is not someone with opinions that we are meant to respect. We are expected to laugh at him and at his intolerance. Of the many words that could be used to characterize a satire like this, “funny” is probably the best.

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