So I just watched "Borat" Friday night at the Fremont Theatre where I go to school, and WOW... I really don't know what to say. I think I liked it, but I hate to say so. It was funny in parts but it really shouldn't have been but that's why people like the movie. It was insane and wrong and cruel and unfair and I guess that's why it's gotten so far.

According to Sacha Baron Cohen, the creator of Borat, the character was born in 1972 in Kuçzek, Kazakhstan. He is the son of Asimbala Sagdiyev and Boltok the Rapist. He was married to Oksana Sagdiyev, who was the daughter of Mariam Tuyakbay and Boltok the Rapist. Borat has a sister named Natalya, who is known as the fourth-best prostitute in Kazakhstan, and a younger brother named Bilo, who is mentally retarded and is kept in a cage. He has three children: 12-year-old Bilak, 12 year-old Biram (whose mother is Borat's sister, Natalya), and 11 year-old Hooeylewis (his favourite child); and seventeen grandchildren. Borat used to have a pet pig, Igor, whom he claims to have loved in spite of the fact that he and his family ate it.

Borat attended the Astana University, where he studied English, journalism, and plague research. He has had many jobs, including an ice maker, an animal sperm retriever, and a gypsy catcher

Borat's hobbies include ping pong, disco, sunbathing, shooting dogs, and taking pictures of women as they go to the bathroom. Borat is sexist, homophobic, and prejudiced against Jews, Uzbeks, and gypsies. He has also had many diseases including gonorrhea, syphilis, and herpes.

Borat is the result of characters created by Baron Cohen, host of "Da Ali G Show." Borat was on the show infrequently doing outrageous things, interviewing poor victims of his ability to pass himself off as a true Kazakhstanian. (Baron Cohen has been known to use Hebrew to make himself seem foreign). The hair and moustache are real, and it takes Baron Cohen six weeks to grow them.

To elicit the reactions from the public that we see in the movie, Cohen counts on two concepts of American society; 1) the public doesn't know who Borat is, and 2) the public knows little of Kazakhstan.

Borat's prejudicial tendencies gets him and Baron Cohen into trouble, to say the least.

Cohen is himself Jewish and explained Borat's racism by saying that the segments are a "dramatic demonstration of how racism feeds on dumb conformity, as much as rabid bigotry," rather than a display of racism by Baron Cohen himself.

However, the Anti-Defamation League, a U.S. based Jewish rights group, complained to HBO after Borat performed a song titled "In my country there is a problem" that called on people to 'throw the Jew down the well', warning them that 'you must be careful of his teeth' and that 'you must grab him by his horns', to the delight from some members of his audience.

At a press conference just hours before the live broadcast of the 2005 MTV Europe Music Awards, he shocked local and international journalists in Lisbon, Portugal by bringing a bag of birds from Romania (the first European country to detect the bird flu) as a gift, then proceeded to say he was sorry that they had all died.

An interview with James Broadwater, an evangelical Christian and Republican candidiate for US Congress from Mississippi, caused Broadwater to receive some hateful emails after an episode of Da Ali G Show aired in which Broadwater stated that Jews will go to Hell. He was told that the interview would be played in foreign countries to teach others about the American political system. Broadwater later posted a letter on his website denouncing Da Ali G Show, explaining that his statement referred to a theological belief that anyone that "accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will spend eternity in Heaven, while everyone who rejects Him will spend eternity in Hell."

In November 2005, following Borat's hosting of the MTV Europe Music Awards in Lisbon, the Kazakhstani Foreign Ministry voiced their concerns about the character. The Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ashykbayev, told a news conference "We view Mr. Cohen's behavior at the MTV Europe Music Awards as utterly unacceptable, being a concoction of bad taste and ill manners which is completely incompatible with the ethics and civilized behavior of Kazakhstan's people", concluding "We reserve the right to any legal action to prevent new pranks of the kind." Baron Cohen has since posted a video on the "Official Borat Homesite" where Borat responds to Ashykbayev in character.

The next week, the government hired two Western public relations firms to counter Borat's claims, and ran a four-page advertisement in The New York Times. The advert carried testimonials about the nation's democracy, education system and the power and influence enjoyed by women. On a previous occasion, Borat responded to official Kazakhstani complaints by issuing his own "press release", which consisted of randomly arranged Cyrillic characters. He would make another response when promoting his movie in front of the Kazakhstani Embassy in Washington, roundly denouncing the advertisements as "Uzbek propaganda."

On December 13, 2005, the right to use the domain name www.borat.kz was suspended, and the site attached to it was closed down. The domain-issuing body said that they took this action since false names were given for the site's administrators, and also because the site www.borat.kz was hosted outside Kazakhstan. However, the stated underlying cause of the action was in order to censor the content of the site. Reporters Without Borders asked ICANN to intervene and reverse this decision. Meanwhile, the "Official Borat Homesite" was moved to the .tv domain, where it remains.

Borat has, however, recently been defended by Dariga Nazarbayeva, a politician and the daughter of Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbeyv. She stated that Baron Cohen's website "damaged our image much less than its closure, which was covered by all global news agencies," and "We should not be afraid of humour and we shouldn't try to control everything, I think."

On September 29, 2006, Cohen appeared in character as Borat at the White House for a press conference and to invite "Supreme Warlord Premier George Walter Bush" to a screening of his forthcoming film. Secret Service agents wouldn't allow him on grounds. The apparent publicity stunt was likely timed to coincide with an official visit by the Kazakhstan president the following day.

On October 18, 2006, the European Center for Antiziganism Research, which pleads against discrimination of gypsies, filed a complaint with prosecutors based on Borat's comments about gypsies in his film. The complaint accuses him of defamation and inciting violence against the ethnic group.

The news producer of WAPT TV in Mississippi, Dharma Arthur, said she lost her job as a result of her booking Borat on a local afternoon news program because she did little more than cursory research on the guest she had booked. At the time of the appearance, she was unaware of Baron Cohen's act. During an interview with anchor Brad McMullan, Borat made sexual references, kissed McMullan, and later disrupted a live weather report.

Two fraternity boys, also featured in "Borat" have brought a lawsuit against Borat and 20th Century Fox. The lawsuit cites that the film "made plaintiffs the object of ridicule, humiliation, mental anguish and emotional and physical distress, loss of reputation, goodwill and standing in the community."

The village of Glod, Romania, which was featured as his "hometown" in Kazakhstan, has threatened tosue him for their depiction in the movie.