Saunders on Borat

The great American writer George Saunders has an insightful take on Borat.  It is interesting that in Saunders’ stories he writes sympathetically about the same type of people that Sacha Baron Cohen exploits.  They spend their doomed lives trying to rescue some dignity out of the absurd situations in which they find themselves.  In fact, these people are usually victims of the same kind of power structure exemplified by Sacha Baron Cohen.  The reason we find Borat funny is that humor often involves the sudden identification of ourselves with the powerful.